The Question:
How do you feel about the fact that presidential candidate, Mitt Romney, is very wealthy?

22% - I’m concerned his wealth prevents him from connecting with average Americans.

78% - His wealth came from business experience, something America needs right now.

0% - Undecided

My Commentary:
Of course, it’s not shocking to learn that the two presidential candidates are resorting to negative ads against their opponents. It’s not for nothing that politics, it has been said, “ain’t bean bag,” or is a “blood sport.”

Of course, notwithstanding the 1804 duel in which VP Aaron Burr killed Secretary of Treasury, Alexander Hamilton, that last reference has been metaphorical.

Another thing we’ve learned about negative ads is that they seem to work. What does that say about us? Merely an electoral proclivity, or an indictment of our society?

One of the negative strategies the Obama campaign has been using is to take shots at Mitt Romney’s wealth. The angle of attack is that such a wealthy person cannot connect with the workaday lives of the majority of Americans.

We wanted to know how our audience felt about Mitt Romney’s financial situation, so last week we asked this question: “How do you feel about the fact that presidential candidate, Mitt Romney, is very wealthy?” Here’s what you told us.

Just more than one-fifth of our sample said, “I’m concerned his wealth prevents him from connecting with average Americans. All the rest, 78%, allowed that Mitt Romney’s wealth, ” … came from business experience, something America needs right now.” Perhaps the most telling response was that no one was “Undecided.”

Of course, in America, especially in 2012, a campaign strategy attacking financial success might not have the desired response by the middle class and lower economic strata. This year, perhaps more than any in recent memory, that proverbial remark by a working class stiff, “No poor man ever gave me a job,” might be what more of us are thinking, rather than “he doesn’t connect with me”

Based on our poll, this seems to be true of small business owners.