An earlier version of this editorial misquoted President Obama when he said he was not born with a silver spoon in his mouth. This version of the editorial has been corrected.
Hats off to Mitt Romney.
The presumptive Republican presidential nominee refused to apologize yesterday for his father’s success in the business world — after President Obama subtly tried to throw dirt on it.
“I’m certainly not going to apologize for my dad and his success in life,” Romney said.
Good for him.
Romney has every right to be proud of his family’s accomplishments — as well as his own.
Even as Obama tries to portray it as repugnant — as he did this week with a remark that prompted the former Massachusetts governor’s response.
“I wasn’t born with a silver spoon in my mouth,” Obama said.
That’s not just snotty — it’s woefully ignorant of the American spirit.
To be sure, the White House insisted that Romney, a multimillionaire, was the furthest thing from Obama’s mind at the time, and that he’s used the phrase before.
But we doubt anyone was fooled.
Most folks will recognize yet another attempt by the president to promote envy of anyone who’s wealthy.
Yet in the process, Obama is demonizing success and hard work — the long-held basis of the age-old American dream.
And Romney really wasn’t “born with a silver spoon in [his] mouth.” His wealth — considerable, though nowhere near enough to place him on the annual Forbes list of America’s richest — was self-earned during a career at Bain Capital.
His father George — an ex-governor and US housing secretary — grew up poor and became a successful businessman, and eventually president of American Motors.
Only then, when Mitt was in his teens, did the Romney family leave Detroit for the tonier Bloomfield Hills suburb.
Nor did the GOP candidate inherit his parents’ wealth.
Fact is, the Romney story is one that Americans aspire to.
To the nation’s benefit: Without that individual drive, that deeply American entrepreneurial ethic, this country could never have achieved the kind of economic prowess that’s made it a world leader — and spread prosperity from shore to shore.
Obama, noted Romney, “is always looking for a scapegoat, particularly those who have been successful, like my dad.”
It’s hard to think anything more misguided — or cynical — for a US president.