Paul Ryan in Danville, Virginia late this morning:
[Mitt Romney] has proven, through starting up small businesses, through turning around struggling businesses, through creating businesses we all know—Sports Authority, Bright Horizons, Staples—this is a person who is living proof, and experience, that knows that if you have a small business, you built that small business. That's the backbone of our economy.
Okay, it was absurd enough when they were simply claiming that President Obama had told small business owners that they didn't build their businesses. But to add to that fiction the idea that Mitt Romney is a small businessman? Ha! I can think of about 250 million reasons why that's the funniest thing I've heard on the campaign trail in a long time. And yes, among those reasons are a Swiss bank account, a Bermuda shell corporation, and a tax shelter in the Cayman Islands.
Who knows, maybe Mitt really does feel like a small businessman when he's hanging out with his NFL franchise or NASCAR team owning friends. Whatever the case, I'm looking forward to seeing them continue making this claim on the campaign trail.