Activists Crash Romney's Koch-Sponsored Hamptons Fundraiser

By Julianne Escobedo Shepherd, AlterNet

10 July 12

ast month, President Obama raised a comparatively paltry $71 million campaign dollars to Romney's Goliath $106 million, and the reason is clear: the Republican candidate is backed by a coalition of Wall Street-humping super-PACs and shady figures like the Koch brothers who want to leverage their dough to take away the rights of average American people. So yesterday, when Romney held a big, fancy fundraiser at David Koch's estate in the Hamptons, it was not only attended by wealthy donors-activists and protesters showed up, too. And the irony in this LA Times piece is so thick we couldn't have invented it:

A money manager in a green Jeep said it was time for Romney to "up his game and be more reactive." So far, said the donor (who would not give his name because he said it would hurt his business), Romney has had a "very timid offense."

A New York City donor a few cars back, who also would not give her name, said Romney needed to do a better job connecting. "I don't think the common person is getting it," she said from the passenger seat of a Range Rover stamped with East Hampton beach permits. "Nobody understands why Obama is hurting them."

Haha! These are the people who would have Romney run the country: rich socialites and business people driving Range Rovers who frequent the natty, exclusive world of the Hamptons and yet think that Obama is "hurting" the "common person." These are the people who are so incredibly out of touch, and who are themselves running companies that axe jobs, like Romney's friend Meg Whitman-who cut 27,000 jobs from HP last month. But of course, the irony was not lost on Twitter: here's MoveOn's Storify about the fundraiser, which features an awesome collection of photographs. Oh, and the Range Rover lady? Here's the rest of her quote:

"We've got the message," she added. "But my college kid, the baby sitters, the nails ladies - everybody who's got the right to vote - they don't understand what's going on. I just think if you're lower income - one, you're not as educated, two, they don't understand how it works, they don't understand how the systems work, they don't understand the impact."

We're willing to bet that the "nails ladies," the babysitters, and probably her college kid, too, find her to be the uneducated one, not to mention totally condescending. These are the people who want Romney to preside over us-the people who think we're dumb for wanting economic equity. Read the rest of the article here.