Americans Believe Both Romney and Obama Are "Rich"

A recent analysis by Forbes estimates that Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is worth over $200 million, which would make him one of the richest presidents in U.S. history if he is elected. Plus Romney's estimated 2011 tax return indicates that he made $21 million last year.

No surprise then that 82% of Americans, when asked in a May 3-6 Gallup poll, said that Mitt Romney is "rich." Maybe the surprise here is that 18% of Americans did not say that he was rich.

However, Romney is not the only rich candidate. Forbes estimates that Barack Obama's net worth is just shy of $6 million. His tax return for 2011 showed that he made nearly $790,000 in income. So, objectively, Obama is also rich, but certainly not as rich as Romney.

And, in that same May 3-6 Gallup poll, 68% of Americans said Obama is rich.

What does this mean? Only 2% of Americans classify themselves as rich. But, as we have reported, well over six in 10 of us would like to be rich if we could. And we think it's a good thing that we have a rich class in this country.

So, in theory, the fact that the substantial majority of Americans see both Romney and Obama as rich shouldn't be a negative.

Obama himself is careful to make note of the fact that he is well-off in his speeches about inequality, pointing out that "people like me" should be willing to pay more taxes in order to help fund government.

Obama is, of course, hardly the first Democratic president to be personally wealthy while at the same time adopting a political platform of sympathy for those less well-off and a desire to help them do better. Franklin Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, and Lyndon Johnson were all personally well-off (Johnson having acquired his wealth through a mysteriously-acquired media empire in Texas), yet focused on those less fortunate.

Of course, Romney and Obama arrived at their riches via different paths. Romney made his fortune as head of Bain Capital, a private equity firm. Obama made his more modest millions by writing best-selling books, for the most part, although his current salary of $400,000 a year as president puts him in or near the top 1% of all income earners in this country.

Obama's campaign team has apparently decided to attempt to carve out a distinction between their candidate and Romney in terms of the way in which each of the men became rich. They recently released an ad focusing on the consequences of Romney's actions as head of the private equity firm, including the fact that people were laid off in firms that Bain acquired or took private. In other words, attempting to show that in some ways Romney's wealth was ill-begotten and/or to use his acquisition of wealth as an exemplar of his more callous, less sympathetic character traits. This builds on the existing fact that Obama, at this point in time, is seen as more likable than Romney and as more concerned about "people like you."

It will be harder for Romney's team to take aim at Obama's path to wealth, since there are few immediately apparent objectionable consequences to publishing a best-selling book.