Candidate thoughts

I've decided to start something of a series, writing about the various presidential candidates, ragging on them for this or that. Today's winner is Mitt Romney (I wonder if this honor is that last thing Mitt will win).

Mitt made the news today talking about what he would do with his salary if he is elected president:

Later, speaking with reporters, Romney said he would likely accept the presidential salary of $400,000 annually but donate the money.

Yes, it's a noble gesture, to donate $400K to charity. That's a crapload of money, $400K. Countless people don't make that much in their lifetimes. But what does it mean to Mitt, let's see..

Mitt's net worth is estimated to be somewhere between $190 and $250M. Let's just use $200M - it's a nice round number. So $400K is about 0.2% of his net worth. Seems kind of small now, huh? Now, let's compare that to the average person. This CNN article says that the median net worth in the US is $100,894. 0.2% of that is a whopping $200.79. Suddenly, I'm less impressed.

Dare I forget, Mitt reportedly spent $6.3M of his own money a few years back in the Massachusetts governorship race.