Wrong Paul. Simply Wrong.

Romney isn't talking like a privileged man, or an elite uncompassionate man here. He's talking the language of a ... free man. An independent man, who knows he has choices and isn't cowed into not exercising them.

Krugman quotes another, approvingly:

But most of all, we don’t see the health insurance company as providing us a service. We see ourselves, rather, as indentured supplicants forced to pay exorbitant monthly rates for a basic need that responsible people with means can’t get out of paying for if we can help it. We don’t see ourselves as in control of the relationship with them. They are in control of us–and no more so than when we get sick and need the insurance most. If the company decides to restrict our coverage or tell us we have a pre-existing condition after all, we’re in the position of begging a capricious and heartless corporation to cover costs we assumed we were entitled to based on a contractual obligation. It’s precisely when we need insurance most that we’re least able to “fire” the insurance company.

The same goes for the rent/mortgage, for the utilities, for the car, for the cell phone bill, for nearly everything.

Think you're getting ripped off on your cable package? Cancel the home cable. Don't like what you're getting charged, or how much you're paying monthly for your cell phone service? Turn it off and pick up a prepaid Trac phone.

Don't like paying so much to insure your car? Get an earlier model, and soup it up the way you like. Choice, choice, choice.

I know, in my heart of hearts, that they're soon coming for the free man. Those who understand, at some base level, that our health is our wealth, and our choices indeed have consequences. We know how "low" we can go, in terms of what we need to survive. The rest is just ... gravy.

The problem with liberals like Krugman lecturing us on the realities of everyday life that Mitt Romney does not understand, is that Krugman is not a working man either. He simply ... knows better. He has ... compassion. He has ... pity. He is bursting at the seams with empathy, because deep in his heart of hearts?

He knows he's got it better. He can lecture, and teach, and choose other free men's choices for us, because he sees how "bad" off we free ones are, and he wants to guarantee us more of his own material commercial successes.

I moved to Wisconsin for good when I read that Jerry Reinsdorf (or was it Eddie Einhorn?), the rich Chicago sports owner, told a newspaper reporter he was dealing with his ill cardio health by stealing every moment he could to get away and fish in Wisconsin. Why wait? Why build up a fortune, only to pay a fortune for a place of peace in the country? Why knock yourself out making money, only to have to spend big for what plenty of simpler people already have? Contentment. Inner quality of life. No need for the "extras": the industrial processed foodstuffs, the poor air and packed neighborhoods competing for the basics, the spending half your life pining over how you'll spend your allotted "days off".

Don't get me wrong. You have to "work" and support yourself. But all these extra "needs"? All those who would counsel: You simply can't support a family on one salary. You need to let someone else raise your children in a mass daycare setting. You need the house on the hill ... the latest safest vehicle, the newest electronic toy for contentment.

No, you don't. Just like, if you take good care of yourself when you are younger, you don't need to be paying for somebody else's misfortunes and need for a pill to self correct. Your body is a gift -- like a vehicle really. If you treat it right, and practice preventative maintenance, knowing it and proactively doing what needs to be done, you can influence how long it runs. Keep as many original parts as possible. Sometimes the taking out and transplanting isn't worth the price paid.

People like Krugman can't fathom how immigrant families live. How "low" they are able to go, stretching a dollar and lifting themselves in the land of opportunity, America. Not everyone can, but still, some can.

They can't themselves anymore, they've gotten to "big" to access such a simple kingdom. But please: don't make the rest of us share in your costs now. Take your own falls, pay your own ways, and leave the rest of us to the benefits of our bargains.

Romney opportunity over Kennedy opportunity anyday. In the latter, the liberal elites can't lose. They grow fatter and fatter, and then -- in an Oprah-like fashion -- want to "gift" rights and entitlements onto others, once they realize how fat they have grown...

Problem is, instead of contributing privately, they want the rest of us to use the powers of the state to support their philanthropic endeavors. But... some of the rest of us don't live so richly. We think people should pay first for the basics: food, shelter, clothing and only then think of the extras: cell phones, cable tv ... children.

I don't want to criticize your choices: what you eat, when you conceive, how you choose to spend your "free" time. And for the most part, Americans don't. We respect each others choices, and observe the consequences.

But if we continue this trend of bailing out private industries: the car makers, the finance houses, the insurance companies ... at the price of the everyday working taxpayer, then the rest of us do want a say. We do want to criticize your costly choices, and point out your lack of results.

Keep charity, and religion, private. I don't care what you do internally, if it doesn't cost me. There might be need, in extreme cases, for society to intervene, but for the most part? Let people choose what they can, if they can pay for it themselves. Want fertility options? If you can pay, you can access the technologies. Want a large family, as our country people often do? Bully to you, the bigger the better, when they are well provided for and taken care of...

Nevermind the liberals who simply can't see how you can afford more than one or two or three... Nevermind the elite pillpoppers who can't imagine paying for their own medical costs, without a healthy insurance pool also contributing. Nevermind those Whole Food shoppers, who can't understand how people can stock their freezers and pantries with "live" food, freshly frozen in the summers or harvested in the fall, and eat "naturally" and for a fraction of the specialty-market costs, all winter long.

They can't do it, so none of us can.

No thank you, Mr. Krugman. You keep what you've got, you might just need it. The rest of us? We'd like the benefit of our bargains too. To live by our choices, without being called upon to bail out the health insurance endgame, or to be called named when we decline to contribute to the growing problem of an undereducated, undernourished society. You see, if these people more "felt" the costs -- like once the children of cigarette smokers, alcoholics and stressaholics did -- they, or their offspring, would learn to choose differently.

Fate strikes, people and private charities help, but for the most part? You reap what you sow. If you're not starting with good seed stock, and a healthy environment, you're probably not going to be satisfied with what you end up with. No fault of the planter, but in years to come? He shouldn't stick -- Kennedylike -- with failed policies and sickly prescriptions if we want true change in America.

The only hope we have now rests on the shoulders of our free men and women. They're younger, still strong, and significantly less hampered by societal success than the likes of preacher Krugman.