Get a Life — Mitt Romney to Jacksonville University Graduates
The former Massachusetts governor had a few choice words for Jacksonville University graduates this past weekend.
The Orlando Sentinel reports:
Mitt Romney to Jacksonville University graduates: Get a life
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney had a message Saturday for Jacksonville University graduates: Get a life.
The 2012 Republican presidential nominee told the nearly 900 students earning degrees that life isn’t measured in riches and professional achievement, but in friendships and family, learning and work, faith in God and service to others.
“Get a life, have a life, live your life in full. Embrace every fruitful dimension of life that you possibly can,” Romney said during the 22 minute commencement address delivered under overcast skies and sprawling oak trees.
In a speech that focused on life and not politics, Romney told the students to continue to learn and grow, and to even expect failures.
“I am asked what it felt like to lose to President Obama. Well, not as good as winning. Failures aren’t fun, but they are inevitable. More importantly, failures don’t have to define who you are,” Romney said.
Some people measure success by how far they’ve climbed the corporate ladder or whether they’ve achieved more professionally than their classmates, Romney said. But that’s the wrong approach.
“If your life is lived for money and position, it will be a shallow and unfulfilling. The real wealth in life is in your friendships, your marriage, your children, what you have learned in your work, what you have overcome, your relationship with God, and in what you have contributed to others,” Romney said.
Mitt Romney to Jacksonville University graduates: Get a life (Orlando Sentinel)
Comments
While I get where Romney is coming from with this sentiment, I don’t think he’s really the person to deliver this message.
Many, many of those students will graduate with crushing debt and could easily take his words out of context as “mental methadone” for the sub-standard workforce they are entering. Reality doesn’t make for a good commencement speech though.
Also, Romney’s children and grandchildren will never graduate with this crippling debt burden, and I seriously doubt he ever has them “borrow from their parents” for college. They will have a very different outlook on post-college life than the average middle class student.
I liked much of the things Romney stood for and I definitely voted for him over Obama but he is very out of touch with the middle class (Obama is as well, though, he just knows what to say to bribe voters).
Disclaimer: I’m also not trying to suggest that Romney is doing anything evil by providing for his family in a big way. I don’t begrudge the Romneys their wealth, but I also don’t think he is in touch with his audience in this case.