Romney sticks by 'victims' comments, but calls them 'off the cuff'

Fox News ^ | 9-18-12

[kingattax]

Mitt Romney is sticking by his comments captured in a video at a fundraiser earlier this year in which he told donors that President Obama's base supporters are "reliant on government," don't pay taxes and "believe they are victims." The Republican presidential nominee assembled a brief and to-the-point press conference Monday night to address the tape, which had been posted online by liberal magazine Mother Jones.

Romney, while saying his phrasing was not ideal, stood by the premise of his remarks, which reportedly came from a fundraiser in Florida.

[LS]

Great. Now say it and say it and say it.

[mosesdapoet]

What Romney should now go after are the reasons why those on fixed incomes have to go on food stamps and other “benefits” such as energy assistance etc.

The price of food, the cost of energy,driven up by regulations and prohibitions designed to change the systems of distribution and use of resources to conform to a socialist ideal

[luvie]

However the “off the cuff” statement looks weak and like he’s looking for excuses.

Why can’t we just be strong and stop apologizing! Darn it!

[plain talk]

The root problem is the 47 percent includes retirees. The percentage romney should have been referring to is 47 percent minus whatever percent represents retirees. That’s the percentage of takers. Not all retirees are bums.

Never attack voters. Attack policies.

[erlayman]

How are the 47% who don’t pay taxes necessarily the 47% voting for Obama ? That is insane and nonsensical given a baseline that half the country, including most low income people, don’t vote at all. I am single with a very nice job making close to %50,000 and get both a federal and state refund. How does that make me lacking in personal responsibility ? It is a huge mistake to assume that Obama has a lockdown on “lower income” voters. Besides, Romney is (/was) only behind like 15% among the under $50,000 demographic.

[Andrei Bulba]

The only thing wrong was the 47% figure. Had he said 30 or 40 there really is no issue.

Just jettison the percentage and say damn straight.

[Uncle Chip]

Romney can seal the deal and win by standing strong and doubling down on this golden opportunity. Self-reliance vs govt reliance is a WINNING issue

But knowing how things are in the New England states and Washington, we can expect both a big government bureaucracy that does little for the people and a people under the thumb of that big government bureaucracy who will have to rely on themselves for subsistence.

[Ron H.]

Say, “Damn right, I said it, and I meant it”.

- or -

"Damn right I said it. Prove me wrong!"

All Muslims may not be cowardly murdering terrorists but one thing is for sure,
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . all cowardly murdering terrorists are Muslim!

[ConservativeMind]

Please, everyone, ROMNEY IS THE PROBLEM! Don’t vote for Romney, because he is not even incrementally better than 0bama!

(right?)

[BlatherNaut]

Romney isn’t going to get any votes from Obama’s loser’s anyway, he may as well tell it like it is.

President Food Stamps the First and his coterie of helots

[dfwgator]

At least now Romney is separating himself from Obama so as to give a clear choice, before he was considered by many Conservative as Democratic-Lite, which may still be true to an extent, but at least now there is a clear difference between the two.

[ConservativeMind]

All we need to do is to tax, starting from the first dollar, for those people to pay.

[VRWCmember]

Romney said that working people who did not make enough to pay federal income tax are lacking personal responsibility. That's not only a potential election loser, it is inaccurate and class warfare at its ugliest.

That is a ludicrous misrepresentation of what he said.

[Winstons Julia]

Did he basically give a synopsis of “The Speech”...by Reagan?

[estrogen]

I would vote for Donald Duck in lieu of Obama but I am incensed that our Republican establishment pushed this candidate down our throats. Reminds me of the McCain campaign.

I hope I'm wrong, but unless he comes out swinging in the debates, we will have another 4 yrs. of the ONE. There is such a great case to be made on all levels and I just don't hear it from our candidate.....

[Opinionated Blowhard]

On self reliance issues, Romney is a hell of a lot more conservative than a lot of politicians. Yes, he’s a RINO on gay rights and flip flopped on abortion, but you can see in his policies and his personal life that he is not one to give handouts to the undeserving. If the ONLY thing he does is cut spending, that will be enough. We need someone who is willing to get the deadbeats off the federal teat. It sure as Hell wasn’t Compassionate Conservative Bush, who did get handed everything and thought government spending equaled compassion. Maybe if will be Romney. Comments like this give me hope.

[rurgan]

Government shouldn’t be involved in retirement planning. Their SSI and medicare will go bankrupt soon. Already marxist Obama has added 6 trillion $ in debt which will ensure collapse of the United States and also shows all these gov handouts etc don’t work.

government should only do the military , border control, and keeping things out of the country. Government should only deal with international issues.That’s it. How have the gov schools worked out? terribly like everything government does.

[yorkiemom]

So this is what all the fuss is about. Good grief. Tempest in a tea cup.

you can see how pitiful their campaign is going when they react to a statement like that as if it was something horrible. They have absolutely nothing to run on and nothing against Romney. They are panicking.

[Colonel Kangaroo]

"These are people who pay no income tax.”

“My job is not to worry about those people,” he said. “I’ll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.”