You may as well start typing your "Shut up, concern troll" comments now, because, while I'm supposed to be beside myself with mixed outrage and glee in response to this, I'm just not with the program:
Ann Romney reaffirmed her husband's insistence that no additional years of tax returns would be released to the public on Thursday morning, arguing that they have already "given all you people need to know."
"He's a very generous person," she told ABC’s Robin Roberts of Mitt Romney. "We give 10 percent of our income to our church every year. Do you think that is the kind of person who is trying to hide things, or do things? No. He is so good about it. Then, when he was governor of Massachusetts, didn’t take a salary in the four years."
"We've given all you people need to know and understand about our financial situation and how we live our life," she said.
Why don't I regard this as a significant gaffe? Because it's not a significant gaffe if it doesn't alienate swing voters. And I don't see why it would.
Let's start with the venue. To whom did Mrs. Romney address this? A television news reporter. What do Americans think of television news?
We liberals want to hear this as Ann Romney looking down her nose at us, the peasants. A typical TV viewer would hear it as Ann Romney slapping down a TV reporter. That's not going to hurt her or her husband.
And the rest of the line -- the church donations and not taking a salary as governor -- is just the sort of thing that appeals to a lot of people. Not you. Not me. But a lot of people.
If you're predisposed to find the Romneys highfalutin and arrogant -- hell, I sure am -- this is obnoxious. But if you're on the fence, it's not going to tip you into the hater camp.
Sorry, but I looked at too many poll numbers this morning, and they're showing me that a significant chunk of America thinks that Mitt Romney is a decent fellow and his career would be pretty good preparation for the presidency. I'd love to live in a country where there were fewer people like that. But this is the country I -- we -- live in. So I'm unmoved by this.