Mitt Romney's new basement is going to be bigger than most houses and have its own lobbyist, his cars will have their own elevators, and his expansion plans for his La Jolla home are now the latest obstacle in Romney's attempt to relate to the common man.  But hey, Iron Man and Batman, erm sorry, Tony Stark and Bruce Wayne weren't common men either.

Politico obtained Mitt Romney's building plans for the expansion of his La Jolla beach home. "At Mitt Romney’s proposed California beach house, the cars will have their own separate elevator," Reid Epstein writes. "There’s also a planned outdoor shower and a 3,600-square foot basement — a room with more floor space than the existing home’s entire living quarters. Epstein adds that his basement even has his own lobbyist, with Romney paying a San Diego attorney $21,500 to lobby the city for renovation permits. If Epstein's report doesn't exactly scream House Hunters to you, it's because they're complying with Secret Service safety requests--but a car elevator and some outdoor shower is tantalizing enough right?

It also shows that Romney is trendy (and perhaps calculating), according to The Wall Street Journal which reported last week on the One Percent's fancy thing of the moment--luxurious basements. The Journal explains that rich people have been moved to expand their houses underground, because in theory, if they have most of their nice things (including square footage) underground you wouldn't be able to tell how rich they are. Though if you're like Romney and living in a wealthy town La Jolla--sorry, but the jig is up. The Journal reported last week:  "Tony Crisafi, one of the project's architects, declined to comment on Mr. Romney's motivations but says that these days, most of his clients want to be discreet about the scale of their home, and one way to do that is 'by pushing things underground.'"  And now that these plans aren't "underground", maybe it's time to adopt the Bruce Wayne, great American hero spin--it can't hurt any more than being an out of touch rich guy right?

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Alexander Abad-Santos