You’ve probably noticed that there’s been a rash of uncovered emails with hyper-conservative CEOs trying to tell their employees how to vote in the presidential election or suggesting that an Obama reelection victory could end up losing them their jobs. Now In These Times has gotten a hold of an audio recording of Mitt Romney talking to “small-business owners” (remember, Romney considers himself a small-business owner) in which he asks them to tell their employees how they should vote.The key passage is here and you can listen below …

I hope you make it very clear to your employees what you believe is in the best interest of your enterprise and therefore their job and their future in the upcoming elections. And whether you agree with me or you agree with President Obama, or whatever your political view, I hope, I hope you pass those along to your employees.

As you can see, Romney does not that if you really think Barack Obama is awesome you should tell your people to vote for him. But given the nature of the audience Romney was talking to, presumably that was a largely rhetorical point.

But this does strike me as a little weird and troublingly in line with the times.