Posted on 09/17/2012 4:48:47 PM PDT by Evil Slayer
Mitt Romney described almost half of Americans as “dependent upon government” during a private reception with donors earlier this year and said those voters will likely support President Obama because they believe they are “entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it.”
The blunt political and cultural assessment by the Republican presidential candidate offers a rare glimpse into Mr. Romney’s personal views as the campaign enters its final 50 days. Liberals quickly condemned the remarks as insensitive and Mr. Obama’s campaign accused him of having “disdainfully written off half the nation.”
The recordings surfaced even as Mr. Romney sought to retool his campaign message amid internal campaign sniping and calls from Republicans outside the campaign for him to be more specific about how his policies will fix the nation’s economy.
The video clips raised the possibility that his campaign would once again be sidetracked by Mr. Romney’s own words, a problem that has plagued the former Massachusetts governor since his hard-fought battle with Republican rivals during the nominating contests earlier this year. The video of Mr. Romney making the comments was posted on the Internet Monday afternoon by Mother Jones, a liberal magazine, which said it had obtained the recording and had confirmed its authenticity. The magazine said it was concealing the identity of the person who took the video and the location and time of the recording.
(Excerpt) Read more at thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com ...
Wow..I really wonder if my fellow Freepers have LOST. IT.
As much as I would absolutely love to agree that this is some sort of Rovian genius ploy by Romney, this is not going to play well outside of our circle of friends.
Guys, the campaign does NOT appear to be doing well (can you tell me where Romney was today? I sure can’t. Him AND Ryan are all but invisible, and there’s NO consistent message - despite TONS of material to work with).
Idiocy like this doesn’t help the cause. I’m starting to get QUITE concerned..just like 2008 all over again. Inept candidate running an inept, lifeless campaign. All leading to 4 more years of Total Destruction of the Country, v2.0.
Mitt was right. I agree with him. I am voting for him.
>>Idiocy like this doesn’t help the cause. <<
CONSERVATISM is idiocy. The truth is idiocy. I see.
I think you are the one who has lost it. John Boehner, is that you?
Concerns about security preparations for the London Olympics
Slamming Russia as untrustworthy
the 47% remarks...
Romney seems to tell it like it is without any sugar coating, more so than even W did. Nothing is as dangerous to government as an honest man, so they are out to destroy him.
All well and good, but will Romney also get around to talking about the many who make ALL their money from government contracts (ie corporate welfare handouts), or about how the Fed’s actions transfer wealth from the poor and middle class to the insiders? Probably not, since many of these same welfare recipients are lobbyists and big campaign donors to the establishment of both parties.
Romney could have very easily (and reasonably) talked about the need for across the board deep spending cuts, and about the very destructive role of federal interventionism and over regulation, all without pointing fingers at anyone. It would not have sounded credible coming from Romney, but at least he would have been speaking the truth.
Instead, we get to hear this.
I don’t think that conservatives of modest means, constitutionalists and traditionalists are going to be terribly impressed with this kind of trash talk about a year or so after we found out that Santa Bush and Santa Obama were accessories to the (private) Fed doling out 16 trillion dollars to its banking buddies around the world.
He stood by the remarks and said he was going to use this going forward.
Bottomline is any candidate who is willing to stand up and call the Democrat base a bunch of freeloaders is good by me.
Exactly!! What would Reagan do? Just that. He'd give it right back, and then some.
You’ve got it backwards. Things are going poorly for Obama and the Socialist Democrats.
It doesnt take a genius to see that Romney is ahead in the battlegrounds and ahead nationally as per Rasmussens latest likely voter polls.
Love it!
“A goodly part of that 47% are not in the group by choice. Romney can peel them off if he can explain how he’s going to make it possible for them to rise up out of government dependency. It’s a huge mistake simply to write them off.”
Go back a couple of centuries, to olde England. Back then, there was the dichotomy of “the deserving poor” as distinguished from “the undeserving poor”.
To take that paradigm and update it to modern times and the entitlement society, we should be pointing out the differences between “the deserving entitlees” vs. those that are “UNdeserving”.
And Romney should stop talking about “creating 12 million jobs” and start talking about re-creating an American exceptionalist environment by which jobs will spring up like seeds in the field. We do that by removing regulation and restraining the bureaucracies that create them, by opening up every possible avenue of energy development, by increasing power generation and not forcing plant closures.
Perhaps he should follow up by saying, “yes, government can give you a check, but it will never give you a job with a future....”
“CONSERVATISM WINS LANDSLIDE VICTORIES...”
Ahem.
In SOME places it wins victories.
How many “landslide conservative victories” have you seen lately in New York, California, Illinois, or Vermont?
As I just mentioned in another post, this is like pouring salt of the slugs of the state.
This is a great strategy, actually.
You might not be one of the 47%, but just imagine. Sitting there realizing are living off your fellow man. Mitt brings it home here - at a time of great stress for all.
The main point he makes is that 47% of people will vote for Obama. He also, likely will get 47% of the vote. The difference in this election are the undecideds, the 6% that will make up their minds in the booth.
NONE OF THEM WANT TO ASSOCIATE WITH LOSER, LIBERAL TOOLS ANYMORE!
Imagine for a second you have never and will never contribute anything, ever, at any time. (Social security is different because you paid into the system.)
Look at the facts:
+ food stamps (RECORD HIGH achieved under Obama)
+ disability (RECORD HIGH achieved under Obama)
+ debt per citizen (RECORD HIGH achieved under Obama)
This ploy is definitely stirring the bottom of the lefts barrel. Funny how the left are the ones that released this - somehow thinking it would help.
I just saw his press conference on the Greta re-run.
1. He made it clear that he was talking about the 47% who will vote for Obama no matter what.
2. That 47% loves government dependency and loves bigger and more government.
3. Having said that, he requests that the full video be played instead of the edited version, and he would not take back what he said.
Subtle but important distinction: the 47% he speaks so harshly of are the Obama voters, who get tingly over increasing government dependence. He also said it would be difficult to reach the 47% who paid no taxes through a message of tax cuts alone.
So, basically, he was speaking of three separate groups (Obama diehards, government dependents, and non-taxpayers) in different contexts, and it is confusing because 47% is the approximate percentage of each group.
If what Romney said does not play well, then all is lost regardless.
It is not the fault of the message or messenger, but the fault of the recipients.
>> Mitt Romney described almost half of Americans as “dependent upon government”
The govt? More like one half of America is dependent on the other half of America. The govt simply enforces that dependency.
He could have just said he stood by them and that was it. Instead, the media made him jump and hold a press conference and he said they were off the cuff remarks. That is letting yourself getting pushed around by the media.
I think most of us agree with Romney here on this issue.
The MSM and Obama camp are doing all they can to deflect from Obama’s foreign policy nightmare and crappy economy.
I would suggest to the Romney camp to unload a few gallons of whoop ass on Obama and put him on the defensive for awhile.
God knows there is plenty of material out there.
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