Yesterday, engaged in a contest with Newt Gingrich to see who could create the most bizarre expression of radical right wing ideology, Mitt Romney came up with this humdinger:

“Government doesn’t create jobs.”

Government doesn’t create jobs? Really, Mr. Romney?

If government doesn’t create jobs, why is Mitt Romney working so hard to get a government job? The President of the United States is a job created by the federal government.

According to the latest statistics from the Census Bureau, there are 16.6 million full time jobs that have been created by state and local governments.

The federal government, for its part, has created full time jobs for 2,527,149 civilians and 1,468,364 active duty employees of the military, and about the same number of soldiers in the military reserves.

That’s a big number of jobs created by government, but the fact is that government jobs are shrinking. For all the Republicans complain about big government, the fact is that there are fewer federal government employees now under Barack Obama than there were under Ronald Reagan.

It’s absolute nonsense for Mitt Romney to say that “Government doesn’t create jobs.” Does he think that the President answers his own telephone, guards the White House all on his own, and flies Air Force One while the First Lady serves as co-pilot?

If Mitt Romney can’t even get this basic piece of information about the government right, how can we trust that he has anything at all like a reasonable, mature plan for how to run the country as chief executive?

Mitt Romney leads a sheltered life, cushioned from reality by his hundreds of millions of dollars. He inherited millions of dollars at birth, and so he never had to work a minimum wage job, fighting for every promotion to earn a few more dollars. Mitt Romney bought himself a place at the top from the start.

It’s no wonder, then, that Mitt Romney can’t even see the huge number of workers that it takes to provide him with his comfortable way of life. These people aren’t just his personal servants. They also include a huge number of people working in government jobs, creating the infrastructure he has exploited for his personal gain.

A politician who can’t see the people who work for him is not suitable for public service. That’s just one more reason that Mitt Romney must not be elected President in 2012.