Mitt Romney, who is worth hundreds of millions of dollars after a career spent “trimming” businesses (he would say he turned them around) and laying off workers with Bain Capital, showed off his populist side during a campaign swing through Tampa today:

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.

The national media will not be as generous with its laughter, and we can be sure this is not the last time an awkward attempt to connect with middle-class voters will dog the Republican presidential frontrunner. [NYT]