Behind closed doors | The Salt Lake Tribune

This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

A recent New York Times story reported that Mitt Romney is much more explicit about his plans with big donors behind-doors than he is with the public. He actually takes questions (something he won't do in public). He gives contributors a list of federal agencies he plans to shut down; he's not done that with the people whose votes he wants.

Privately to Republican donors, Romney praises Vice President Dick Cheney, but he doesn't mention him publicly. Voters need to know if Romney plans a rerun of Bush/Cheney, especially their cowboy foreign policy that accounts for half of our debt.

One donor explained that $75,000-per-couple donors "want to know they're being heard. … They don't want to yell it at the TV, they don't want to say it on a rope line, they want to stand there and have their conversation one-on-one, with Mitt looking them in the eye." Talk about of the rich, by the rich, for the rich!

Well, the 99 percent rest of us also want to be heard. If Romney is not as candid with us as he is with his wealthy cohorts, what he'll hear in November is "No!"

Benjamin Charles

Salt Lake City