The multi-millionaire Republican — dodging questions about his controversial shell corporation in Bermuda, hidden cash in the Caymans, and inexplicable Swiss bank account — thought it'd be a good idea to spend the day in the Hamptons, attending several posh fundraisers with the hyper-elite, including an event at David Koch's home.

Romney may be avoiding questions, but his donors aren't.  I couldn't make up stuff like this if I tried.

A New York City donor a few cars back, who also would not give her name, said Romney needed to do a better job connecting. "I don't think the common person is getting it," she said from the passenger seat of a Range Rover stamped with East Hampton beach permits. "Nobody understands why Obama is hurting them.

"We've got the message," she added. "But my college kid, the baby sitters, the nails ladies — everybody who's got the right to vote — they don't understand what's going on. I just think if you're lower income — one, you're not as educated, two, they don't understand how it works, they don't understand how the systems work, they don't understand the impact."

Yikes.

The L.A. Times report quoted another wealthy Romney donor saying, "It's not helping the economy to pit the people who are the engine of the economy against the people who rely on that engine." Apparently, asking the rich to pay the same tax rate they paid in the Clinton era is making wealthy people feel put upon. (Matt Yglesias also highlighted "the absurd level of self-regard among the winners in the modern American meritocracy.")

The New York Times report quoted Ted Conklin, the owner of the American Hotel in Sag Habor, speaking from inside his gold-colored Mercedes, whined that the president "is a socialist." At his wife's urging, Conklin then boasted about the Hollywood executive was staying on his 75-foot yacht because his hotel his fully booked.