Haley Barbour Says Obama Is a ‘One Percenter,’ Too

Former Mississippi governor Haley Barbour has been quite vocal lately, striking out at President Obama and the Democrats in general for, he claims, playing the “race card” as well as presenting an allegedly false narrative about GOP candidate Mitt Romney — that he is a “plutocrat” married to a “known equestrian.”

Class politics are, per Republicans like Haley Barbour, a big part of this election. (Although they also frequently say that the economy and jobs are the only issue.) One of the bigger claims from the right side of the aisle is that the politics of envy or jealousy and distaste for the wealthy is at the core of what they view as the left-wing platform, and Barbour spoke to that recently in comments he made about President Obama.

As Barbour sees it, disgruntled Americans who perhaps saw all their net worth disappear in the housing crash and subsequent enduring recession are resentful at the “1%” — the colloquial term for the top 1% of wealth-owners in the US that control a large amount of American wealth.

But Barbour says that while many Americans, in his perception, don’t relate to Mitt Romney due to his immense wealth, President Obama is a wealthy guy too — a “one percenter,” in fact.

Barbour said at a bloggers’ event in Tampa:

“We’ve got two guys running for president, by the way, who are both very rich. Each one of them is in the top one percent in the United States … Both of them are one percenters.”

Barbour continued:

“And in fairness, both of them made their own money. Romney made his by winning the confidence of people who invested their money. …Obama made his money writing two books about himself. He’s a one percenter! …Which one do you figure is going to do a better job of getting our economy going in the right direction?”

Barbour also urged Americans to look past Romney’s liberal past and accept his embrace of conservative ideals as genuine:

“Mitt Romney’s not as conservative as I am. It’s a fact … But the difference between him and Obama in terms of their vision, their plan, their policies, their belief in the history and the fundamental principles of America are the greatest difference of any two presidential candidates in my lifetime … It behooves us to make sure Romney wins.”

Do you believe that Americans are concerned with whether Romney or Obama are “one-percenters,” as Barbour seems to think?