But the good-looking, clean-cut mini-Mitts who had a starring role in their dad's 2008 campaign are way under the radar this time around. Until, of course, they got the recent "SNL" treatment.
The segment introduced the five look-alikes. And in reality, they seem to be. Tagg, Matt, Josh, Ben, and Craig range in age from 31 to 41 and together have 16 children. (Although in the segment they get names like Tigger and Tic Tac -— who claims he's the rebel because he likes sugar.) Three went to Harvard Business School. All attended Brigham Young University (as did Mitt's wife, Ann).
The "SNL" skit did nothing to make the conservative family seem more like ordinary folks. The brothers, who seem to be more closely related to the aristocratic cartoon character Mr. Burns on "The Simpsons," are spoofed as dressing all the same and speaking as one saying, they're "just like regular America" because they like "Sport, cinema, and doo-wop."
In Romney's last campaign, the quintet helped out by driving a bus to campaign stops (dubbed the "Mitt Mobile") with the slogan "Five Brothers Bus" painted on the side. And the siblings contributed to a light-hearted blog, Five Brothers. This time around, the five have mostly stayed away at the request of papa Mitt, who doesn't want them to uproot their lives -- and the campaign made a strategic decision not to have too large an entourage.
Another reason: Romney isn't a new national figure the way he was in 2008, and doesn't need his sons to help tell his story. As Romney told ABC, "Things are a little leaner in America, and a campaign has to be a little wiser and leaner. So we're running a campaign with fewer people, and we won't be doing all the fancy stuff we did last time around."
Tagg Romney, the eldest son, still sends out the occasional campaign tweet and writes blog posts for the Romney campaign. On Saturday he joked about the "SNL" skit: "They got it wrong. I'm the rebel--the one who loves sugar."
The bros are not exactly rebellious, but that didn't stop the G-rated antics a few years back, which helped add some lightness to Mitt's campaign. Matt prank-called his dad right before the Michigan primary, posing as then-Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger with a recorded clip from "Kindergarten Cop" barking out: "Who's your daddy?" Another time the boys short-sheeted dad's bed. Those crazy kids!
Josh, a real-estate developer, got some buzz when he considered jumping into Utah politics a few years back. Pundits figured he had a shot with the Romney name, the local education, and the Harvard MBA polish, just like dad. Matt and Craig both work in real estate, and Ben is completing his medical residency in Utah.
All five brothers are married. None have served in the military, an issue that hurt Romney during the last presidential campaign, because Papa Mitt supported the war in Iraq.
Even so, the five handsome brothers could add a note of fun to the serious candidate's campaign. Or at least, be the subject of fun.
Leland Bobbe | Stone | Getty ImagesTechnical, engineering and health care expertise are among the few skills in huge demand even in today’s lackluster job market. They are also, unfortunately, some of the most expensive subjects to teach. As a result, state colleges in Nebraska, Nevada, South Dakota, Colorado, Michigan, Florida and Texas have eliminated entire engineering and computer science departments. At one community college in North Carolina — a state with a severe nursing shortage — nursing program applicants so outnumber available slots that there is a waiting list just to get on the waiting list. This squeeze is one result of the states’ 25-year withdrawal from higher education. During and immediately after the last few recessions ![[cnbc explains]](C:\Program Files\ABS\Auto Blog Samurai\data\News around the WORLD\CNBC\CNBC_explains_icon1.gif){kind=small}
, states slashed financing for colleges. Then when the economy recovered, most states never fully restored the money that had been cut. The recent recession has amplified the problem. “There has been a shift from the belief that we as a nation benefit from higher education, to a belief that it’s the people receiving the education who primarily benefit and so they should foot the bill,” said Ronald Ehrenberg, the director of the Cornell Higher Education Research Institute and a trustee of the State University of New York system. Even large tuition increases have not fully offset state cuts, since many state legislatures cap how much colleges can charge for each course. So classes get bigger, tenured faculty members are replaced with adjuncts and technical courses are sacrificed. State appropriations for colleges fell by 7.6 percent in 2011-12, the largest annual decline in at least five decades, according to a report from the Center for the Study of Education Policy at Illinois State University. In one extreme example, Arizona has slashed its college budget by 31 percent since the recession began in 2007. It is this cumulative public divestment — and not extravagances like climbing walls or recreational centers advertised on a few elite campuses — that is primarily responsible for skyrocketing tuitions at state institutions, which enroll three out of every four college students. Colleges have found ways to hold costs per student relatively steady. Since 1985, the average amount that public institutions spend on teaching each full-time student over the course of a year has barely budged, hovering around an inflation-adjusted $10,000, according to a State Higher Education Executive Officers report. But in the same period, the share of instruction costs paid for by actual tuition — not the sticker price, but the amount students actually pay after financial aid — has nearly doubled, to 40 percent from 23 percent. 
Highlight transcript below to create clipTranscript: Print | Email Go Click text to jump within videoThu 23 Feb 12 | 03:30 AM ET Grainne Gilmore, head of UK residential research at Knight Frank, told CNBC, "It is very much a regional picture, the UK can¿t just be broad brush stroked with one figure, but if you look at the UK it is very much a patchwork effect the North is maybe not performing as well, when you further South things start to pick up and then when you hit London and especially the centre of London, prices are doing very well they are up 12 percent on the year, compared to an annual average of around one percent growth in 2011."
Photo: Uppercut Images | Getty ImagesThe wealthiest Americans have been in the spotlight for reasons ranging from public outrage over lavish lifestyles during the recession to executive bonuses in the midst of the financial crisis. The Occupy Wall Street movement was perhaps the most visible culmination of these concerns, broadly protesting against the divide between the majority of the U.S. population and the ultra-rich, referred to by the protesters as the “one percent.” The question arose: Who are the one percent, and where are they from? In fact, the composition of the group variesfrom business people, doctors, lawyers and financial professionals to celebrities, farmers and even government workers. But where do these high-earners live? Even that is a tricky question since many have multiple residences. However, Wealth-X,a global wealth intelligence firm, compiles data on ultra-high net worth (UHNW) individuals, including net worth, but also characteristics such as philanthropic interests, politics and affiliations. A UHNW individual is defined by Wealth-X as anyone with at least $30 million when accounting for a range of assets, including shares in companies, real estate, cash, art collections, private planes and other investable assets. According to Wealth-X, the United States is home to 57,860 such individuals, and when this number is compared to the over 114 million households in the country today, this group would represent approximately 0.05 percent of the nation. Although still only a fraction of the one percent, it is one of the closest estimations of this income group and is a proxy for high net worth individuals under the $30 million mark. For individuals with a net worth above $1 million, this group accounts for about 5 percent of the population.As it turns out, some cities are magnets for UHNW individuals, and the cities with the most of this wealthy class average approximately one in 3,075 people, according to Wealth-X, while the 27,540 UHNW individuals in the top 10 cities have a combined net worth of $3.6 trillion, or 6.2 percent of the total U.S. net worth. “Certain geographic clusters generate and attract wealth,” said Wealth-X co-founder David Friedman. “A concentration of UHNW individuals is certainly indicative of an area’s overall economic health.” So, which U.S. cities have the most ultra-high net worth individuals? Click ahead to find out! By Paul ToscanoPosted 14 February 2012
Photo: Danita Delimont | Gallo Images | Getty ImagesUHNW population: 885 Seattle is the largest city in the Northwest and is 10th on the list of cities with the largest UHNW population, according to Wealth-X. Among some of the richest people in the Seattle area are Microsoft co-founders Bill Gates and Paul Allen, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Starbucks founder Howard Schultz. Major companies in and around Seattle include a number of national names, from Amazon.com, Microsoft and Starbucks to Zumiez, Dendreon and Plum Creek Timber. 
Photo: Steve Dunwell | Photographer's Choice | Getty ImagesUHNW population: 890 With 890 UHNW individuals living in Boston, 1.5 percent of the country’s UHNW population lives in the region, which is about on par with the metro area’s overall population, accounting for approximately 1.4 percent of the nation’s people. Boston’s billionaire residents include Abigail Johnson and Edward C. Johnson of Fidelity, co-founders of Boston Scientific John Abele and Peter Nicholas, Jack Manning of Boston Capital and Arthur Demoulas of Demoulas Market Basket. 
Photo: Ron Sherman | Stone | Getty ImagesUHNW population: 960 In the Atlanta metro area, approximately one out of every 5,480 residents has a net worth of over $30 million, according to numbers from Wealth-X and the U.S. Census bureau. Several major organizations are headquartered in the city, including Coca-Cola, Turner Broadcasting, The Home Depot and Delta Airlines. The city is home to the world’s largest airline hub and functions as a major source of economic activity for the Southeast. Atlanta also hosted the 1996 Olympics, which created an economic boom for the city. Among the super-rich who call Atlanta home are Anne Cox Chambers of Cox Enterprises, S. Truett Cathy of Chick fil-A and Bernard Marcus, co-founder of The Home Depot. 
Photo: VisionsofAmerica | Joe Sohm | PhotodiscUHNW population: 1,855 With an UHNW population that nearly doubles that of Atlanta, Dallas is home to 1,855 individuals worth at least $30 million, according to Wealth-X. The Dallas area is home to major companies including AT&T, Dean Foods, Texas Instruments and Southwest Airlines. Some of the richest residents include billionaire and former presidential candidate H. Ross Perot, oil magnate Ray Lee Hunt and leveraged buyout billionaire Harold Simmons. 
UHNW population: 2,250 With a well-established oil and gas industry and a level of annual productionthat is greater than the GDP of Austria ($384 billion versus $376 billion), it is no wonder Houston has a large number of ultra-high net worth individuals. In the Houston metro area that means one in every 2,643 people is worth over $30 million. Some of Houston’s richest people include Kinder Morgan CEO Richard Kinder, fund manager Fayez Sarofim and Houston Texans owner Robert McNair. The city is also the home to several major companies, including ConocoPhillips, Marathon Oil, Sysco and Halliburton. 
Photo: Robert Clare | Taxi | Getty ImagesUHNW population: 2,300 The nation’s capital is also a magnet for high-net-worth individuals. Among Washington-area billionaires are David Rubenstein, co-founder of the Carlyle Group; Steven and Mitchell Rales of the Danaher Corp.; and Redskins owner Daniel Snyder. With approximately 5.6 million people living within the Washington metro area, which includes parts of Maryland and Virginia, one in every 2,435 residents is an UHNW individual, according to numbers provided by Wealth-X. 
UHNW population: 2,550 The third-most-populous city in the United States is the fourth-most-populous for UHNW individuals. Chicago is a major financial center and home to major financial and futures exchanges, including the Chicago Stock Exchange, the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Major companies in Chicago include the CME Group, Boeing, Groupon, MillerCoors, United Airlines and RR Donnelley. Some of the billionaires that call Chicago home are private-equity titan Sam Zell, media mogul Oprah Winfrey, former CEO of Wrigley William Wrigley Jr., and founder of Morningstar Joe Mansueto. 
UHNW population: 4,230 San Francisco has historically been a city where people can strike it rich. The California Gold Rush turned San Francisco into the financial center of the West in the 1800s, while nearby Silicon Valley continues to produce cutting-edge companies and mint new billionaires into the 21st century, often supported by San Francisco’s venture capitalists. Among the largest companies in the San Francisco Bay Area are Hewlett-Packard, Wells Fargo, McKesson and Facebook. The Facebook IPO alone is likely to create approximately 900millionaires and billionaires, but has already produced billionaire Mark Zuckerberg, who lives in Palo Alto. Also associated with the area are Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page as well as financier George Roberts, engineer Ray Dolby and Riley Bechtel of the privately held Bechtel Corp. 
Photo: VisionsofAmerica | Joe Sohm | Photodisc | Getty ImagesUHNW population: 4,350 The most populous city in California also boasts the West Coast’s largest population of UHNW individuals. Although Los Angeles is possibly best known for its entertainment industry, the city is also a shipping hub and is home to companies including Occidental Petroleum, Reliance Steel and Health Net, along with many other smaller firms. Billionaires associated with the Los Angeles area include media moguls David Geffen and Sumner Redstone, businessman Kirk Kerkorian and director Steven Spielberg. 
UHNW population: 7,270 Although it may be no surprise the nation’s most populous city is home to the most UHNW individuals, this segment is “vastly overrepresented in New York,” says Wealth-X. While about 13 percent of the UHNW population live in New York, only 6 percent of the country live in the area, demonstrating that the city is an attractive location for extremely wealthy people. As an international center of finance, New York’s Wall Street attracts and produces high-net-worth individuals, and the city’s cost of living, which is the highest in the country, according to Mercer Consulting, tends to skew the population to the wealthy side of the spectrum. The wealthiest New Yorkers include Wall Street titan Carl Icahn, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, real estate mogul Donald Trump and members of the Tisch family, who are co-owners of the New York Giants. © 2012 CNBC.com