Mittens, behind closed doors, tells us what he really thinks:
This really is the worldview of our the Republican party.
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Felinious Wench
Good, I was hoping you’d front-page this.
Comrade Jake
Yeah, that’s gonna leave a mark.
Trentrunner
Remember bitter voters clinging to their guns and religion?
Now consider how this core belief of Romney’s will not receive 1% of the play that Obama’s (accurate) analysis did.
Not even 1%. That’s because the sentiment is shared by the Villagers. So it’s not news.
The Matrix was not sci-fi to Romney & Co.; it was a how-to manual. And the 47% are just batteries.
gogol's wife
Someone earlier called this nauseating, and it truly is. This is the real Mitt. You can tell how much more comfortable he is speaking here, because these are all “his people” (i.e., rich). He’s not stiff or fake. This is really who he is. And it’s ugly as sin.
smintheus
Shorter Mittens: 47% of Americans are lazy and corrupt and I don’t want their support.
Comrade Jake
There are some hilarious fucking tweets over this one.
Redneck Jesus
Well, this is interesting. I can only assume they will tell him to just embrace it. Running away from it will only make the situation worse.
Anoniminous
The chances of a Dem re-take of the House just got a teenie bit higher.
gogol's wife
@Comrade Jake:
Can you quote any of them for us dinosaurs?
Villago Delenda Est
The parasites know the jig is just about up.
Chris
Keep Fuckin’ That Chicken
eric
whoa, when did 47% of the population become blah? we are all blahs now.
Anonymous
Honest question — when was the last time Romney won a news cycle?
Soonergrunt
This speech of his could have been written by my wife’s aunt.
Redshift
Yep. Look up “the two Santas” if you haven’t. It explains that from the beginning, the “starve the beast” strategy really wasn’t about small government and freedumb, it was about eliminating the ability of Democrats to “give stuff” to people to “buy” their votes. (And simultaneously allowing Republicans to get votes by giving people tax cuts.)
They really do see government that way. It’s not a covenant that we enter into to accomplish things that we cannot accomplish separately, it’s a giant scam where liberals take your money so they can buy votes from undeserving brown people to maintain their power.
Nylund
the whole 47% thing is annoying and not just because many of them still do pay other taxes, like payroll taxes or state and local income taxes, but because many of them are people who don’t pay taxes because they’re students, or retired, or make very little income. I’d even bet that some of those folks overlap with the types that show up at Tea Party rallies riding scooters that Medicaid paid for:
idiotsholdingsigns.com/img/govtoutofmedicare_3.jpg
It’d almost be funny if it wasn’t so sad to think that so many Americans are planning on voting for a party that thinks they don’t pay enough in taxes based on the premise that they’re “Taxed Enough Already.”
Jim, Foolish Literalist and Fact Checker
Huh. I’m gonna vote for this president no matter what. I pay for my own food. I do get a mortgage interest deduction. I pay income tax. Willard is ignoring me!
I saw the text of this a while ago, and I wasn’t sure if it would catch on, but the anger and contempt in his voice is something new, I think that even the likes of Gregory and Tapper are gonna have to acknowledge this.
tjmn
I am a Democrat, and ol’ Mitt hasn’t seen our last tax return. Our tax rate is higher than his. Just an ugly, ugly S.O.B.
Loneoak
Obama should be buying 4-minute ad block and just run this tape continuously.
Mad props to the person who recorded this.
JPL
If I were the Obama campaign, I would talk about this video and point out that Mitt wants to take away the child credit because that is what is preventing eighty percent of those from not paying federal income tax. Of course, the other twenty percent are just like Mitt.
Felinious Wench
@gogol’s wife:
Yes, that’s what’s so striking about it. He’s been trying to hide it thus far, though cracks have shown because he’s a terrible politician and a strikingly bad liar. But this video takes off his mask completely and it’s just as bad underneath as we’ve said.
eric
today i was listening to one of my favorite songs with one of my favorite lines and i thought of mitt: “it’s too late to lose the weight you used to need to throw around.”
gogol's wife
@Loneoak:
Maybe it was that kid who was on “Fox and Friends.” (Just kidding.)
Redshift
@eric: Nah, we’re all just The Help.
I suspect that since this audience of plutocrats seem to fully buy into the wingnut bubble’s “the way to win is to attack Obama viciously enough,” their logic starts with the “47% don’t pay taxes” lie and goes from there to assuming that of course they must all be welfare moochers.
quannlace
Mittens view of the office:
‘If I’m President, I get to choose which sections of the American people I’m beholden to. “President of All The People?” How utterly quaint!
hildebrand
Notice he is at ease whilst talking about ‘those’ people. He is never that comfortable when speaking, at least not to the general public – he is only truly comfortable when surrounded by ‘his’ people, the very wealthy, talking crap about the hoi polloi.
lamh35
I love the excuses. The context police are out full force on twitter. Wonder where they were during the “clinging to guns and religion” ’08 campaign. Obama was also at a fundraiser. Sure don’t remember seeing people suggesting hey, he was just talking to supporters or hey, it’s what the majority of Dem supoorters think anyway.
I think the excuses Romney-bots are coming up with are even more damning than what the original OG Romeny says.
BTW, I’m an Obama supporter and so are the majority of my friends and fam and guess what we ain’t depending on the guv’mt.
Redneck Jesus
Erick Ericky Erickson is quite pleased on Twitter. I imagine most cons are.
What’s funny here is that many, many, many Republicans belong to the 47 percent who pay no income taxes. Are they willing to point out that they, too, are moochin’?
Roger Moore
@tjmn:
He doesn’t want you to be able to see his last tax return, either. See, both sides do it!
TaMara (BHF)
I’m finally starting to see (a very few) Romney bumper stickers, but what has struck me is the other bumper stickers on the same cars. All I can think of is “Romeny/Ryan 2012 when all you’ve got is hate”.
JPL
The forty seven percent number is bogus because only eighty percent of that number earns below 32,000 and the child care credit erases federal taxes for that group.
22over7
I may have to pour myself a(nother) glass of wine, sit back, and enjoy. Those of you near the Boston metro area, be prepared for explosions.
Delicious.
trollhattan
This just shows Willard is more kampfterable around his peers. The rest of us make him nerrrrvous. Click. Whir.
H. Dumpty
I get the feeling that we’re soon going to learn which, if any, of our presidential candidates belong to that 47%.
Shawn in ShowMe
I stole Old Dirty Bastard’s identity and have been receiving his welfare check for eight years now.
H. Dumpty
I get the feeling that we’re soon going to learn which, if any, of our presidential candidates belong to that 47%.
tjmn
@Roger Moore:
I’m willing to go back ten years with tax returns if Mitt shows his.
Villago Delenda Est
@Roger Moore:
Smooooooooth!
quannlace
Hasn’t the campaign came out yet with ‘What Governor Romney MEANT to say….”
MattF
So, he has no idea how people actually live. Guess I knew that, but… yikes. Good thing he’s not actually doing what he said he would do– appeal to the center and all that. Just this country’s dumb luck.
JPL
Mitt wants to take away the credit for children. Say it loud and say it proud.
The Other Chuck
@eric: Aww yeah I love that one.
So have a good drown as you go down, all alone
Dragged down by the stone
rammalamadingdong
The Whitey Tape
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
This could have repercussions. Okay, I’m being overly optimistic, but still.
Jim, Foolish Literalist and Fact Checker
If I watch more than that one video, I may stroke out, but just reading the texts, there’s lots and lots of “context”. As cynical as I am wrt ‘swing voters’ and the media who pander to them, I think this, mother o’mercy, might be the end of Willard.
Teddy's Person
The most chilling part for me was when he derisively talked about how people think food is an entitlement.
Fuck you!! Every person on earth is entitled to food.
Just when you think this man couldn’t be more horrible, he speaks.
CaliCat
My Caddy needs new chrome…where’s my check?!
J
As commentators elsewhere have pointed out, Romney couldn’t be more wrong about where the Republican party gets its support from. The Republicans depend very heavily on people lower down in the income scale (as well as at the very top).
For my entire adult life, we’ve had to listen to the endless, self-pitying whining of America’s privileged, pampered, mollycoddled ruling class about how badly treated they are. During that time their taxes have been lowered, the regulations the complain about have been reduced, the government has found countless ways to direct money to them and what has the result been? Gratitude? Fewer complaints? A more temperate tone? An acknowledgement that after all they have been treated pretty well? On the contrary, the whining is louder than ever; the complaints more numerous and extreme than before. Perhaps it’s time to stop trying to placate these people. It will never work.
zizi2
The cynical side of me wants to think this is a tactical leak to get his dogwhistle out without doing so directly. Romney’s expectation is that Joe-the-Plumbers out there in the industrial Mid West will align with the 1% rather than see themselves in that 47%.
It is a truly venal comment but Santorum, Gingrich and others have made similar comments already in the primaries so Romney must figure he has nothing to lose, since he IS losing anyway. So might as well appeal to even more White resentment.
This is an extension of his false Welfare ads. This man is EVIL
ChrisNYC
In other words, and looking past the falsity, “Not MY fault or the GOP’s fault that I’m losing. I am clearly awesome. It’s that 49% of the people suck. Then there’s that 10% who vote on emotion. Those idiots. So we’re looking at 59% dirtbags, give or take. And, let me close with God bless these United States.”
What a total slimeball, this guy.
JPL
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): Nah.. There are some who will vote for Mitt because they want to block the OTHERS from voting.
dmsilev
@quannlace: They’re too busy sticking daggers in each other’s backs.
Felinious Wench
@TaMara (BHF):
The kids and I started counting them in Houston yesterday. I didn’t see even one, lots of Obama/Biden. It’s going to become my new game in traffic, keeping count of stickers on my iPad.
Seanly
Where do they get these numbers? So much of conservative economics seems to stem from stupid jokes or bar napkins.
My “independent” F-I-L likes taking about 10 guys walk into a bar and spend $1000. 5 get charged nothing, 4 pay 10 dollars and the last guy pays $960. Of course, he doesn’t understand that the 5 guys only have $2 each while the 4 have $50 and the last guy has $10,000,000.
And there’s about 100 other things wrong with Mitt’s comment. I could start my own blog with all the wrongheaded ideas in there.
This is yet another lodestone to hang around Mitt’s neck…
cathyx
He should have just said 99%, because that’s what he really thinks of the rest of us leaches.
gogol's wife
@Teddy’s Person:
The tone of his voice there is just unbelievable.
Obliterati
Christ, I hope whoever recorded this doesn’t get assasinated. This is going to make a lot of the Poor Impulse Control-types on the Right very mad.
Maude
“Boy, you’re gonna carry that weight a long time”.
eyelessgame
CHECK THE KERNING
JPL
@Seanly: Well someone needs to tell Mitt that twenty percent of the forty-seven percent are just like him.
(Actually they are across the spectrum but certainly not like the family of four who earns less than 32,000)
He has no clue.
dmsilev
@Teddy’s Person:
To be fair, all he requires is an hour or so a day attached to a power outlet and he probably believes that everyone else is the same way.
Cacti
Looks like Mitt was telling the truth afterall when he said “I’m not concerned about the very poor.”
And poor fella wishes he was Messican. Because being Messican has long been an advantage in Presidential politics.
He also fancies himself a self-made man because he “didn’t inherit anything.” Except for all of the educational, economic, social, and career advantages available to the son of Governor and auto industry executive. And that nest egg of stock options to pay his way through school. And that $40,000 his dad floated him to buy his first home outright. Other than that, he pulled himself up by the bootstraps.
J
Can’t remember to whom credit is due for this observation:
Funny that probably makes Mitt Rmoney an Obama supporter, as he v. likely hasn’t paid federal income taxes some years!! (and has certainly paid at a lower rate than middle income people.
Real American
Why not just embrace it? Romney should just go to campaign events and say point-blank that the poors are useless moochers and the rich are better than everyone else.
I mean, it’s clearly what he actually believes. What does he have to lose at this point?
Moochers/Looters 2012
gogol's wife
@eyelessgame:
LOL, but what’s beautiful about this is that it is so unmistakably, truly, authentically, indisputably HIM, HIM, HIM.
pete
“Ugly” is not the word. “Evil” would do for a start.
Aside from his difficulties with math (this is a numbers guy?) he is assuming that each voter votes for their individual short-term interest. Me, I make roughly median income, and I firmly believe that I should contribute part of that, via taxes, to assist those who are currently worse off, be they hungry, in need of education, sick or otherwise having a hard time. It doesn’t matter if I never need or receive the reciprocal benefit. We’re all in this together, and some of us are luckier than others.
“Evil” is too weak. Selfish, sanctimonious, nasty little prick.
Villago Delenda Est
@rammalamadingdong:
Aye. That it is.
eyelessgame
About that “not paying income tax”. Does anybody but me remember how both Dubya and Ronaldus Maximus would sell their windfall-for-wealthy tax cuts as being good for low-income people too specifically because of all the people who would see their tax rates drop all the way to zero? They bragged about it. And now the people whose tax rates Republicans lowered to zero – whom Republicans said needed that tax break – get called moochers by those same Republicans for not paying any federal income tax.
I suppose nobody cares but me. Republicans lie all the time about everything, so it’s hardly news. But it seems like a particularly shameless sort of dishonesty.
Leaving Texas
So are these 47% of people who don’t pay income taxes like the 2/3 of corporations that don’t pay income taxes? Last I heard the latter didn’t pay income taxes because they didn’t make a profit. But as an individual if I don’t make a profit, then Mitt thinks I should still pay income taxes. In fact, Mitt, I do pay income taxes and at a higher percentage than you, even though I have had to dip into my savings to make it through this recession. But hey, Mitt was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, so SYIGM, amirite?
Cargo
Every winger and glibertarian I know subscribes to this basic worldview, that they’re the only ones who work for a living, everyone else (especially the blahs) are moochers and looters. that nobody really DESERVES any of this government largesse, and they resent it being taken “at gunpoint” from their hard earned labor. Oh but they’re not bad people, “private charity” is a better way to deal with the basics and they’d happily give lots of money to charity if it wasn’t being taken already by tax thugs and used to pay for someone’s 24 inch spinning rims.
Mitt just said basic conservative dogma out loud, for once. I can’t imagine it’ll hurt his polling, the people voting for him already feel exactly this way.
Jim, Foolish Literalist and Fact Checker
Uh huh. Cranbrook, Harvard, son of a governor, the stock they ‘had’ to sell to pay for grad school, the religious draft deferments. He wasn’t handed a thing! Every kid born in a trailer in West Virginia or a project in Chicago has the same opportunity in this great land as J Willard Marriott’s godson!
Tweety is gonna stroke out over this. As Pierce says, Matthews lunch-bucket Son of Hibernia self-image hates Romney’s WASPy factory owner persona. Tweety may finally punch a guest is any of them try to defend him on this.
jgaugust
What’s amazing to me is that this story has been up now for about 2.5-3 hours and none of the major media outlets (outside of HuffPo and MJ) are reporting this.
Fucking asshats. DO YOUR DAMN JOB!!
Mino
The 47% would happily pay taxes if their wages were raised above poverty rates. How about a minimum wage of 10 bucks?
gogol's wife
@jgaugust:
They have to figure out what the narrative is. Takes a while.
H. Dumpty
soon we’ll find out how many of our presidential candidates are part of that 47%. tax return details before the first debate…?
trollhattan
@CaliCat:
Immediately envisioned a dude following you around carrying your golf clubs while draped in a chrome outfit. I think Willard could roll like that.
Villago Delenda Est
@Seanly:
It’s like when Bill Gates walks into a room with 99 people in it, and suddenly the average annual income of the room goes from $35k a year to $350k a year.
Math is hard, dammit!
jwb
@Felinious Wench: I live in a neighborhood that reliably votes 60% GOP and I have yet to see one Romney bumper sticker in the neighborhood. Admittedly, I haven’t seen many Obama bumper stickers either—although I have seen a few. (This was definitely not the case in 2008, where McCain stickers were everywhere, especially after Palin was announced as running mate.) Around town, which is fairly heavily Dem, I’m seeing Obama bumper stickers everywhere. So far only one Romney bumper sticker.
danimal
Wow. I’ve read the words, and my reaction was basically, “Meh.” But listening to the voice is an altogether different experience. You can hear the true passion and contempt; this is not the Romneybot you see on the tv commercials.
gogol's wife
Jim Messina (from Kos): “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. It’s hard to serve as president for all Americans when you’ve disdainfully written off half the nation.”
Alison
Sweet. Obama’s Twitter feed linked to it with a good quote from Messina
twitter.com/BarackObama/status/247821443537174529
“”It’s hard to serve as president… when you’ve disdainfully written off half the nation.”
Teddy's Person
@dmsilev: I didn’t think anyone could give me a giggle over this crap, but you did. Thanks!!
David in NY
@jgaugust: Some of the “major” media outlets (the big papers) turn up their noses at a story that someone else breaks, but report on the reaction to it a day later. Check out the Times on Wednesday.
CNN and the like ought to be catching it though, but maybe not if they can’t get the original tape (or something).
The Other Chuck
@jwb: I know a lot of wingnuts who are against Obama. Can’t think of a damn one who is actually _for_ Romney.
Bruce S
Day One of the campaign reboot! Great start. Can’t wait for Day Two!
One thing in his favor, I’m no longer going to make the charge that Willard has no core beliefs. He’s as Galtian as Ryan. Ayn Rand really did foreshadow these scumbags.
Jim, Foolish Literalist and Fact Checker
@jgaugust: Time has it up on their blog
Somebody posted a leak on this story here about a week ago, from d-Kos. So they should’ve known this was coming, and they didn’t.
arguingwithsignposts
Someone on facebook today posted a status with a degrading picture of Obama and “How many of you who earn a living are voting for this guy?” around it.
People are idiots.
Tom Q
I think Josh Marhsall — for once — is on the money: this is the rare caught-on-tape moment that’s even more devastating than a flip summary of it would indicate. The complete dismissal of nearly half the country, the dripping contempt…all mixed with pure innumeracy and ignorance… It may take a day or so for this to get the play it deserves in the national media — stories that disadvantage Republicans are always a bit slower to make their way to prominence. But it will be impossible to squelch; it’s too blatant, and fits too well with what a whole lot of folk already sense about Mitt.
SFAW
“We’re All Welfare Queens Now”?
Fuck that, I wanna be a strapping young buck.
Now, where’s my damn T-bone?
Alison
@gogol’s wife: Heh, semi-jinx :)
JPL
@Leaving Texas: nope.. from what I read the Bush increase of the child credit allowed those with a family of four earning less than 32000, not to pay federal taxes.. well duh..
Twenty percent is across the spectrum but mostly Mitt’s friends.
edit..mitt wants to take away the child credit
Villago Delenda Est
Should this tape take off (and it probably will) we are getting that much closer to the N word event horizon.
It’s about all OvenMitt has left.
CaliCat
@trollhattan: Yep, with his tax rate, Willard’s the real welfare queen.
cathyx
He sounds like such a religious man. A true believer.
Alison
@jgaugust: David Corn’s gonna be on Hardball, although unfortunately that’s a bit preaching-to-the-choir, of course.
ETA: Er, maybe that’s “was” on Hardball already? I’m on the west coast, I always forget when those shows are live…
Gary
What a pig. I would call Romney pond scum, but that would be unfair to something that plays a useful role in the ecosystem.
virginia
Devastating for him — Hurrah for that. Happy Trails, Mitt. Love the detail of the dude in the immediate foreground pouring ice cold water for all the fat cats sitting around the table. Disgustingly disgusting.
IowaOldLady
Mitt has incredible nerve to bring up income taxes.
gogol's wife
@Alison:
I’m not usually that fast, but this story has me steaming!
ChrisNYC
Come on Mitt! Do one of those press conferences and double down! Game changer!
Jim, Foolish Literalist and Fact Checker
@Alison: I dunno. I think Tweety, of all the MSNBC hosts, is the one who gets teh most attention from Villagers, except maybe Joe and Mika. Fercrissake.
JPL
@IowaOldLady: The President should open every rally with as far as we know, Mitt paid 14 percent what did you pay?
Dr. Loveless
Following as this does in the wake of The Great Smirk last week, am I naive to think this might actually get some play?
virginia
Totally dripping with “Let them eat cake!” — Or maybe not. Very very Marie Antoinette of him.
Mark
It would be poetic justice if it was the dining room help that recorded this.
Bruce S
Incidentally, Earth to Willard M. Romney, as a self-employed person I pay a higher percentage of my income in taxes to the federal government than Willard pays in total taxes BEFORE I even start paying my income tax. Willard pays virtually Zero payroll taxes as a percentage of his income – something well under 1%. The man knows nothing about paying taxes the way people who actually work for a living do. He is a worthless little shit.
Nutella
Romney’s a self-hating parasite, isn’t he?
‘Cause he doesn’t pay any damn income taxes either so he’s one of the 47%.
A quarter of the 47% are retired people. I hope Obama can come up with a dramatic way to make the point that Romney has said that he is completely unconcerned with any issue affecting retired people.
Redshift
@jwb: I was down in Lexington, VA for a wedding this weekend, and there weren’t a huge number of signs, but the ones we did see were about 50/50 between Obama and Romney. This, if you will recall, is the town where they had protests when they banned flying the Confederate flag on city-owned flagpoles, in 2011.
If Romney can’t get more public support than that even in Southwest Virginia, he really is toast.
Montysano
@eric:
One of the best lyrics ever written, from an album that is eerily prescient.
Alison
@Jim, Foolish Literalist and Fact Checker: That’s true. He’s much more one of them, which I guess can be a good thing sometimes :)
Keith
Worst…candidate…ever.
FlipYrWhig
@eyelessgame:
And, even more amazing, some of those people who pay zero net income tax will hear a statement about how people who pay zero net income tax are freeloading, mooching losers and nod knowingly, because they don’t realize that the statement _is about them_. “Hey, I pay taxes! Then when I get a refund it’s just me getting paid back what I put in.” SMH.
Ruckus
I am part of that 47%. I am getting government money, OK some of it is my money, SS. That aside it doesn’t excuse mittens. Most of my working life, 50+yrs, I paid a higher percentage than he does. I think I paid a higher percentage when I was in the service. I don’t have any money sitting offshore, or anywhere for that matter. I worry how much I can spend for food every month. I don’t have multiple houses and the two I have owned, asshat wouldn’t have on his property as the maids quarters. I don’t own a car elevator, or a house to install it in. My POS 14mpg truck wouldn’t fit anyway.
Fuck this superrich, pompous, greedy, entitled senile fuck of a human. And any of his superrich, pompous, greedy, entitled, senile asshole friends. I hope that we can not only defeat this cocksucker but all of his cocksucker friends in November.
The only thing is, none of this is new. None of this is stuff we didn’t know. Maybe this is conformation but none is new. He is a conservative. Therefore he is an asshole.
SFAW
@Bruce S:
No, he’s worse than Ryan.
Ryan, at least, has something “philosophical” which allegedly drives him. (Yeah, I know, “Atlas Shrugged” ain’t exactly “Critique of Pure Reason”, and Ryan ain’t exactly a rocket surgeon.) All Romney has is unfocused ambition, and hatred/disdain of/for the “lower class.”
In a just world, his father would appear at the first debate, and pull an il Commendatore on the Amoral Android (c) who happens to share his last name.
Redshift
@Nutella:
Nay, he and the Hoveround Rangers in the Tea Party know that they deserve to have zero income taxes, so they don’t count.
John 2.0
It looks like this was recorded by the bartender at the event. Payback for some of the insults directed to the ‘help’ at other fundraisers maybe?
It reminds me of the “Do Not Fuck With Us” scene from Fight Club. The people Mitt is insulting are the people he depends on. They cook his meals, they haul his trash, they connect his calls, they drive his ambulances. They guard him when he sleeps.
Richard
I guess Ryan isn’t the only Ayn Rand fan on the ticket, not that anyone should be surprised.
Poor Mitt. He should have gone Galt while he still had the chance.
Redshift
@Ruckus:
Sure, it’s just like Todd Akin — the uproar wasn’t because they don’t agree with him, it’s because he said it out loud.
Jim, Foolish Literalist and Fact Checker
Marc Ambinder, who I belive is a right leaning Villager?, struggles to decide whether to trust his lyin’ eyes, or the Spirit of the Great Broder
Marshall, Sullivan… everybody’s mentioning that ugly tone in his voice. I don’t think this is gonna be just a blip.
Mike G
@jwb:
I spent a couple weeks driving around the mountain west states (UT, ID, WY, MT – hard-core Repuke territory) and only saw two Rmoney yard signs and one bumper sticker the entire time. Even in Utah not much visible support.
Comrade Jake
I love it where Romney says that if he wins the market will go up, but if Obama wins he doesn’t know what the market will do, because the market is unpredictable.
MattF
It’s been frontpaged at the WaPo.
Paula
Clinging to health care and housing is a whole helluva lot smarter than clinging to guns and religion.
Montysano
@Mino:
This. Exactly this. This is what’s so painfully dumb about the 47% argument: we’ve created a world in which even college graduates are scrambling to find an $8.00/hour job.
Our son is 24, graduated from university with honors, and is doing fine. But when I look at many of his friends, is makes me feel like a real asshole when I see the shitshow that we’ve left them.
Redshift
I think it should also be noted that this is another round of evidence that there is no sober, serious conservative establishment any more, no matter how hard the pundits look for them. These are wealthy donors, Mitt’s kind of people, and they totally buy into the Palinista idea that the mistake in 2008 was not throwing every bizarre wingnut conspiracy theory at Obama.
They’re not smart people behind the scenes; they’re just as fully ensconced in the bubble as any Fox viewer. In the Reagan era there were people who knew a lot of it was a scam to get what they wanted. Now we have a generation who’ve grown up in the bubble, and nothing can convince them that the scam isn’t reality.
Crza
I wonder if the IRS will buy this if I amend my last few federal tax returns. “I support Obama which means I don’t pay taxes so GIMME MAH MONEY”.
Seriously, I have no words for how goddamn irritating it is to hear this ultra-entitled fuck, who pays less income tax as an overall % of his income than I do even though he makes more in a week then I do in a year, accuse me of not paying any income tax just because I’m voting for Obama. What the shit, guy? Just… what the shit?!
Romney’s taking clueless disconnected sociopathy to brave new levels.
Bruce S
@SFAW:
I have to say that it’s a blessing both of Mitt’s parents have passed, because they were decent people back when the GOP still had a rational wing of moderates committed to the public good. He has definitely brought shame to their name. His father was one of the politicians who tried to keep the GOP respectable and responsible. Stood up to his church elders when they wanted him to back off support for civil rights, stood up to the wingnuts when they tried to take over the GOP in ’64, was critical of the Vietnam war and was a fine governor who brought an income tax to MI to support public education.
Paula
That’s what bankrupting the vote and voter ID is about, it’s the only way the GOP can win.mThey want to take voting rights away from the poor, and the working poor.
The GOP hates non-rich because of their culture and religion (Rand).
Tokyokie
NBC had the story on the nightly news.
@Mark: Considering the camera placement, I think that’s exactly who recorded it.
Maude
@Ruckus:
I’ve been on the receiving end of this attitude a number of times. It’s no fun to stand there and be polite.
Romney is pond scum.
What a low life to believe that money makes the man.
He is beneath contempt.
GxB
It’s been my experience that wingers would not bat an eye at this speech. They’d just say “He’s just saying how things are. What? Don’t you like the truth?” Even to point out the implications of what he’s saying will be met with either “You’re putting words into his mouth” or a Cheney-esque “SO?”
We as a nation no longer experience reality in the same way; it all depends on ideology. Unfortunately, I suspect there will only be a resounding “Meh” from even many “Independents.” Why do I suspect things are going to get so much more worse so very soon?
RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist
@Mino:
Excellent point. Of course Mitt would never do a damn thing to raise those people’s incomes so they’re in a taxable bracket. What would be the point of wealth and privilege if there were fewer people to look down on?
Loneoak
@Bruce S:
It is very Randian in sentiment, but his remarks were much too brief to have been written by a paranoid benzedrine addict.
cathyx
Someone nearby has a Romney yard sign in their yard and I told my daughter what that sign really means is ‘I’m a really stupid person and I want everyone to know it.’
Loneoak
@Mark:
That was my thinking too. The help strikes back!
Teddy's Person
@Mike G:
I just moved to Provo recently, and I thought it would be all Rmoney, all the time. But no, an occasional bumper stickers on some old duffer’s Cadillac is all I see.
Liberty60
As an Obot, I have always been wary of getting overconfident.
But every day that Mitt steps on his own dick, makes me just a little more pleased and confident of victory.
celticdragonchick
@dmsilev:
I am not the first one here to suggest it, but somebody needs to give that sonavabitch a Voight-Kampff test.
Alison
@Ruckus: Yeah, I’m on SSDI for now and for the foreseeable future, and it really gets to me knowing what Romney and his horde of jackasses think of people like me – freeloader, moocher, whatever. Even though I paid taxes into this shit while I was able to work, and even though the reason I’m on assistance is due to severe chronic illness that I’m having a God damn nigh-impossible devil of a time getting the tiniest bit better from. I don’t like the way things are, I miss my old job, I wish I *could* work…but I can’t, and it’s hard enough being kind to myself about it without people like this rich ass motherfucker talking about me like I’m some fucking vermin.
Ack. Sorry. Ranty. Bleh.
Nutella
@John 2.0:
May I add: They record his speeches. And (I hope) they spit in his soup.
Comrade Jake
I wonder what Jennifer Rubin thinks about all of this.
Bruce S
It’s that socialist Reagan’s fault – he started handing out tax credits to the working poor.
patrick II
By moving the capital gains tax to zero, Mitt hopes to join the other Americans of whom he speaks so disparagingly. Being a leech on America is much less evil if you have a twenty million dollar income than if you take a few thousand dollars in child and medical deductions.
cathyx
@Nutella: And they secretly record what he says off the record.
Jim, Foolish Literalist and Fact Checker
@Bruce S: ever since I learned that Sam Earvin, who I had always heard was a hero of Watergate, was a vicious segregationist, I’m leery of getting misty over old timers, and I heard an interview with the Globe reporters who wrote The Real Romney suggesting that Mitt’s sense of entitlement was very much fueled by his parents (the whole Mormon Kennedys/White Horse thing), but I do like to the think that the Republican who marched with MLK Jr and the woman who ran for Senate as a pro-choice Republican would beat race-baiting, flip-flopping, pandering Willard black and blue
Felinious Wench
@Paula: FTW
Xecky Gilchrist
@Mike G: Even in Utah not much visible support.
I live in Salt Lake City and can corroborate this – though the Republicans have never been very demonstrative here. It’s sort of assumed everyone is voting Team Red. What’s unusual is that there are Obama signs (and were in 2008); visible support for Democrats was even rarer before.
Keith
The best part is that feeds further into the the narrative of Mitt – that he is intentionally secretive about his plans because his true beliefs are poison.
CNN had Reince Priebus on, and the guy look really pissed off (minus abrupt smiles). This is quite the epic bed-shitting.
Litlebritdifrnt
@Nutella:
And they piss in his cornflakes.
realbtl
The Romney campaign seems hell-bent on disproving the oft quoted “These rats aren’t going to fuck themselves.”
DonkeyKong
“Look, the people you are after are the people you depend on: we cook your meals, we haul your trash, we connect your calls, we drive your ambulances, we guard you while you sleep. Do not fuck with us.”-Tyler Durden
Anna in PDX
I am glad the mask is officially off. He really does think that half the country is beneath him. This on top of all the other condescending comments that Romney, staff and family have made over the last several months should be the nail in the coffin of the Republican 2012 campaign.
ranchandsyrup
Now is a good time to start a concrete to granite countertop upgrade business. Job creatin right there.
Comrade Jake
One of the better tweets I’ve seen: Romney determined to find room for one more nail in his coffin.
JPL
@Montysano: Twenty percent of the forty seven percent have a higher income.
Anna in PDX
@Comrade Jake: Great minds think alike!
Frankensteinbeck
I am angry. I am actually angry. I don’t get angry very often, but that video was infuriating. My contempt for Mitt Romney has become hate. I’m not even sure he believes the bullshit coming out of his mouth. What is undeniable is disdain in his voice. If you are not useful to Mitt Romney, he considers you garbage.
Roger Moore
@Leaving Texas:
Corporations are people, my friend!
Chris
@Cargo:
Few things piss me off like this piece of bullshit – it’s the transparent equivalent of the five year old whining at his mother that he totally WOULD pick up his room if she’d only get off his back. You believe that? Neither do they. Hell of a thing that people actually believe it coming from politicians.
22over7
Tweety starts off his show with this…
JPL
Eighty percent are supporting a family of four with less than 32000…. Take away the child credit and guess what they would pay taxes.
The other twenty percent are MITT
Geeno
@eric: Dogs – Pink Floyd. Saw that concert in Cleveland.
bemused
Chris Matthews is showing the video on Hardball. David Corn is on too.
Corner Store Operator
At least with the crazification factor we only write off 27% of the country. If every GOP candidate writes off 47% of the country its going to be tough to win.
Redshift
@DonkeyKong: And it’s the best stealth technology in the world, because they are the people who are completely invisible to Mitt and his ilk.
Trentrunner
Notice that also, for once, Mitt is talking clearly, succinctly, and without his usual hemming and fake-laughing.
This is Mitt Unplugged. This is Who He Is. Where He Lives.
We were right. We were fucking right about this consummate asshole.
Steeplejack
It never fails to slay me that these people think the fact that 47% pay no income tax means that they are moochers who have “no skin in the game,” rather than that they are criminally underpaid.
JPL
Andrea is like the announcers trying to defend the officials in the Eagles/Raven game.
GregB
Mitt is true to his word.
It was only a few months ago when he said he’s not concerned with the poor.
Another Mittigated disaster.
Calouste
@Jim, Foolish Literalist and Fact Checker:
It’s been around for quite a while, 2 months maybe. No one wanted to touch it because the source had things edited to protect theirselves. What made it go boom was that the source handed the unedited video to Mother Jones, they verified it and put a new edited version out that still protected the source.
Trentrunner
HIT HIM WITH THE CHAIR!!
Anna in PDX
I just saw it on facebook as well.
Ruckus
@Maude:
Pond scum? Compared to pond scum mittens is superfund toxic waste. Remember the river in OH that caught on fire? That was less toxic than mittens. You can drink pond scum. You might not like it and might get the trots(for a week or two!) but you should be able to drink it. Mittens? He is so toxic that if he gets elected with a rethug house/senate, we may never be able to clean it up. You thought the last loser was bad, you ain’t seen nothing yet. And I’ll be damned if I have to live and eat out of some rich fuckers dumpster.
Sly
It’s not only douchebaggy, it’s also factually inaccurate and politically stupid.
First, the 47% Myth was concocted by examining only single filers in 2009. Basically the only thing the number tells us is that a larger share of single-income filers, who are disproportionately young and female, are becoming zero-tax filers because their credits and deductions are outstripping their taxable income in a recessionary economy. Which should surprise… absolutely no one. The government affords people tremendous tax advantages if they have children because raising children is fucking expensive as it is.
Second, 30 percent of all people in the top two income identify as Democrats, and Republican identification across all quintiles has been dropping for years. You can blame Bush for that.
Third, as even then conservative Tax Foundation admits, you can also blame Bush for the largest increase in zero-tax filers in the past 30 years.
Anna in PDX
What gets me is how they accuse our side of class warfare. What the hell is this?
DonkeyKong
There is an idea of a Mitt Romney; some kind of abstraction. But there is no real me: only an entity, something illusory. And though I can hide my cold gaze, and you can shake my hand and feel flesh gripping yours and maybe you can even sense our lifestyles are probably comparable… I simply am not there.
SBJules
@tjmn:
Isn’t Mitt one of those who does not pay tax?
JPL
Throw momma from the train. Danny DeVito would be so proud..
The Other Chuck
@Anna in PDX: I think by now you know the answer: projection. Always always projection.
Trentrunner
@DonkeyKong: Whoever wrote that is a real writer. Yours?
Ruckus
@Alison:
Ack. Sorry. Ranty. Bleh.
Don’t be sorry. Don’t apologize. You are the one in the right. Mittens and his asshole friends are the scum. Do whatever you can to help defeat him and the sycophants that surround him and his vile ideas. And if all you can do is to vote, that’s OK.
bemused
It’s pretty galling to hear a guy who has paid a ridiculously small percentage in taxes to talk about others not fortunate enough to be in his shoes.
ksmiami
Hey Mitt – I double dog dare you to take food out of the mouths of impoverished kids, medicine from a poor ailing senior, or a wheel chair from a disabled person. YOU TOTAL PIECE OF CRAP. My hatred for this selfish, horrible, snotty man is boundless.
P.s. There are plenty of 1%ers in the Democratic party too, but we are not assholes like this entitled Cranbrook POS!
Ruckus
@Nutella:
May I add: They record his speeches. And (I hope) they spit in his soup.
May I suggest they use an orifice a little lower on the body for the soup spice.
Keith
I’m thinking about this more, and it just gets me happier and happier. First, starting tomorrow, the wagons circle, meaning Limbaugh et al start doubling down and saying REAL offensive stuff. Then Mitt will panic and decide to give a speech (or worse, a press conference), which will fail miserably, as all everyone will talk about why he’s giving the speech (unless he shits the bed again).
Chris
@Redshift:
This, many times over.
Never bought the idea that the party was made up of helpless, clueless rubes being manipulated by brilliant masterminds. The people at the top are just as bugfuck and deluded as the rest of them.
(And plenty of the base isn’t nearly that clueless, they know exactly what they’re supporting. They just don’t care).
burnspbesq
@Tom Q:
FWIW, Scott Galupo argrees with Marshall.
theamericanconservative.com/mitt-romney-just-another-crude-reverse-class-warrior/
JPL
So Mitt is not concerned about the child credit or the deduction for Social Security. What is he concerned about?
penpen
Again, where do the Republicans find these guys?
bemused
@Keith:
There’s a definite pattern here. Do Mormons believe in Karma?
Tuffy
A few points that always enrage me when this comes up.
47% is a cherry picked figure from the bottom of the economic crater in 2009. A fairer number is around 39%.
These millionaires are sucking Romney’s cock because he’s promising them to zero out the capital gains tax and the estate tax. That’s just noble Galtianism! But our hypothetical poor person voting D so their childrens’ $200/mo in food stamps isn’t ripped away is just a moocher getting bribed. Fucking sociopathic hypocrites.
ChrisNYC
I wouldn’t be surprised if they quarantined him now. Do the debates. Run ads. Other than that, just the phone call to Obama on election night and the goodbye speech.
Maude
@Ruckus:
I was being polite.
He is despicable and I wan to see him pay the consequences for this.
Maude
@Frankensteinbeck:
Mitt and the 1% do indeed believe this. It is at the core of their self images.
He has no soul.
Kathleen
@Jim, Foolish Literalist and Fact Checker: Diane Whorer featured the story on ABC tonight. She also made it a point to say they ABC would be doing its own investigation and fact checking.
MattF
Now frontpaged NYT. Mitt is officially deeply embedded in a very tight orifice.
SmallAxe
Wow that’s gonna leave a mark. Like others on this thread I’m voting for Obama so part of that 47% and pay taxes at a 28% rate so F U Mitt, what a douchebag.
SmallAxe
Wow that’s gonna leave a mark. Like others on this thread I’m voting for Obama so part of that 47% and pay taxes at a 28% rate so F U Mitt, what a douchebag.
MazeDancer
Isn’t this the same tape that ABL published here on Aug 24 but took down because, as all noted, then, it was unverified and unsourced?
Hope David Corn releasing means he got a genuine source. The NY Times has even run it. And there has been no Romney pushback of it’s not legit.
The 47% don’t pay taxes is probably what Mitt will stress. But the slaves are happy thing is so repulsive, no way to dodge that.
But, as many have noted, there are many, many, many people to whom Mitt’s comments are simply the way it is.
DonkeyKong
The film “American Psycho”and it’s quotable dialogue has been on my mind ever since the Bateman twins were nominated in Tampa.
My favorite quote would have to be Bateman talking about his favorite pop tune and why it resonates with him.
“It’s hard to choose a favorite among so many great tracks, but “The Greatest Love of All” is one of the best, most powerful songs ever written about self-preservation, dignity. Its universal message crosses all boundaries and instills one with the hope that it’s not too late to better ourselves. Since, Elizabeth, it’s impossible in this world we live in to empathize with others, we can always empathize with ourselves. It’s an important message, crucial really. And it’s beautifully stated on the album.”-Patrick Bateman
rikyrah
Cole,
you should post all the videos.
but, THIS IS WHO WILLARD IS.
Howard Beale IV
@Maude:
Fixed.
? Martin
This is the same video that ABL put up a few weeks/months ago that we couldn’t verify so she took it down, no?
If so, credit to her for both putting it up (she was right) and taking it down (but we didn’t know that she was right) originally.
The Dangerman
Someone said it above; this is dogwhistle stuff. I’m surprised he didn’t drop the N bomb a couple times.
His base just creamed their pants; of course, independents are running away from him as fast as they can, but his base is more and more energized to try to carry him over the line. Good luck with that tactic….
lahru
I would expect that the next photo I see of mitt is going to(please do not in the future capitalize the m. he does not drserve it) show his buttocks somewhere in close proximity to his shoulders.
BGinCHI
Mitt is literally a brown shirt wearing Hitler robot idiot.
ETA: Literally.
JPL
@? Martin: ABL’s was the chinese one. I think that has been verified now also, too.
Jim, Foolish Literalist and Fact Checker
@Kathleen:
Ah. In a perverse way, I’m looking forward to watching them stumble along the crooked path back to balance. Tweety was far calmer about this than I’d been expecting.
Did you see where Jimmy Carter’s grandson was Corn’s “assistant” on this? A little family karma?
Kathy in St. Louis
When I read this stuff, I am so amazed. I remember his father as being one of the few Republicans that I really thought had some guts and cared about people . He was against the war in Vietnam at some point, and said that he had been “brainwashed” by those who were for it. That cost him any chance of the nomination.
How he could have produced such a self important, narcissistic ahole as this guy with no veracity and a huge sense of entitlement, I’ll never know.
ChrisNYC
It does appear to be the same fundraiser where Romney talked about the Chinese factory.
Buzzfeed says this about authenticity: “Video researcher James Carter said he contacted the original uploader who gave the whole length of the fundraiser to David Corn of Mother Jones who has posted longer versions.”
Buzzfeed has the full collection of clips posted.
jayjaybear
@Bruce S:
George Romney was also probably the last Republican HUD secretary who actually did what a HUD secretary is supposed to do.
Trentrunner
@Kathleen: This is great, because when the big boys are going to “check the sources to be sure,” it means “This shit so crazy bad we want to be sure before we run it again AND AGAIN AND AGAIN.”
Christmas in September. Glad I was wrong (post #3 above) about the coverage.
Now: On to win the House and keep the Senate.
? Martin
Oh, and the delay between when it first surfaced and when it’s breaking across all of the legitimate media suggests this was probably coordinated. My guess is whoever was able to confirm it was told to hold back until now.
I eagerly await Mitt’s old tax returns getting leaked between October 12-15 depending on how Biden does in the VP debate and just prior to the 2nd presidential debate wrapping up domestic policy.
MazeDancer
@? Martin:
It’s the same vid. (I asked same thing) Includes Chinese slave stuff in the version being Tweeted like crazy everywhere.
Just now watching HardBall. Corn is on and says he has a source. Messina of Obama campaign has issued comment on the vid that Matthews read.
Plus Romney campaign has responded. They gave bunch of gibberish. But did not deny authenticity.
Don’t know why it’s taken three weeks, but at least it’s real.
piratedan
to quote someone from Milt’s own economic and class strata:
excellent
you can insert your own maniacal laughter or hands rubbing together as you see fit, or both if needs be. Those with Snidely Whiplash mustaches, may twirl their ends if you got ’em.
Simply put… we need to punish these fuckers, at the top of the ticket and at the bottom of the ticket. Mitt just exemplifies their party in all of its “natural” glory. make them own him. Then perhaps, we can get some shit done in this country for the rest of us.
Anna in PDX
I figured out my taxes from 2011 the other day. I paid a lower rate of Fed taxes than usual (somewhere around 20%) because of tuition tax credits for my son who is attending college. But if you count state and FICA my total taxes on my wages is about 25%. In past years when I was unemployed for a while, under Bush, I hardly paid any taxes at all, but still, even unemployed people desperately looking for work help the economy by buying groceries for their kids. He sounds like he really has no soul, no empathy at all for those who are less fortunate than him.
I would also like to know if this is the same tape that ABL put up a few weeks ago.
Trentrunner
This story is on network news AND on Reddit’s front page.
Over, folks. Unless, as they say, Obama is caught in bed with a live girl or dead boy. (Likelihood, 0%.)
I’m giddy.
Narcissus
Chuck Todd: “But guns and religion, amirite folks?
I’m Chuck Todd, and I suck dick for a living.”
No, wait. Todd isn’t noble enough to suck dick for a living. That takes talent and effort.
celticdragonchick
The Freepers are ecstatic over the remarks. Holy Mary Mother of God…they are fucking jizzing on their keyboards.
I really do wonder when our cold Civil War will go hot again. These people are fucking pathological.
Anna in PDX
@JPL: Oh gosh this is getting worse and worse. He really is not psychologically normal to think it is OK to say this in front of ANY audience.
max
This really is the worldview of our the Republican party.
Yep. That’s why he picked Ryan – the Beltway centrists loved him, the base loved Ryan because Fox and the centrists had been pimping him, but hey, he and Ryan are on the same page. And the R base also believe this is a winning philosophy because all *real* Americans love themselves some Ayn ‘Rhymes with Swine’ Rand. After all what redneck country boy could fail to love a crazed Russian psycho hose beast?
The fun part is, that given that I have paid my taxes (and have no complaints about this), and taken neither SSI nor TANF nor students loans nor any other kind of money from the government (because I think it should go to people who need it more than I do), I am pretty sure Mitt Romney has gotten more money from the government than I ever have.
Related note: I just got robopolled by the American Future Fund. It appears that they were trying to get genuine poll numbers, unlike that bogus poll thing where it calls and asks whether you like Obama or Romney and if you punch Obama it punts you off. (If you like Romney they try to sell you stuff.)
They wanted to know if I was going to vote for Obama (yes), if I was determined to vote (yes), if I was interested in the election (on a scale of 1-9, 9), what party was I member (independent is monster leaning Dem), if I thought Obama had helped or hurt the economy (1-5, 1 for helped), if I liked the health care bill (1-5, so 2 for somewhat), and then a bunch of demographic stuff (30-44; white because there’s not enough buttons to explain my demographic and I’m pale as death anyways; other because intellectual agnostic, emotional Universalist, Christian branch, and maybe I should’ve gone Protestant or none but screw the Baptists anyways; and on and on).
I am in a swing state, I am in area where I ‘should’ be more rural/exurban voter, I am more or less in the supposed working class white boy demographic base of the R party, I do see and detest all the commercials, but I gave the ‘wrong’ answers and they didn’t ask how much I hated Mitt Romney or the R party (a lot!). They didn’t ask about the deficit (curious). They did ask for any spoken comments, since I would said have something like ‘Romney can sit on this and twirl and also Obama is better ‘responsible adult’ than you clueless dumbfucks will ever be.’
So I suppose it’s for the best that they didn’t ask, but if they don’t ask, they can’t know, can they?
max
[‘If you should ever wonder how they got the intelligence wrong on Iraq, look at their polling and how they cook the results.’]
GregB
It seems like only yesterday when the tea-bag-wingnuts were tut-tutting about those terrible Occupy people dividing America.
sacman701
@eric: And a couple of lines before that: “And as you lose control, you’ll reap the harvest you have sown.”
Rekster
As Dandy Don used to sing: “Turn Out The Lights, The Parties Over…”
The Thin Black Duke
Huh.
That classic Klingon proverb was wrong.
Revenge is a dish best served fresh from the oven.
dmsilev
Headline on TPM right now: “Romney Camp Silent On Whether Bain Purchased Brutal Chinese Factory”
(link)
The phrase “throw him an anvil” comes to mind right now.
Chris
@MazeDancer:
What was the Chinese slave stuff? Afraid I don’t remember/must have missed that video.
Maude
@Howard Beale IV:
Why, thank you.
Jim, Foolish Literalist and Fact Checker
@Narcissus: They’re all bringing up guns and religion, and if I may say, if Obama was more than a little patronizing (and I say that in total agreement with him), there was nothing like the bitter resentment in Romney’s voice.
Jim Van de Hei (I hit pause to take a phone call, so I’m a little behind) is commenting as if he is completely unaware of and indifferent to this story, which I’m sure he is. Now Vande Hei is singing from the “Of course, Mitt Romney is really a moderate” hymn. One of the central tenets of Broderism: All Republicans are really Eisenhower moderates. What an asshole.
PsiFighter37
The comments are infuriating because it’s not true at all – I am probably pretty damn close to the 1% when you put my income and my fiancee’s together, and we are both voting for Obama. Neither of us have parents who are rich are have rich relatives who are going to give them a lot of money. I worked my freakin’ tail off my entire life to get to where I am, and I’m more than happy to pay my fair share (which should be HIGHER) so that others who went to public school like myself get the education they need to succeed.
But because I have a raging headache that will get worse if I stay mad, I just sure as hell hope this gets immense media play and that Romney tanks in polling. If it has no impact, then maybe the 47% number matches the number of pathological sociopaths in this country.
lahru
what is really sad is that mitt (notice I did not capitalixe the m, he does not deserve that) is one of may that are so removed from the “you people”, you know, the average American working from paycheck to paycheck that he cannot begin to understand how our daily lives go. And even more disturbing is, he will never know.
? Martin
Wait until the analysts break this down and remind everyone that most of that 47% are retirees that don’t pay income tax on their Social Security and IRA benefits. Oh, and big chunk of the US military. Deployed military don’t pay taxes, and a lot of the non-deployed enlisted simply don’t earn enough.
Those fucking moocher grunts in Afghanistan are destroying this country!
Ruckus
@Maude:
Yeah you may have noticed that I have given up polite. I’m like an AA convert. I want every one to give up polite. Look where it’s gotten us so far. And yes I want to be better. But being better than someone like mittens is so easy anyone can do it. It does not require politeness or anything like that. All you have to do is have a modicum of empathy. Not the amount Mother Teressa is supposed to have(and doesn’t), just more than mittens. That’s a quark sized amount or more, that’s all.
Brachiator
Romney must be forced or mocked or shamed into releasing his tax returns. They must be released before the first debates.
If this sumbitch wants to claim that the average American is a freeloader, let’s see exactly what he has paid, where his money is stashed, whether he has lied about his state of residence.
As far as I am concerned, he shut put it all out there or withdraw from the race. Now, I know this will never happen, but I don’t think he is fit to run for public office. And clearly, he does not see himself as running for the presidency of the United States, but as president of the Federation of Deserving Rich White People. This shit ain’t even Galtian. It’s reptilian.
Posting quickly on the run, and this sentiment may have been expressed in prior posts, but I wanted to get this out.
bemused
@Narcissus:
Andrea Mitchell said that too…arrgh.
Kathleen
@penpen: If you’re in the Rethuglican party, where can you NOT find these guys?
quannlace
Over at Daily Kos, I read the campaign’s non-response response to the video. At least they’re not trying to say the tape’s a fake, or expressing fauxtrage at it’s secret recording.
I think they’re literally (!) reeling from this.
Amir Khalid
Is it too late for the Republican party to call takey-backsies on this frighteningly stupid man’s nomination?
Ben Franklin
A meltdown in China. It’s not as bad as the Real Estate Bubble, but the fraud brings us closer to the brink.
reuters.com/article/2012/09/16/us-china-steel-warehouse-idUSBRE88F0EJ20120916
penpen
@Kathleen: The sentiment may be banal but the campaigning ineptitude is wonderfully novel.
LD50
I am SO SORRY I wasn’t there to see Romney’s face when his handlers told him this had leaked out.
dmsilev
@celticdragonchick: re the Freeper quote you found:
They’re *hoping* the ad blitz will start *in October*?
Do these folks, and I’m including the Romney campaign itself here, realize that the election is in early November and not in January? If not, nobody tell them.
Brachiator
By the fucking way, a married couple with 2 kids and income of $100,000 from capital gains or qualifying dividends would pay ZERO in federal income tax thanks to the Bush tax cuts.
So not only is Romney playing race and class warfare, he is a sack of shit who doesn’t even understand the tax code.
He would also like to extend the tax breaks on most unearned income that mainly benefits high income people.
Unbelievable.
Litlebritdifrnt
@bemused:
I just watched Andrea Mitchell on tweety’s show and I wanted to punch her in the face, the both sides do it bullshit is infuriating, what Obama said four years ago has no relevance to what Mitt Romney said this cycle about people who simply do not earn enough money to pay “income taxes”. In fact Romney doesn’t pay income taxes, he pays capital gains, so Romney is part of the 47%, the mother fucker.
Maude
The banksters love Mitt.
He has a golden shovel and just keeps on digging.
He may get to China at the rate he’s going.
rdldot
@Jim, Foolish Literalist and Fact Checker: The first part of the hour was live, but the rest is a repeat of the 5pm broadcast. Usually they just rebroadcast the 5pm hour at 7pm. That they updated it at all is a big, big deal.
Ruckus
@PsiFighter37:
You type better sober.
Maybe not as much fun to read though.
McCohen
Long time BJ reader (and admirer) here. Just had to post because this enrages me so much. I am 53 years old and have worked since I was 13. I have always had to pay taxes. Well, maybe some of that babysitting $$ didn’t get reported and maybe some of my student income back in the ’70s didn’t reach the taxable level. Since then, however, I have always paid income tax, until last year. Know why I didnt owe tax last year? I paid out-of-pocket for $150,000 of mental health treatment for my daughter and was thankfully at least able to take a tax deduction for the expense. After extensive appeals, and being unable to afford a lawyer, I gave up on recovering money from the insurance company. So here I am having blown through a giant chunk of my retirement money with R & R wanting to screw me out of Medicare, too. How dare that entitled SOB call me a moocher?
PsiFighter37
@Litlebritdifrnt: At least at the beginning, they pretty much walked all over Mrs. Greenspan. And even she caveated her weak-ass “both sides do it” with a ‘benign’ interpretation of what R-Money might have been trying to say. Deep down, she knows Mittens screwed up, and bad.
@Ruckus: I drank way, way too much on Saturday – was hung over all of yesterday and a good portion of today…so I think I need to dial it back a tad. Just a tad, and just for a few days!
Richard
Romney has essentially declared war on 47% of the population. That’s pretty good motivation for those folks to get out and vote. Bury the fucking plutocrat.
MazeDancer
@Chris:
So sorry, I’m on iPad and can’t link. But if you go to Twitter – or possibly Google – and search “Mitt Video Chinese” you’ll see YouTube links to those parts of the video.
Maude
@Litlebritdifrnt:
No, both sides don’t do it. Mitt was also saying that Barack Obama is part of the 47%.
He allows those no goods to freeload off the system because…
mcd410x
This is excellent news for John McCain.
celticdragonchick
@dmsilev:
I have a cunning plan, milord!
Jim, Foolish Literalist and Fact Checker
@LD50: I am SO SORRY I wasn’t there to see Romney’s face
Charlie Pierce suggests you wouldn’t have seen much
Read more: esquire.com/blogs/politics/#ixzz26m5UdibF
@rdldot: that’s interesting, but I stand by my Vande Hei is a fuckwit remarks, or whatever I said, I stand by it!
JPL
Someone needs to tell the public who the forty seven percent are.
Family of four under 32000 who would pay taxes except for child credit
Grandma
MITT
bemused
@Litlebritdifrnt:
Yes, let’s identify the real moochers but msm really doesn’t want to go there.
quannlace
Ms. Mitchell, would you like some mustard on your bologna?
SmallAxe
@max:
Funny, I’m in VA and just got that same America Future Fund poll.
lamh35
Romney campaign response, not claiming the video is a fake, but this:
David in NY
@? Martin:
Actually, retirees have to pay taxes on IRA withdrawals — they earned money tax-free, but after age 70 you have to withdraw and pay taxes on it. It’s mostly the poor who live on SS alone, or mostly alone, who pay no taxes.
Unless you’re romney-rich, of course, in which case, you can probably create trusts to avoid estate taxes, so that your kids and their kids, etc., get it all, essentially tax free.
SiubhanDuinne
@Nutella:
FTFY
Sly
@? Martin:
Actually, zero-tax filers are disproportionately single, female, young, and raising children. Not simply because of the pay gap, but also because the Federal government gives many tax benefits for raising children, mostly because raising children isn’t cheap and child poverty leads to all sorts of more expensive problems for the government later on. As a group, they have less income and take more credits and deductions.
So when you cherry pick single filers during the height of a recession, which is how you get that 47%, you see an uptick in the number of people who are zero-tax filers. Which you would see anyway, because taxes have been lowered since the recession began and aggregate income is down. But you would see something closer to 33% if you used a more representative sample of the income tax base.
Michael2
8pm EDT I see it on the front page of the BBC and ABC. The write-up on ABC (video links) seems pretty torn between flat out calling Romney a douchebag and still being a reporter.
It’s so telling that the only people who have been “governed” by him freaking _despise_ him. He’ll get creamed in the Commonwealth, God Save It!
ChrisNYC
“For the past three years, all anyone has been told is ‘Don’t worry. We’ll take care of you.'” That should be the ad.
Tonal Crow
Well GOP you Mr. Romney, you piece of toxic GOP.
I’m proudly supporting Barack Obama, and I pay income taxes.
Take that and shove it where the sun don’t shine.
The Other Chuck
Really? Mine creates 17 billion. Shit, if you’re gonna make up numbers, why bother with reality anyway?
Litlebritdifrnt
Ed Schultz is on fire with this video. He is tearing up the tv.
lamh35
“RNC Chairman Reince Priebus Says Romney Was “On Message” Regarding 47% Comment
The Republican leader doubled down on Mitt Romney’s statements that were secretly recorded during a private event.”
buzzfeed.com/dorsey/rnc-chairman-reince-priebus-says-romney-was-on-me
Ruckus
@lamh35:
Do we have to move to China and live in barracks to get one of those jobs that don’t pay enough to eat, let alone enough to pay taxes?
Maude
@SiubhanDuinne:
The new campaign song:
We ain’t gotta barrel of money,
We may be ragged and funny, but we’ll travel along,
Singing a song,
Side by side.
The Dangerman
@celticdragonchick:
I hope it’s a great speech; I want to hear Romney give high praise to a cunning linguist.
dmsilev
@lamh35: That’s pretty damn weak. They’ve got nothing, and are stalling for time until someone can figure out a vaguely plausible line of bullshit to send out to the press.
lamh35
“Conservatives Embrace Romney’s 47% Remarks
The right thrills to an alleged gaffe. “It only serves to excite the conservative base,” says Raccio.”
buzzfeed.com/rosiegray/conservatives-embrace-romneys-47-remarks
Richard
It does this by eliminating 4 million government jobs by the end of 2014 (if he follows the Ryan budget) and by planting some magic beans.
jgaugust
@lamh35: How could they claim it was fake? It was his voice, talking about politics, and there’s a physical video of him standing there?
That is also one of the absolute weakest responses to something like this I’ve ever seen. I wonder how many people on his staff are seriously questioning leaving at this point because I guarantee that many of those volunteers fall into the category he attacked.
seaboogie
This plus Santorum’s “smart people aren’t going to vote for us” at the Values Voters Summit pretty much lays out where the Republicans are today: Greedy billionaires and idiots. To them I’d say “check your bank balance, and you’ll know which one you are”. Oops – forgot the porn star category, they must be so proud of Jenna Jameson and her “If you’re rich, vote Republican!”
gelfling545
@LD50: He may not have realized that it might be a problem.
JPL
@SiubhanDuinne: The person who cleaned my septic today talked about the others after mentioning the illegals. Yes, I knew to shut my mouth…
Michael2
@celticdragonchick: Wow.
A. Thanks for reading and importing those, so we don’t have to. Truly frightening shit.
B. If the election gets too hopeless for the Teatards, I do worry about what the more . . . shall we say ‘energetic’ amongst them might do. I wonder if anyone would actually, seriously talk about withdraw. (Not the fun kind.)
Jim, Foolish Literalist and Fact Checker
Tie a couple of these quotes to “Corporations ARE people, my friend”, “you let the foreclosure process run its course” and end it with “I’m unemployed myself! Ha ha!” Tagg and the other Mittlets are gonna have to move back to Orem to perpetuate the Mormon Kennedy delusion.
Narcissus
RNC chair Reese’s Pieces
GxB
@celticdragonchick: <a href="@GxB: “>What did I say? You should get a medal (and complimentary tomato sauce bath) for wading into that stank.
ETA: dicked up the ref – meh, word you fuck press…
Joel
@Ruckus: Someone else cited Ol’ Dirty Bastard upthread, so I’ll go ahead and cite RZA:
“Bring da motherfuckin ruckus”
celticdragonchick
@GxB:
Thanks. I needed a brain bleach after looking at the freeper thread.
raven
As Romney continues to step on his dick and the polls show Obama in the lead I am soooooo worried about what might happen. I mean the right wingers are soooo scary.
Paul
You are still going to have an amazing number of people that will vote for Romney, eventhough they are part of the 47%. How about older white folks that depend on Social Security and Medicare? They are part of the derogatory 47%. However, these folks are not smart enough to realize it.
Speaking of the bigger picture and depending on the government; how about the defense industry lobby?
Richard
@lamh35:
Somehow, I think that exciting the moronic 27% while convincing the other 73% that you’re a slimy plutocratic fuck who should be stopped at all costs isn’t going to help the GOPers too much.
Roger Moore
@The Thin Black Duke:
Can we add “Revenge is a dish best served with pie!” to the pie filter?
drew42
@lamh35: Yeah, yeah – we all know the drill.
We’re currently in Phase 1 of the freak-out: Loudly scream that what Romney said wasn’t stupid, and was in fact super awesome in every way, while not actually reading/listening to what he said.
Phase 2: As the implications of what Romney said sink in (in essence, “Dammit Grandma, it’s about time you took personal responsibility and care for your life! You’re 92 – it’s about time you grew the hell up!”) start loudly screaming that his words were taken out of context, liberal media, etc.
Phase 3: Lock the doors and cry.
Phase 4: “But Obama said, ‘You didn’t build that!'”
AA+ Bonds
Motherfuckin WHOOPS
Maude
@raven:
To step on his dick, he must be double jointed.
MikeBoyScout
Game. Set. Match.
On to the Senate and the House! Victory!
JPL
@raven: does he have a dick to step on?
sydney
Thank you David Corn!
And the Buffet table worker who taped Mr. Galt.
AA+ Bonds
@lamh35:
This is why they are going to lose, because while Romney’s campaign was trying to do damage control on the morning after the crazy Clint Eastwood debacle, the message coming out of the rest of the Republicans was, “OH NO YOU SEE IT WAS ACTUALLY A HUGE VICTORY FOR US, WE TOTALLY FEEL REPRESENTED BY THAT CRAZY GUY’S SPEECH TO AN INANIMATE OBJECT” and Romney ended up looking like a weakling
No doubt that “I, too, yell at chairs” feeling is genuine, but there is so much contempt for Romney among the base that his campaign’s control over the narrative is pretty much nil – Republican opinion-makers will go on offense all by themselves against Obama but feel absolutely no obligation to contribute to his campaign’s defense strategy
bemused
I’m curious about the person who shot this video. I don’t remember any leaks from George Bush fundraisers. Bush did make that “haves and have-mores being his base” remark but I don’t remember if that was a private fundraiser or not.
I wonder if the person who took this vid got into this fundraiser was a liberal or conservative who hates Mitt.
I read that the number of people who truly refuse to work and clearly deadbeats amount to about 2 or 3% of the population. Republicans really believe that every other person they pass on the street is out to rob their hard earned cash.
smintheus
Odd that the Republicans didn’t blame Bush for creating a culture of dependency. In 2008 the number of households that owed no federal income taxes had shot up to 50.8 percent. Obama has brought that back down. The number of taxpayers in 2008 had sunk to 77 million. In 2011 that was back up to 88 million.
But it’s Obama who seeking to create a culture of dependency.
jwb
@Amir Khalid: And replace Mittwit with whom exactly? The stupid, it goes all the way down.
Dexter's new approach
Actually, retirees have to pay taxes on IRA withdrawals—they earned money tax-free, but after age 70 you have to withdraw and pay taxes on it. It’s mostly the poor who live on SS alone, or mostly alone, who pay no taxes.
@David in NY:
FTR, Roth IRA distributions are not taxed (contributions are after tax)
xian
@Redneck Jesus: like santorum’s elite/smart line, this one is a double-ended dogwhistle, so the wingnut media will happily reinforce this frame. (yay)
AA+ Bonds
As others have noted, it’s pretty LOL that Romney gets stuck with the Erick Erickson 47%-vs.-53% talking point on the same day Erickson sticks a knife in the side of the Romney campaign
smintheus
@bemused: It looks like the video may have been shot by one of the servers. There are several empty glasses standing just in front of the lens.
AA+ Bonds
@bemused:
People are just getting better at trolling, it’s a troll’s world now
Witness: absolutely everyone involved with this Islam movie thing, both in making it and in drumming up the response to it
scav
Honey you should see me in a crown.
(grin)
John O
Couldn’t help myself: Posted this one on FB, and I sincerely try to avoid politics on FB. Nice post.
MikeBoyScout
@299 smintheus: One just CANNOT find good help these days!
I’ve no idea what we are going to do once those Latino people start to self deport. Is it right to call those people Latino? I never know whether to say Latino or Hispanic. The good thing is I don’t think they understand English so I guess it doesn’t really matter.
[edit: /snark!!]
The Thin Black Duke
So, how’s that UNLIMITED CORPORATE CASH workin’ out for ya?
AA+ Bonds
@lamh35:
They are going to stick with him until the Electoral College results, and then between this and the Libya statement, he’s getting Michael-Steele’d
xian
@Jim, Foolish Literalist and Fact Checker: 40 states! mitt get’s 27% let’s take montana, missouri, georgia. what’s next?
jwb
@AA+ Bonds: Scapegoats gotta be scaped and you don’t think Mittwit’s gonna take the fall when he can shove it off onto someone else, do you? In any case, whereas Michael Steele was actually occasionally amusing, Reince Priebus has no redeeming qualities whatsoever. I will rather enjoy watching him be torn apart by the wingnuts.
JayJohnstone
I think the most damning quote is Mitt thinking the economy will get better just because he is President.
And that is pretty much his whole plan.
AA+ Bonds
The other upshot here for the Obama campaign is that it’s all in Romney’s own voice with video to boot, so it’s going to be playing in the back of the heads of the sort of people who watch debates on TV
Roger Moore
@JayJohnstone:
It will, because him being president will mean that the Republicans in Congress will stop trying to sabotage the economy at every turn, and the Democrats won’t put their heart into it because they actually give a damn about how the
47%99% live. It’s all part of the Republican hostage taking strategy.bemused
@smintheus:
I missed that. That took a bit of courage.
@AA+ Bonds
Republican voters fall for the trolling 99% of the time.
jgaugust
Anyone here think it would be a really cool idea for the Obama campaign to take the video, put it all together in order, take out a massive ad buy on the majors for about 10-15 minutes (kind of like the 30-minute video in 2008) and just play this thing? I want this to happen. I want to spike this motherfucking football so damn hard.
jrg
So, if you give rich people tax breaks, that makes them work harder. If you give poor people tax breaks, it makes them a bunch of lazy bums… So much fail.
Joel
@jwb: Preince Reebus is toast after this year. He’s the RNC Baghdad Bob.
celticdragonchick
Mark Halperin
✔
@MarkHalperin
Uh oh. The rats are leaving the ship.
The Other Chuck
Have you noticed how the Republicans are running on a platform of raising taxes?
Brachiator
@David in NY:
You can take distributions from a regular IRA without penalty when you reach age 59 1/2. And yes, you pay taxes on the income. There is a required minimum distribution after age 70 1/2 or you will be hit with a different penalty as well as liability for income taxes.
And yeah, Roth IRAs are a different animal.
Now, I not only want to see more of Mitten’s tax returns, I want to see his kids’ tax returns as well.
The Other Chuck
It’s now on CNN’s front page.
Mr Stagger Lee
I like how the freepers think all they need to do, win that MegaMillions or the Powerball, and SHAZZAAMMM!!!! They will be discussing installation techniques of car elevators with Mittens while discussing polo with David Koch.And BBQ with Rush.
Dexter's new approach
I wonder how many (or %) of the enlisted armed forces don’t pay income tax. They make shit.
Strontium 90
It’s as if a gift from heaven fell in Mitt Romney’s lap. As this video plays out on cable news over the next few days and weeks (and it will last multiple news cycles I think) Romney will have no choice but to double down on those themes. Barack Obama’s campaign is at its strongest with class warfare. But almost nobody in the middle class thinks they are in that 47% (though they are). If he comes out and owns these assertions (and he’ll have to or he’ll look sneaky) – he will finally present a counter to Obama’s class warfare attack.
Exciting!
GR
I am actually not thrilled with the release of this video. I’ve been pretty convinced for awhile that Romney has no chance at winning the election, but the longer he stays close, the more $$ will ultimately be wasted on his campaign. This video should pretty much stick a fork in him, meaning plenty of lead time for the GOP and supportive PACs to redirect their funds to congressional, gubernatorial, and local elections.
In this vein, I’m seriously thinking that the video was released by a GOP partisan who’s reached the same conclusion re: Romney is hopeless and who is trying to speed Romney’s demise for the good of the party.
xian
gingerballs to the rescue:
? Martin
@David in NY:
Roth IRA. Further, from 2008-2012 if you are in the 15% or 10% tax brackets, you pay $0 on long term capital gains (within other boundaries). Unaware of that, I discovered last year after cashing in $30K worth of stock that my cap gains tax liability was $0. I paid 0.4% in taxes on nearly $100K in income. Had I been aware (and cared about) reducing my liability, I’m pretty sure I could have gotten rid of those remaining $300 or so in federal income taxes without much effort – $300 tax credits are a dime a dozen. Hell, a big chunk of the $30K went to replacing the windows in my house which netted us a nice tax credit, so technically I made even MORE money on that sale. It’s absurd.
No, getting into Mitt’s 47% isn’t that hard.
Also, high school and college students often file and pay no taxes because their income is too low (they just pay payroll). Moochers! Looters!
Villago Delenda Est
@Strontium 90:
The stupid. It burns.
Bago
The most amazing part? The bartender or barback who took this video still probably paid more as a % of taxes than Romney.
The grin on that face is probably viewable from orbit.
hep kitty
And every day, I try to tell myself I am not crazy, I am not hallucinating.
But it’s not just Romney, it’s the r’s, I can’t even say republicans. I don’t know what they are. pod people.
J.D. Rhoades
Remember, a conservative is someone who claims to love his country while loathing and fearing at least half of the people in it.
LD50
@xian: It’s pretty grim when they feel like a defense consisting of “don’t worry, he was just lying!” is their best option.
hep kitty
Fuck, what is in our flouriiiide!
hep kitty
But, in all honesty, they haven’t been trying to hide it at all. Just the big pink ribbon on the package.
WaterGirl
@danimal:
And that is going to be his downfall. Because it should now be perfectly obvious to everyone who hears the recordings that Mitt has been trying to hide who he is and what he believes. Nobody likes someone who plays them for a fool.
BenA
@xian:
I fucking hate Chuck Todd. He said IT. If he didn’t “believe” it he shouldn’t have SAID IT!
Ruckus
Some people have been talking about what to call mittens. There are a number of derogatory things like what I have been using, mittens. That’s always with a small m because he deserves no respect, in fact he deserves only scorn.
In that light I will be using mittshit from now on. Feel free to suggest others and/or to use mittshit freely.
jshooper
i never realized how fucking evil and disgusting romney was…i knew he couldn’t give a shit about us regular folk…but i just got through watching one of the clips in which he says he didn’t even want to leave any money for his grandkids….WTF…he’s such an asshole that he literally believes ” i got mine and fuck EVERYONE else”…even my own family…a man born into wealth who doesn’t even want to pass it on…unbelievable
Pseudonym
Warning, TMI:
I’ve been incredibly fortunate enough to have the somewhat recent privilege and honor of making a seven-figure contribution to the federal treasury. I believe I paid over twice Romney’s rate, and that was the average rate, not the marginal. That was a one-time situation but I haven’t forgotten how fortunate I was and have been to have had that kind of opportunity and how important it is that everyone else have those kinds of opportunities too. I also managed to graduate college and grad school with no student debt thanks to growing up in an upper-middle-class household that cared a lot about education, yet I still manage to think that everyone deserves a good education and the ability to start a career without a huge looming overhang of debt.
Wasn’t this what the American Dream has been all about? Taking advantages of the opportunities offered to everyone, not being bound by the socio-economic status of your birth but succeeding and having the resources and being able to push yourself to the outer limits of your potential? How much opportunity are we wasting with people who could do even greater things except they don’t have the chance or the credit or the language skills or the right timing to pick the right college education? People aren’t commodities.