Mitt's Sixth Deadly Sin

In his victory speech in New Hampshire on Tuesday night, Mitt Romney declared, "This country already has a leader who divides us with the bitter politics of envy. . .I stand ready to lead us down a different path, where we are lifted up by our desire to succeed, not dragged down by a resentment of success."

I have a feeling we'll hear more about the "politics of envy" in this campaign, for if envy is as Merriam-Webster defines it--"painful or resentful awareness of an advantage enjoyed by another joined with a desire to possess the same advantage"--then, yes, this is what this presidential campaign should be all about.

For evidently Governor Romney sees those of us who share less and less in the extraordinary wealth of this country as "resenting success." We apparently don't have the desire to succeed as he does. It's pretty easy, though, to succeed in America when your father was the head of American Motors.

It's not as easy to succeed when your father can't get you a job, when there's no job to be had, when you don't have heath insurance, and when your only safety net is rich relatives--and you don't have any.

President Obama has not sought to divide us along the lines of privilege. The lines already exist. The question before us now is which party is more likely to enact policies that benefit those most at risk and those who have suffered disproportionately from the extravagances of the last decades?

Surely not the party of Governor Romney.