Mittens Muttney is lucky he wasn't mugged at his Tampa campaign stop.
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TAMPA, Fla. — Mitt Romney sat at the head of the table at a coffee shop here on Thursday, listening to a group of unemployed Floridians explain the challenges of looking for work. When they finished, he weighed in with a predicament of his own.
“I should tell my story,” Mr. Romney said. “I’m also unemployed.”
He chuckled. The eight people gathered around him, who had just finished talking about strategies of finding employment in a slow-to-recover economy, joined him in laughter.
“Are you on LinkedIn?” one of the men asked.
“I’m networking,” Mr. Romney replied. “I have my sight on a particular job.”
The references to Mr. Romney’s own unemployment status added yet another humorous, but occasionally awkward, moment to his ever-growing catalog of off-the-cuff remarks that he makes as he seeks the Republican presidential nomination. He spent the morning doing more listening than talking — a woman in the crowd openly urged him to talk about the deficit — and it was unclear whether he persuaded any voters to join his effort.
Tom Yarranton, 55, lost his job in March 2010. He had spent 31 years as an internal auditor at a manufacturing company. He said he liked Mr. Romney’s mind-set as a businessman, but added that he did not blame Mr. Obama for still being unemployed.