Mitt Romney held three big-tickets fundraisers in New York's fancy Hamptons this weekend, providing some of his richest donors the chance to parody themselves in front of eager political reporters. The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, and BuzzFeed all had reporters on hand and the quotes they brought back would read like something written in the imagination of Occupy Wall Street, if the wealthy people in question hadn't gladly put their names to the all-too-real statements. 

The Long Island summer spot for New York's high and mighty is already the stereotypical poster community for excess wealth and entitlement, Democratic and Republican alike. But the reports from Romney's $3 million weekend will only confirm the worst of fears of the liberal protesters who came out and tried (unsuccessfully) to spoil the mood. 

The $25,000-a-seat fundraiser at the massive estate (40 rooms on 57 acres) owned by Revlon chairman Ron Perelman, caused a traffic jam of high class luxury cars along Montauk Highway — the list of vehicles assembled included Bentleys, BMWs, Range Rovers, Mercedez Benzes, an Aston Martin, a Rolls Royce, a Ferrari, and at least one Porsche that had to be scolded for trying to bypass security. The long wait to get inside gave those outside a chance to survey the crowd for their political opinions and the pull quotes shouted from the passenger windows were as priceless as their fancy wheels:

• “Is there a V.I.P. entrance? We are V.I.P.” (There was no VIP line.)
• “Tell them who’s on your yacht this weekend! Tell him!” (It was a Miramax executive.)
• "He is a socialist." ("He" is the president, obviously.)
• "It's not helping the economy to pit the people who are the engine of the economy against the people who rely on that engine." (Matthew Yglesias asks if maybe the engine needs a tune up?)

But the choicest quote was gathered by Maeve Reston of the L.A. Times, who found one unnamed woman to explain how the little people just don't understand "why Obama is hurting them."

"I don't think the common person is getting it ... 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."

If you tried to invent propaganda for the soldiers of class warfare, it's doubtful you could do much better than that.

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Dashiell Bennett