Who are those guys?

You could feel this one coming. The Romney bit about the 47 percent delivered to fellow multimillionaires.

Here’s a man who:

• admits he enjoys firing people.

• mysteriously refuses to make public more than two years of tax returns even as he accuses nearly half of us of not paying taxes.

• builds a mansion with elevators...for his cars.

• unblinkingly and in full public view offers $10,000 bets with fellow politicians. (Mormons like Mr. Romney, by the way, are forbidden to gamble, but never mind....)

• portrays his wife’s owning “a couple of Caddies” as a sign of patriotism and modesty. At least she doesn’t own a half dozen Roll Royces....that we know of.

If nothing else, this campaign has given the voters insight into the perspective and values of the isolated and insulated rich who so heartily back Romney and share his views.

Just who are these people? We are finding out, thanks to Romney and his candor.

But there’s more. We have another 50 days of campaigning and three debates to learn about this cozy culture of one per-centers who think so little of us and so much of themselves.

Pay attention, and don’t forget to vote.

When three is not a crowd

In Britain’s mercifully short political campaign (the voting is May 6), they are actually letting a third-party candidate debate on TV.

Imagine.

The televised debates are a first in Britain, and they are giving much needed exposure to all three parties.

As a result, UK isn’t stuck in the kind of nasty left-right tug-o-war that is wrenching American politics.

The British electorate actually has to venture beyond the linear. This could be taken as a sign of political, even human, evolution.

We do not live in a politically polarized world. We live in at least three-dimensions. Rather than two sides to every issue, there are three. And if you can get to three, four becomes possible.

If American politicians knew that third parties must be invited to nationally televised debates, third parties, and even fourth parties, might form and expand the political possibilities.

The last time we experienced such a phenomenon was when Ross Perot ran in 1990 and 1994. The problem was that his campaigns, first as an independent and then as the leader of the Reform Party, had no congressional representation or legitimacy.

In Britain, the Liberal Democrats are an established Parliamentary presence.

But then the parliamentary system is another story altogether. For one thing, time — the time between elections, the political fourth dimension — can be quite fluid and responsive. Couple that with national television exposure and things get interesting.