Posted on 09/17/2012 5:01:13 PM PDT by Sub-Driver
Romney: 47 percent depend on government, will vote for Obama By Justin Sink - 09/17/12 06:16 PM ET
Mitt Romney, in candid remarks at a fundraising dinner caught in an undercover video, dismissed "47 percent" of Americans as "dependent upon government."
"There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what," Romney is shown saying. "All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to healthcare, to food, to housing, to you name it."
The GOP presidential nominee goes on to say his "job is is not to worry about those people. I'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives."
The video, uncovered by Mother Jones, is from a fundraising dinner earlier this summer. The magazine has said it is withholding the date and location of the fundraiser for the source who provided the video. The magazine posted only small, individual clips, and not Romney's remarks in their entirety.
The Obama campaign seized on Romney remarks in a statement emailed to reporters Monday night.
"It's shocking that a candidate for President of the United States would go behind closed doors and declare to a group of wealthy donors that half the American people view themselves as ‘victims,’ entitled to handouts, and are unwilling to take ‘personal responsibility’ for their lives," said Obama campaign manager Jim Messina. "It’s hard to serve as president for all Americans when you’ve disdainfully written off half the nation.”
Later Thursday afternoon, the Romney campaign issued a statement downplaying the remarks.
"Mitt Romney wants to help all Americans struggling in the Obama economy," said Romney communications director Gail Gitcho. "As the governor has made clear all year, he is concerned about the growing number of people who are dependent on the federal government, including the record number of people who are on food stamps, nearly one in six Americans in poverty, and the 23 million Americans who are struggling to find work. Mitt Romney's plan creates 12 million new jobs in four years, grows the economy and moves Americans off of government dependency and into jobs."
But the video threatens to derail what had been an orchestrated reboot of Romney's presidential campaign, which came under fire last weekend from Republican allies frustrated by the nominee's strategy. Reports emerged of infighting and bickering among top Romney advisers, and some campaign allies said Romney needed to refocus his efforts on bringing out the base after failing to rally independent and swing voters.
In a conference call earlier Monday with reporters, campaign aides pledged that Romney would provide more specifics on his policies and programs on the campaign stump.
"We think voters now, from what we see in data and other research, are looking for — OK, if we're going to make this change, how is it going to make my life better, how are things going to improve?" said Romney adviser Ed Gillespie on a conference call with reporters. "We know that they know he has a plan, which is a good thing, but we also know they would like to know a little bit more about the specifics, and we're going to meet the demand."
To aid in that effort, the campaign released two new ads on Monday detailing Romney's five-point economic plan and criticizing Obama's record. Romney also made a major push for Hispanic voters Monday, speaking at the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in Los Angeles and granting interviews to Univision and Telemundo.
But that push could be partially undermined by another of the covert clips, where Romney candidly discusses some of the problems encountered by his campaign, including trouble attracting female and Hispanic voters.
Romney jokes of his father, who was born in Mexico: "Had he been born of Mexican parents, I'd have a better shot of winning this."
Later in the fundraising video, Romney admits that Republicans are having a difficult time attracting Hispanic voters — and there could be severe repercussions for the party.
"We are having a much harder time with Hispanic voters, and if the Hispanic voting bloc becomes as committed to the Democrats as the African-American voting block has in the past, why, we're in trouble as a party and, I think, as a nation," Romney said.
Romney also told donors the campaign was using his wife, Ann, "sparingly ... so that people don't get tired of her."
And he admits that the president remains popular with many voters, which makes attacking him difficult.
"But when you say, 'Are you disappointed that his policies haven't worked?' they say yes," Romney said. "And because they voted for him, they don't want to be told that they were wrong, that he's a bad guy, that he did bad things, that he's corrupt. Those people that we have to get, they want to believe they did the right thing, but he just wasn't up to the task."
This one is going to peg the needle.
If anything, this was leaked intentionally by team Romney because it’s red meat for the base. I love it when people speak candidly and I believe this will ultimately end up being well received. No doubt, the Obamamedia leg humpers will try to make a controversy out of it but it only encourages me to support Romney even more.
So what’s his solution?
That includes corporatists like GE who know how to play ball. And the unions.
Between the people who aspire to be managed by government, and the people who aspire to manage them, we are very near 47%. When it reaches 50% the locusts out-vote the wheat fields.
And the media thinks this statement will HURT Romney? Bwa-ahahahahaha.
Not everyone dependent on government is happy about their situation. Many people are unhappy with the fact that they don’t have jobs and have nothing to look forward to. They feel helpless and hopeless.
There’s not one thing Romney said that I disagree with, except that I think the percentage is probably a little less maybe.
The big F-Up you wanted to avoid, Mitt.
There is nothing controversy here except for the leftist media to declare it over, AGAIN
The various state Division of Wildlife policies are uniformly against humans feeding wildlife because the animals will become dependent on humans and will not learn to fend for themselves. Why are humans different in developing dependency?
I hope this is an intentional leak to start the much needed and long overdue conversation about entitlements in this country. It’s just driving us off a fiscal cliff.
This article is quoting Romney out of context to make it appear he doesnt care about that 47%.
In context, it is clear he is saying that he isn’t coing to try to get that group to vote for him, because he thinks it is a wasted effort.
Because animals don’t vote.
[well, they don’t get ballots in the mail to vote Republican, anyway]
I have been saying this for months. Obama will get near 100% of the entitlement vote. True shades of Atlas Shrugged.
Seems the age of accountability and reason has bumped to 50 and older.
So what happened 50 years ago (1962)? What caused this change from a brave and ardent love of freedom to a weak acquiescence to socialist tyranny? How were children raised and educated after 1962 that caused this incredible shift? How did public schools go from education that included the Bible and prayer to socialist indoctrination run by socialist-loving teacher unions?
One may point to many reasons, but something socially, morally, and legally significant and catastrophic happened in 1962, and hardly anyone noticed it at the time. Engel v. Vitale, 370 U.S. 421 (1962), the famous “establishment” case of “separation of church and state,” outlawed prayer in public schools. As Justice Stewart wrote in his dissent, “the Court says that in permitting school children to say this simple prayer, the New York authorities have established ‘an official religion’” (Engel, 370 U.S. 421).
This is where misapplication of the establishment clause to create “separation of church and state” has taken us – to the brink of Marxist tyranny, the destruction of the freedoms protected by our Constitutional Republic, and economic collapse. The fact is, the First Amendment of the Constitution NEVER RESTRICTS FREE AND PEACEFUL RELIGIOUS EXERCISE in government, out of government, or anywhere else. The Constitution ONLY RESTRICTS THE STATE from either establishing religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.
Many Christians are confused about this and have allowed the other side to dictate the terms and results in the fight for freedom. The issue today is not an establishment issue, not even close. The issue is the socialists’ use of a Jeffersonian metaphor (“separation of church and state”) in place of the text and meaning of the Constitution to push Christianity and Constitutional free exercise and expression out of government and public life. If God’s people at the foundation of our country were so timid about instilling the things of God in government, we never would have had, for example, the government buildings as well as monuments in Washington D.C. with scripture carved in stone. These artifacts as well as the Constitution itself testify against lie of “the separation of church and state” embraced by our popular culture.
The health of a government DEPENDS ON THE free exercise of religion evidenced by the history of America, probably the healthiest form of government in history. The Book of Revelation in the Bible begins with describing how God's presence is in the midst of his people, the church(es) (Rev. 1:12-3:22). It ends with a description of God's presence in the midst of His people, the holy city, the New Jerusalem (Rev 22:2). In the midst of God’s people is a "tree of life," the leaves of which are "for the healing of the nations." We, the church, institutionally and individually, have God's life and healing so desperately needed in the nations including America. The history of our nation reflects a direct relationship between the involvement of God’s people in government as well as society, and the health of our country that has flourished with individual liberty. Separating the church from the state is like separating the doctor from the patient or the medicine from the wounded. It’s up to God’s people to muster the courage and resolve to get this medicine back into the bloodstream of the dying patient.
I’ve seen a lot of FReepers announce the loss of a job over the last few years.
We’ve still got to take bold moves to ease job creation so a lot of those people on welfare can work.
I bet if you asked him he would say that those in need would be taken care of like they are now but fewer of them would need help if he were POTUS.
In other words, he would make everyone happy with his rhetoric.
M O R O N...there goes his half a$$ed campaign down the drain...what f_ _ king arrogant idiot spends millions of his own money only to sabotage himself with a macacca moment tailor made for the starving masses!!!!
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