Here’s The Latest Mitt Romney “Scandal” You’re Supposed To Care About
That scandal is Mitt Romney talking candidly with supporters at a private fundraising diner caught on video.
Long-time partisan hack David Corn is trying to get traction for a series of unremarkable secret Mitt Romney videos by distorting the actual words spoken on the video – leaving some out of his story at Mother Jones – to make a story appear more sinister than the videos on their own are. Here’s Corn’s partisan spin:
During a private fundraiser earlier this year, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney told a small group of wealthy contributors what he truly thinks of all the voters who support President Barack Obama. He dismissed these Americans as freeloaders who pay no taxes, who don’t assume responsibility for their lives, and who think government should take care of them. Fielding a question from a donor about how he could triumph in November, Romney replied:
There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. 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 health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it. That that’s an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what…These are people who pay no income tax.
Romney went on: “[M]y job is is not to worry about those people. I’ll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.”
Instead of relying on the veracity of that transcription you can just watch the video. It’s kind of important…
Notice anything?
The “[M]y job is is not to worry about those people. I’ll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.” quotes are made in the context of the voters he has to reach. He’s telling supporters why certain themes work and others don’t, especially as it relates to Obama’s core supporters. To understand the context you need to see the next video, one that Corn fully transcribes instead of selectively editing.
We speak with voters across the country about their perceptions. Those people I told you—the 5 to 6 or 7 percent that we have to bring onto our side—they all voted for Barack Obama four years ago. So, and by the way, when you say to them, “Do you think Barack Obama is a failure?” they overwhelmingly say no. They like him. But when you say, “Are you disappointed that his policies haven’t worked?” they say yes. 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. They love the phrase that he’s “over his head.” But if we’re—but we, but you see, you and I, we spend our day with Republicans. We spend our days with people who agree with us. And these people are people who voted for him and don’t agree with us. And so the things that animate us are not the things that animate them. And the best success I have at speaking with those people is saying, you know, the president has been a disappointment. He told you he’d keep unemployment below 8 percent. Hasn’t been below eight percent since. Fifty percent of kids coming out of school can’t get a job. Fifty percent. Fifty percent of the kids in high school in our 50 largest cities won’t graduate from high school. What’re they gonna do? These are the kinds of things that I can say to that audience that they nod their head and say, “Yeah, I think you’re right.” What he’s going to do, by the way, is try and vilify me as someone who’s been successful, or who’s, you know, closed businesses or laid people off, and is an evil bad guy. And that may work.
There’s nothing else in all of the “secret” videos posted even remotely damning, unlike Barack Obama’s 2008 “bitter people clinging to guns and religion” and 2012′s “you didn’t build that” malaprops.
In fact I heartily recommend watching them all – minus the Mother Jones spin. You might actually come away more impressed with Romney.
Update: Via Hot Air comes a link to the Romney campaign statement:
Mitt Romney wants to help all Americans struggling in the Obama economy. 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.
Shortlink:
Posted by Doug Johnson on September 17, 2012.Filed under 2012 Presidential Race, Mitt Romney.
Tagged with: David Corn • Mitt Romney • Mother Jones.
Doug Johnson is a news junkie and long time blog reader, turned author.
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