The big news so far out of Iowa today didn’t have to do with tonight’s debate. It was a comment made by Mitt Romney as he spoke at the Iowa State Fair while being heckled by a gaggle of leftist provocateurs. While being peppered with interruptions challenging him to answer how he would deal with the deficit, Romney said the one thing he wouldn’t do was to raise taxes on people. The heckler interjected that taxes should be raised on corporations. Romney, who was standing only a few feet away quickly responded, “Corporations are people, too.”
As the film clip circulated around the Internet, Democratic strategists and their ad men started to salivate. There’s little doubt we’ll be seeing this exchange for as long as Romney is a presidential candidate. But though the former Massachusetts governor will be mocked mercilessly, anyone who views the full exchange — and that should include Democrats — should know there was nothing wrong with what he said.
Romney was almost certainly joking with the hecklers who were doing everything possible to shout him down. But as he bantered back and forth with those trying to interrupt him, he went on to point out corporations are nothing but the aggregated efforts of individuals. Although liberals seem to think modern businesses are soulless, heartless science fiction monsters who destroy everything in their paths, raising taxes on corporations means taking money out of the pockets not only of the wealthy but also from the middle class who work, manage and invest in them. Confiscating the income of corporations via higher taxes hurts people as much as raising the taxes of individuals. But it also has the effect of harming business and killing jobs.
Which is to say that unlike the liberal ideologues who will skewer Romney for this quip, all this incident proves is he knows a thing or two about economics.
Let’s also pause a moment to comment on one aspect of this gaffe that will not be discussed much by the leftist blogosphere. The full exchange on C-Span shows Romney being harassed as he tries to speak and conduct a question and answer session. The leftist hecklers were, it should be said, well within their rights, as they peppered the candidate with comments and questions and did their best to drown him out. When Tea Party activists did the same to members of Congress last year in the aftermath of the approval of Obamacare, liberal pundits were quick to treat such exchanges as proof conservatives have destroyed civility in public discourse if not a sign of incipient fascism. But don’t expect anyone to say the same about liberals heckling Romney.
It should also be said during what was a stressful moment on the stump, Romney’s demeanor was consistently cheerful and good-humored. Rather than fumbling his way into a gaffe, as no doubt this incident will be portrayed in some quarters, Romney actually showed grace under pressure. While there remain good reasons for conservatives to be wary of his candidacy, at that moment, Romney actually demonstrated why he remains a strong candidate for president.
