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."
The Left has been trying to transform sloth and stupidity into a virtue for the past 80 years through the media and education system, and now we may be past the point of no return.
This is exactly what 0bama meant by the transformation of society.
America usually means three things to people: the place, the people, and the idea. The idea, limited Constitutional government and capitalism, is being destroyed by the people led by a despot and ideologue. America will become a horrible place not just because of 0bama, but primarily because of its people. If 0bama is re-elected, it will confirm that its people, in the aggregate, have become the enemies of freedom. As a wealthy German Jew and large department store owner lamented in the 1930s before emigrating to Palestine, to paraphrase, “Germany and the German people have now become my enemies, and I am ashamed to have considered myself a German.”
That was the gaffe, he did not remove them from the 47%, he included them, Mitt made a huge mistake.
Retirees who paid in expect to get a return. I pay in and I expect to see it when I retire and that my dear is not mooching. So don’t include them in the gimme class.
You are missing the point.
Romney didn’t say, “I’m talking about what FReepers have been rightly railing about for years and years,” he said, “47% depend on the government and are a lost voting cause” to a roomful of millionaires. That’s not going to play well over the next 7 weeks.
The figure 47% is made up of those retirees and military people and whatnot. It’s made up of lots and lots of people who are hard working conservative families who simply don’t make enough to pay income tax. THAT’S why it’s a stupid statement.
Do you think 47% of people in this country collect welfare or something?
What am I supposed to do with this? Rule number 17. You never write off a single vote. Let me see 47% pay no taxes, 50% of the top 10% (5%)who do pay taxes are die-hard liberals. Somewhere in there we have over 10 million union members who do pay taxes. 47 and 5 and say 4 is 56%. This is insane but you never know. Maybe the 53% will figure it out.
Well, I’m currently a state employee, was previously a civilian Federal employee (the VA) and I was and still am not for Obumma. I cried when he was elected because I felt the beginning of the end as we know it was near. I read the article released on Bloomberg and the first thing I picked up was Romney didn’t say anything about the low and middle-class being under taxed, he said there are 47% of people who do not pay tax. The comments in the article to me were cherry-picked as much as I can tell.
I listened to the audio. Please add the context that will clear this up because I must have missed it.
You are right and that is why this news item will hurt unless Romney does something truly magical—like offer us some long overdue vision of an economic miracle that will change the numbers. Something Reaganesque.
Drudge headline says “Romney gets real:”
Real what?
My dear, I am the one under siege for defending your view, not attacking it.
Romney needs a response that works. Something that the media cannot spin.
Actually saying what most people have for years, and haven’t heard a candidate say it in decades.
One more thing that I see is now happening online and soon to be on TV (Just read this comment on local site):
“Someone tell Romney about the FICA, sales, gas, and local taxes EVERYONE pays. I know Mitt doesn’t know much about tax returns.”
Har har. It pains me to say it, but this is a meme that will be hard to deflect going forward. The ol’ “out of touch” thing. Again.
What?
Military retireess do not depend on government. It’s the other way around.
One doesn’t spend 20 plus years in the military with government depending on them and come out with a sense of neediness.
If they don’t work, it’s because they can’t, not because they choose to take from taxpayers.
And they are not looking for handouts nor to sell their votes to Obama.
Mitt surely takes this into account, and does not include them.
Mitt’s talking about people whose votes are for sale to those who will give them stuff and who don’t care about the health or the future of the country and who wouldn’t understand austerity if they were overrun.
the military retirees are on the opposite end of that spectrum if they are even in the same universe.
He should follow up by saying that if they do continue to vote for BO and dems, then their freebies will run out in a very short time because the dead economy can’t support their free ride so they better think about that before they pull the lever for BO.
The posts to this thread have assured me the end is near for the USA. Half of you clearly do not see the unsustainability of out of control government spending. I feel like I might as well pack it in for the future of this nation.
There ya go.
he’ll need to get used to the media spin real quick, expecially if he gets in.
He’ll have to learn to ignore them “I can’t hear you!” for a start, then find hos own niche.
They’re going to hate him worse than they did Bush. He’ll need to realize we don’t care hwo he is spun.
I know how to spell especially.
I know.
I know.
I know.
I know.
But that doesn’t matter.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.