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."

Mitt Romney knowswhat it's like to be unemployed , because he's been there.

Romney's is truly the prototypical story of an American down on his luck. Just like millions of others unemployed, Romney earns millions in investment income, forcing the endless humiliation of paying a far lower tax rate than the employed:

"[My tax rate is] probably closer to the 15 percent rate than anything. Because my last 10 years, I’ve — my income comes overwhelmingly from some investments made in the past, whether ordinary income or earned annually.

And yes, like millions of other unemployed, poor Mittens has to scrounge up a dollar here, a dollar there to survive, like the $362,000 he made in speaking fees—just "not very much" money.

Yet he perseveres, somehow eking out an existence, settling old scores with $10,000 bets and being forced to fire the help (and its undocumented workers) on account of his presidential campaign.

Yup, it's tough being unemployed. Unless you aren't. In which case, Mittens just flip-flopped on his employment situation.

Which of course he did.