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You are here: Home / Elections / Election 2012 / Don’t put your heart on your sleeve when your remarks are off the cuff

Don’t put your heart on your sleeve when your remarks are off the cuff

by DougJ|  September 18, 20129:51 am| 93 Comments

This post is in: Election 2012

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Kay hit on one of the reasons that Romney’s remarks are so damning: that they took place at the home of a playboy vulture capitalist who has helped destroy the American middle-class. Jon Chait hits on another, that unlike Obama’s infamous “bitterly clinging” remarks, Romney’s were born of contempt, not empathy:

Obama was aspiring to become president of all of America, even that part most hostile to him, in the belief that what they shared mattered more than what divided them. Romney genuinely seems to conceive of the lowest-earning half of the population as implacably hostile parasites.

The revelations in this video come to me as a genuine shock. I have never hated Romney. I presumed his ideological makeover since he set out to run for president was largely phony, even if he was now committed to carry through with it, and to whatever extent he’d come to believe his own lines, he was oblivious or naïve about the damage he would inflict upon the poor, sick, and vulnerable. It seems unavoidable now to conclude that Romney’s embrace of Paul Ryanism is born of actual contempt for the looters and moochers, a class war on behalf of his own class.

Romney protests that his comments were “off the cuff”, but that 47% figure didn’t come off the top of his head. The “lucky ducky” mythology runs deep among the Galtian overlords.

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Reader Interactions

93Comments

  1. 1.

    eric

    September 18, 2012 at 9:51 am

    won’t someone think of the chicken!?!?

  2. 2.

    Xecky Gilchrist

    September 18, 2012 at 9:54 am

    It seems unavoidable now to conclude that Romney’s embrace of Paul Ryanism is born of actual contempt for the looters and moochers, a class war on behalf of his own class.

    Good, but needs to take the next step: “embrace of Paul Ryanism” implies he wasn’t like that before he met Paul Ryan. I’m going to guess he’s been like that his whole life.

  3. 3.

    dmsilev

    September 18, 2012 at 9:56 am

    Prediction: When Romney loses, the right-wing bloggers and pundits will start to claim that he would have won had he only started talking like this in public earlier.

  4. 4.

    Dennis SGMM

    September 18, 2012 at 9:58 am

    Romney took only three questions at the presser, and dismissed the remarks as “off the cuff”…

    Um, Mitt, presidents don’t get backsies anymore.

  5. 5.

    Someguy

    September 18, 2012 at 10:00 am

    Mitt’s right that it’s a problem that 47% of people pay no income tax. The number should be closer to 50%, the bottom half shouldn’t be forced to pick up the tab for a government that primarily benefits the very wealthy.

    The other part of the problem is that if you’re in the top 50%, you should be paying more, commensurate with how much you earn. The top half in this country pays way too little, particularly if you compare the U.S. to Western European countries. It’s pretty clear that there are a lot of shirkers, especially among those in the top 25% of earners, who pay far less than is their duty.

    As usual, half-assed answers from the Republicans.

  6. 6.

    Elizabelle

    September 18, 2012 at 10:00 am

    To this day, I don’t see what’s so terrible about Obama’s “bitterly clinging to their guns and religion” comment.

    It’s true, and borne out again and again.

    Heilman (?) on early segment of today’s Morning Joe trotted the Obama comment out, but immediately added that Obama always reached out to everyone, even Americans who he knew would never support him.

    He added that Obama lost Pennsylvania in the primaries, leaving the impression it was the “guns and religion” comment.

    However, one must remember that Hillary went hard for the “would never vote for Obama” white vote.

  7. 7.

    eric

    September 18, 2012 at 10:01 am

    @dmsilev: just how bad of a candidate must you be when swing states have enacted laws to disenfranchise people that would most likely vote for your opponent, unemployment is over 8%, your opponent is a blah with a middle name of Hussein, and you have $1 billion at your disposal if you need it. Imagine a world where the Washington Generals beat the Globetrotters by 30. Obama should be scratching his way to having a chance for reelection, but Mitt just loves that chicken. There is no “epic fail” greater than what we are no witnessing. Mitt is gonna set the record for most own-goals in a presidential campaign and he is gonna do it in one week. Couldn’t happen to a “nicer” guy.

  8. 8.

    schrodinger's cat

    September 18, 2012 at 10:02 am

    BTW I just glanced at the NYT coverage of this story and most of the comments there are in support of Romney. I wonder why?
    Has some one done a breakup of those who do not pay any income taxes and their party affiliation? Are all the rural white voters in the Appalachia and else where, i.e. how many of Palin’s “real Americans” for example going to vote for Obama.
    Most long term visa holders in the US pay income taxes (grad students, H1-b holders etc)in addition to the the permanent residents, so by Mitt’s logic should they be allowed to vote because they pay taxes?

    By Mitt’s logic gaming your taxes and paying as little as possible, by using tax shelters etc is OK but student loans not OK. Quite a princeling the Mittster is.

  9. 9.

    Cassidy

    September 18, 2012 at 10:02 am

    @Elizabelle:

    However, one must remember that Hillary went hard for the “would never vote for Obama” white vote.

    SHHHHHHHH! Not so loud. I am so not in the mood for firebaggers this morning.

  10. 10.

    joes527

    September 18, 2012 at 10:04 am

    Romney protests that his comments were “off the cuff”, but that 47% figure didn’t come off the top of his head.

    One bit of comedy gold in the tape is that he starts to say 47%-49% … realizes that if he says out loud that he has no chance with 49% of the electorate that he is admitting that there is literally no chance for him to win … and backs it back down to 47%.

  11. 11.

    giltay

    September 18, 2012 at 10:05 am

    Barbara Frum’s son has a run-down on rebuttals to Romney’s remarks including Ezra Klein noting that most of the 47% pay a higher tax rate than Mitt.

    (Edited: I accidentally attributed the tax rate thing to Frum.)

  12. 12.

    Dennis SGMM

    September 18, 2012 at 10:06 am

    @Elizabelle:
    Pic of Hillry speechifyin’ from the bed of pickup.

    Every picture tells a story – don’t it?

  13. 13.

    catclub

    September 18, 2012 at 10:07 am

    “Obama was aspiring to become president of all of America,”

    This is where the overlong attempt at bipartisanship, and reaching out to treat the GOP as equal partners, bears fruit.

  14. 14.

    Villago Delenda Est

    September 18, 2012 at 10:07 am

    @Xecky Gilchrist:

    Agreed. He’s been like that forever, much like the deserting coward, who said pretty much the same thing in college.

    This has been building ever since the last true existential threat to the capitalist overclass vanished 20 years ago. Suddenly, they no longer had to restrain their most basic instincts of unlimited greed.

    Rmoney is the apotheosis of this trend.

  15. 15.

    ericblair

    September 18, 2012 at 10:07 am

    @eric:

    Mitt is gonna set the record for most own-goals in a presidential campaign and he is gonna do it in one week. Couldn’t happen to a “nicer” guy.

    If I were Obama’s oppo researcher I’d be freaking out right now. Not only could a drunk monkey do my job these days and have plenty of time left over for NFL officiating, Romney’s writing and delivering his own oppo material. Time to sit around playing Peggle on my laptop and wait for the security dude with the cardboard box.

    @eric:

    won’t someone think of the chicken?

    If she lays an egg after all that fucking, it wasn’t real rape.

  16. 16.

    joes527

    September 18, 2012 at 10:08 am

    @Someguy: There is a diary over at the GOS noting that the 47% statistic is specifically about income tax, and that Willard has freely admitted that he himself pays virtually no income tax. (all his “income” is taxed as capital gain)

    So I guess that means that he is the 47%

  17. 17.

    1badbaba3

    September 18, 2012 at 10:09 am

    You can read me the riot act. One of my favorite albums of all times. And it just nudges out “This Year’s Model” for Elvis and the Attractions faves. Won’t talk about seeing them in ’79 and then again in ’81 as it might age me slightly. But, then again, what doesn’t these days. Good on ya, DougJ, ya old bastid.

    Oh, how do you want your Mitt Romney cooked? Rare, medium, or well done?

  18. 18.

    Villago Delenda Est

    September 18, 2012 at 10:10 am

    @dmsilev:

    That’s a solid prediction. If only he had been more pre-visitation Ebeneezer Scrooge, it would have worked!

  19. 19.

    Dennis SGMM

    September 18, 2012 at 10:10 am

    Mitt Romney is Mitt Romney’s idea of what an intelligent person sounds like.

  20. 20.

    eric

    September 18, 2012 at 10:11 am

    @ericblair: )golf clap(

  21. 21.

    David Hunt

    September 18, 2012 at 10:11 am

    Romney protests that his comments were “off the cuff

    Meaning that he didn’t have time to have them polished to allow him to obfuscate what he really thinks.

  22. 22.

    joes527

    September 18, 2012 at 10:11 am

    @dmsilev: If they had just let Sarah be Sarah …

  23. 23.

    Butch

    September 18, 2012 at 10:11 am

    It’s really been a problem for me lately because I know that nothing Romney says will prevent most of my family from voting for him anyway. It’s made it hard to even talk to them.

  24. 24.

    eric

    September 18, 2012 at 10:12 am

    @Dennis SGMM: but only if that is what gary bauer thinks or what michele bachman thinks or what the tea bagger in carrolton ky thinks….

  25. 25.

    milo

    September 18, 2012 at 10:12 am

    Of the 47% that Rmoney dismisss, 60% pay a higher rate of taxes (combined federal and payroll) to the federal government than does Rmoney himself.

  26. 26.

    David Hunt

    September 18, 2012 at 10:14 am

    @Elizabelle:

    To this day, I don’t see what’s so terrible about Obama’s “bitterly clinging to their guns and religion” comment. It’s true, and borne out again and again.

    That was always exactly what was wrong with it. The truth hurts

  27. 27.

    Felinious Wench

    September 18, 2012 at 10:16 am

    @ericblair:

    If she lays an egg after all that fucking, it wasn’t real rape.

    Brilliant.

  28. 28.

    Z. Mulls

    September 18, 2012 at 10:16 am

    Our local AM radio talk-show host was extremely supportive of Romney’s comments today – the right-wing “I wish he had said this all along” reaction is way ahead of the curve.

    He hung up on a woman who called up saying she was an Independent and was concerned about the effects of all the tax cuts and deregulation, calling her “sweetheart” and calling her a liar for saying she was Independent and clearly a Democrat spouting talking points.

    He also dismissed Occupy as a bunch of people involved with “public defecation and raping” as well as poor personal hygiene (the more right wing the host, the greater the perceived stench of the protestors).

    I am in the habit of turning on the station because Michael Smerconish used to be there (now he’s on 12-3 when I’m at work). I could listen to NPR, but I need the adrenaline rush more than I need facts and mature analysis.

  29. 29.

    The Republic of Stupidity

    September 18, 2012 at 10:17 am

    In Willard’s own words…

    “I’m sure I can state it more clearly in a more effective way than I did in a setting like that and so I’m sure I’ll point that out as time goes on but we don’t even have the question given the snippet there, nor the full response, and I hope the person who has the video would put out the full material,” Romney said at the press conference held in Orange County, Calif.

    Good Lord… what is the man even trying to say here?

    This election appears to be over…

  30. 30.

    TooManyJens

    September 18, 2012 at 10:18 am

    Why is “off the cuff” supposed to be a defense here? It wasn’t a slight misphrasing or slip of the tongue; it was the expression of an offensive and wrong belief. “If I’d been prepared, I would have sugarcoated my offensive and wrong belief” doesn’t actually make it any better.

  31. 31.

    SRW1

    September 18, 2012 at 10:18 am

    How long until caricatures of The Mittster come with a monocle?

    I’d produce one myself, if I had the talent.

  32. 32.

    The Ancient Randonneur

    September 18, 2012 at 10:19 am

    African-Americans, Hispanics, liberals, single and college-educated women, and union households make up roughly 46% of the electorate and they are by and large Obama’s base. What Mitt’s little fundraising talk told them is that they are unworthy of being one of us. Romney launched his Non-Apology Apology Tour last night so I am going to enjoy it while I can.

    By the way via Chris Rocks Twitter feed:

    4 years ago John McCain thought Sarah Palin was a better VP candidate than Mitt Romney. You have to admire McCain’s political instincts.

    Ouch!

  33. 33.

    bootsy

    September 18, 2012 at 10:21 am

    Many right-wingers: Now that Romney is finally chanting “Let Him Die” we can get behind him.

    Bobo The Sad Clown: These comments don’t show that Romney is “kind”, like I know him to be. (It’s in the last sentence of his NYTimes piece.)

    Now, what did Romney do to make Brooks think he was kind? Teeing up his golf ball inside Brooks’ mouth instead of on his dangly parts?

  34. 34.

    Elizabelle

    September 18, 2012 at 10:22 am

    @The Ancient Randonneur:

    Chris Rock, for the win!

    Brilliant.

  35. 35.

    Felinious Wench

    September 18, 2012 at 10:24 am

    @Butch:

    It’s really been a problem for me lately because I know that nothing Romney says will prevent most of my family from voting for him anyway. It’s made it hard to even talk to them.

    I’m staying off Facebook, deleting e-mail from some people before I read it, and I’ve told a couple of people I no longer wish to associate with them because I will not have their malice/spite/bullshit in my life. Those are people who have unfortunately drifted into my life through other friends and their spouses. Not interested, even if other friendships become strained.

    There are members of my family that I love but are ignorant and clinging to their guns and religion. Not much I can do with them except keep communication open to show them liberals include ME. However, even they are too much for me right now.

    I have the patience of Job, but until the election, I’m not up to it and I know staying in contact with these people will permanently fracture some relationships I care about. So, radio silence.

  36. 36.

    Someguy

    September 18, 2012 at 10:24 am

    @giltay:

    Barbara Frum’s son has a run-down on rebuttals to Romney’s remarks including Ezra Klein noting that most of the 47% pay a higher tax rate than Mitt.

    That’s bullshit to count social security and medicare contributions as federal income taxes. They aren’t. They are payments for entitlement benefits to be received later on. It’s a Republican fiction that they are just taxes.

    If they are just taxes, then most normal wage earner’s federal tax rate is about 8-10% higher than the rates listed in the IRS’s tax tables. I don’t think you want to go there.

  37. 37.

    Montysano

    September 18, 2012 at 10:25 am

    @eric:

    won’t someone think of the chicken?

    I LOL’d.

  38. 38.

    Fort Geek

    September 18, 2012 at 10:26 am

    Romney genuinely seems to conceive of the lowest-earning half of the population as implacably hostile parasites.

    As one of those “parasites,” he’s certainly earning my implacable hostility.

  39. 39.

    Redshift

    September 18, 2012 at 10:27 am

    Just like the idea that the “real” John McCain was the party-bucking maverick he became out of spite after his party dissed him in 2000, and not the mean-spirited jerk he was before and after, I doubt the media will ever let go of the idea that the real Romney is the moderate he played in Massachusetts, because they really want that Romney to exist. On the other hand, unlike McCain, he and his campaign treat the media like The Help too, and suck at getting them to like him, so maybe there is hope.

  40. 40.

    jehrler

    September 18, 2012 at 10:27 am

    Hmmmm.

    First, 6 heirs to the Wal-Mart empire have wealth that equals the bottom 30% of the *entire country*.

    http://www.salon.com/2011/12/08/the_insane_wealth_of_walmarts_founding_family/

    Second, Wal-Mart pays at or just above the minimum wage for its line workers (of course the CEO gets $9,000 per hour).

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marcus-edgerson/walmart-worker-speaks-out_b_1734556.html

    Third, at that wage rate and with earned income tax credits plus standard deductions, these line workers are part of the 47%.

    Fourth, the federal income taxable status of these low wage workers is, in large part, a product of Republican policies under Reagan and the Bushes that were proposed, in part, to strike a deal with Democrats for upper income tax cuts.

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/wp/2012/09/17/romneys-theory-of-the-taker-class-and-why-it-matters/

    Fifth, the payroll tax is 15.3% when you count both the employer and employee pieces (which you should if you believe in efficient markets as the employer part is paid for in large part by lowering employee wages to compensate) for workers earning under the $110,000 cap.

    Sixth, these low wage employees are paying more, on a percentage basis, to the U.S. treasury than Romney did in 2010 (13.9%) and more than the Wal-Mart heirs pay on their dividends and capital gains (15%).

    Seventh, the Wal-Mart heirs are major donors to Republican Super PACs.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/21/us/politics/super-pac-role-grows-for-republican-campaigns.html?pagewanted=all

    So, I wonder, who are the real makers vs. takers? Which are really taking personal responsibility for their lives?

    Those working hard at minimum wage level jobs with few benefits and little chance for full-time benefits or wage increases that pay no income tax but do pay 15.3% in payroll taxes

    or

    those who live off the dividends and/or capital gains, on which they may pay 15% in taxes, which are harvested from the labor of those they consider not their job to worry about?

  41. 41.

    schrodinger's cat

    September 18, 2012 at 10:29 am

    @bootsy: Mitt Romney is kind to his kind. We on the other hand are “you people”.

  42. 42.

    catclub

    September 18, 2012 at 10:31 am

    @Elizabelle: Especially, read the whole two paragraphs – Chait quotes them.
    All of Romney’s talk, makes it WORSE to know all the context.

    The context of Obama’s talk, that in spite of differences, and that these people probably won’t vote for him, we try anyway, is the opposite of Mitt Romney’s.

  43. 43.

    Punchy

    September 18, 2012 at 10:31 am

    I think 47% of Sullivan’s readers would not like this post.

  44. 44.

    1badbaba3

    September 18, 2012 at 10:31 am

    So corporations that truck in tax avoidance and zero regulations are “people, my freinds”, but the 47% of the 99% are to be fodder for soylent green? Does that include disabled veterans? I would say something here about the teachings of Christ, but the reichwing base might start grumbling about not wanting a lecture from the long-haired guy reading off the tablets because they are that era’s version of the teleprompter.

    Morans.

  45. 45.

    catclub

    September 18, 2012 at 10:32 am

    @Fort Geek: And to repeat:
    Romney pays a lower tax rate than those people he claims pay no federal income tax. 15.2% > 13%

    The 2002 Olympics were in that 47%. Was Exxon-Mobil?

  46. 46.

    catclub

    September 18, 2012 at 10:37 am

    @Someguy: Nope, they are a tax, Just not a FEDERAL INCOME TAX. If I die before I retire, I do not get them back, because that is not how the system works. If the law is changed — and the Congress cannot bind any future Congress, I do not get them back.
    They are paid in now to support beneficiaries now.

  47. 47.

    ExurbanMom

    September 18, 2012 at 10:39 am

    Ah, but there’s another line in the song that could equally serve as the headline… “a matter of fact/or a villain in a million/a slip of the tongue/is gonna keep me civilian”

    Love me some Elvis in the morning…

  48. 48.

    different-church-lady

    September 18, 2012 at 10:44 am

    Oh, I dunno. I think it’s equally plausible that Romney was just bullshitting his own donors with what he thought they wanted to hear. Could be that his contempt is for everyone who isn’t him, regardless of how much money they make.

  49. 49.

    different-church-lady

    September 18, 2012 at 10:46 am

    @dmsilev:

    When Romney loses, the right-wing bloggers and pundits will start to claim that he would have won had he only started talking like this in public earlier.

    In that light, it’s utterly terrifying to think about the kind of person they’re going to nominate in 2016.

  50. 50.

    Villago Delenda Est

    September 18, 2012 at 10:47 am

    @different-church-lady:

    You know, we can’t dismiss that notion. They might just be higher paid help, ya know.

  51. 51.

    different-church-lady

    September 18, 2012 at 10:49 am

    @Villago Delenda Est: They’re help that pay him. What could be better?

  52. 52.

    jimmiraybob

    September 18, 2012 at 10:49 am

    In the Randian psycho-porn fantasy thriller*, Atlas Shrugs, didn’t the Galtian overlords at least have the courtesy to give the rest of society a break by leaving to set up a medieval mountain commune to sooth the sad fee fees?

    Can’t you just see a thousand CEOs** wondering a mountain meadow, surrounded by majestic towering peaks, fumbling around trying to figure out how to open their can of pork-n-beans or build shelters from sticks and moss before the winter blizzards hits? With no subordinates or parasites to blame for their own ineptitude?

    I don’t know about you but I’m seeing a reality series in this.

    *Uh, ….. I mean philosophical masterpiece.
    ** Having co-opted the producer – We Built It – mythos.

  53. 53.

    Villago Delenda Est

    September 18, 2012 at 10:52 am

    @jimmiraybob:

    I don’t know if you’d characterize something so wooden, stilted, and mundane as a “thriller” but the rest is spot on.

  54. 54.

    presquevu

    September 18, 2012 at 10:52 am

    The thinking over at the Gateway Pundit seems to be that Mitt’s little presser was brilliant and will lead to his defeating PBO handily.

    The projection onto the 47% that they are digitally motivated solely by their own short-term economic self interest says a lot about speaker and audience.

    Deconstructing the Jedi mind trick that keeps poor conservative voters voting against their own economic self interests is the risk here, and the reason for secrecy around these discussions.

  55. 55.

    jimmiraybob

    September 18, 2012 at 10:53 am

    @different-church-lady:

    In that light, it’s utterly terrifying to think about the kind of person they’re going to nominate in 2016.

    Ayn Rand’s corpse with a Bible duct taped to it?

  56. 56.

    giltay

    September 18, 2012 at 10:54 am

    @Someguy: Oh, that’s right, sorry. I keep forgetting they’re handled differently in the US. (In Canada, Medicare and Old Age Security are paid through federal taxes.)

  57. 57.

    Cacti

    September 18, 2012 at 10:59 am

    @Someguy:

    Mitt’s right that it’s a problem that 47% of people pay no income tax. The number should be closer to 50%, the bottom half shouldn’t be forced to pick up the tab for a government that primarily benefits the very wealthy.

    I’d say even higher than 50%.

    The top 20% in this country own 85% of our national wealth.

  58. 58.

    Cacti

    September 18, 2012 at 11:01 am

    @jimmiraybob:

    Can’t you just see a thousand CEOs** wondering a mountain meadow, surrounded by majestic towering peaks, fumbling around trying to figure out how to open their can of pork-n-beans or build shelters from sticks and moss before the winter blizzards hits? With no subordinates or parasites to blame for their own ineptitude?

    I always wondered, who tilled the soil and tended to the crops in Galt’s Gulch? And who managed the herds? Even masters of the universe have to eat.

  59. 59.

    schrodinger's cat

    September 18, 2012 at 11:02 am

    Speaking of moochers, when is Romney going to show us his tax returns to prove that he is a not in fact a moocher, according to his own definition.

  60. 60.

    beltane

    September 18, 2012 at 11:07 am

    @schrodinger’s cat: Good question. Betcha he pays less than the people he is shitting on.

  61. 61.

    Valdivia

    September 18, 2012 at 11:07 am

    and apparently Romney barely has any public events this week. he is just fundraising. Don’t they already have enough money?

  62. 62.

    Judas Escargot, Acerbic Prophet of the Mighty Potato God

    September 18, 2012 at 11:08 am

    @Z. Mulls:
    Local Boston newsradio (WBZ) had a poll question: “do you think Romney’s comments will effect the election?” Answers around 9am were: 46% “no change”, 36% “hurt” and 18% “help”.

    I’ve also been seeing a Romney ad here in Mass, posted by Rove’s Crossroads GPS outfit. Very nasty, very negative tone. It had the look and feel of the kind of ad a candidate for lesser office, down in the polls by 10, runs the weekend before the election. Was just a very weird ad to see, and can’t imagine it’s endearing our few remaining independents towards Brown. (Then again, we share media markets with NH so perhaps MA voters weren’t the intended audience).

    Maybe related: Against all odds and expectations, Elizabeth Warren has started to pull ahead of Scott Brown. IMO the post-convention GOP stink might be starting to weigh him down, after all. Their debates start this week, so we’ll have to see how those go.

  63. 63.

    joes527

    September 18, 2012 at 11:09 am

    @different-church-lady:

    Oh, I dunno. I think it’s equally plausible that Romney was just bullshitting his own donors with what he thought they wanted to hear. Could be that his contempt is for everyone who isn’t him, regardless of how much money they make.

    This.

    The man has no convictions, or even positions other than that he should be president.

  64. 64.

    jimmiraybob

    September 18, 2012 at 11:11 am

    @Cacti:

    I always wondered, who tilled the soil and tended to the crops in Galt’s Gulch? And who managed the herds? Even masters of the universe have to eat.

    I think that it was mostly static electricity, perpetual motion and magic. I could be wrong. It’s most likely though that illegals were smuggled up the back valley to help the magic.

  65. 65.

    Belafon (formerly anonevent)

    September 18, 2012 at 11:11 am

    @Someguy: Why not? Part of the point of this argument is that the “moochers” are receiving something for nothing, when in fact they are paying into SS and Medicare. On the other hand, Romney, if he actually paid taxes, would hit the SS yearly cap in about two days. So he does pay a smaller percentage in more than one way.

  66. 66.

    Judas Escargot, Acerbic Prophet of the Mighty Potato God

    September 18, 2012 at 11:13 am

    @jimmiraybob:

    Ayn Rand’s corpse with a Bible duct taped to it?

    Ah.

    So it WILL be Paul Ryan.

  67. 67.

    mary

    September 18, 2012 at 11:13 am

    Paul Krugman’s blog has a graph that demonstrates that the percentage of the population that pays federal income tax is tied to age. From 35-60 years, over 70% of the population pays federal income tax. It is younger people with children and older retired people that are most likely to not pay federal income taxes. There is no block of 47% that doesn’t pay.

  68. 68.

    Nemo_N

    September 18, 2012 at 11:17 am

    Obama’s surrogates suck.

    Two were at CNN this morning, at different times, and one was trying to defend Obama’s guns and religion comments (instead of attacking Romney) and another drifted off towards immigration policy.

    I think Democrats will be able to screw this one up.

  69. 69.

    Jeffrey Kramer

    September 18, 2012 at 11:17 am

    Place your bets: who will be the first clever contrarian to post a column explaining how really, if you get over your kneejerk liberal political correctness, Romney has a point?

    Galston
    Kinsley
    Saletan
    Tapper
    [Other]

  70. 70.

    pk

    September 18, 2012 at 11:19 am

    @Butch:

    Does your family want him to come over and insult them personally? He is a busy man you know.

  71. 71.

    DougJ

    September 18, 2012 at 11:20 am

    @Jeffrey Kramer:

    I’m leaving Tapper out, he’s not nearly as much of a douche as people here make him out to be.

  72. 72.

    Hill Dweller

    September 18, 2012 at 11:20 am

    @Nemo_N: Why is Obama’s factual statement about gun sales and church attendance in bad times even relevant? TeaNN is a f’n joke.

  73. 73.

    Comrade Jake

    September 18, 2012 at 11:22 am

    Probably this has been mentioned by others, but really one of the more damning things that came out of Romney’s mouth in that tape was the notion that he wouldn’t need to actually do anything to fix the economy after entering office. That it would just magically get better. I guess that explains why he doesn’t really seem to have much of any plan.

    I hope Obama hammers this aspect home. He can let other people talk about the class warfare stuff.

  74. 74.

    1badbaba3

    September 18, 2012 at 11:23 am

    @Nemo_N: Yes, because clearly both sides do it.

  75. 75.

    redbeardjim

    September 18, 2012 at 11:29 am

    @Cacti:

    I always wondered, who tilled the soil and tended to the crops in Galt’s Gulch? And who managed the herds? Even masters of the universe have to eat.

    One Hour Later

  76. 76.

    catclub

    September 18, 2012 at 11:29 am

    @Valdivia: Maybe they also have realized that the more people see Mitt, the less they like him. So this is their best strategy. Likewise for Newt.
    Newt Gingrich’s vacation in the Greek Isles, if he could have kept it up, would have won him the GOP nom.

  77. 77.

    LongHairedWeirdo

    September 18, 2012 at 11:34 am

    What frosts me about the Obama quote is that what he said was inartful, but broken down, is not that big a deal. He said that a lot of folks in rural areas vote based upon religion, guns, and concerns about gay folks and illegal immigration. The “God, Guns and Gays (“Now with added immigration rhetoric!”)” strategy was how Republicans won that demographic – it’s no big secret. Obama was saying that he thought he could give them a positive thing to vote for, some actual *help*, rather than just “oh, yeah, I’m religious, and I love guns, and oh, I’ll bash those weird ‘others’!”

    There’s no way to polish it up and make it *nice*. He was saying that he thinks a lot of people have been duped into voting things that were not their primary interest. But he was saying that he thought he could offer them something they wanted.

  78. 78.

    jibeaux

    September 18, 2012 at 11:36 am

    @Hill Dweller: If you have to go back 8 years to find a way for both sides to do it, then that’s what you do.

  79. 79.

    roc

    September 18, 2012 at 11:39 am

    1. the conflation of zero federal income tax and zero tax is intellectually bankrupt.

    2. the equivocation of zero federal income tax and the ‘lucky ducky’ boogeyman is horribly offensive and even more-so than the construction of the ‘lucky ducky’ in the first place. Who knew that children, the elderly and the working poor were the welfare queens we’d heard so much about?

    3. someone’s going to make a map super-imposing “where the 47% live” and “states Romney is winning” and many laughs will likely be had at Romney describing his base as the problem.

  80. 80.

    catclub

    September 18, 2012 at 11:40 am

    @LongHairedWeirdo: He was also saying that those towns in PA had been abandoned by Reagan, Bush and Clinton, so they might have turned bitter, and he was still interested in them.

  81. 81.

    Cacti

    September 18, 2012 at 11:43 am

    @DougJ:

    I’m leaving Tapper out, he’s not nearly as much of a douche as people here make him out to be

    Faux News is a “sister network”. Totally non-douchey that one.

  82. 82.

    catclub

    September 18, 2012 at 11:46 am

    @roc: send an email to Benen
    on number 3. When I asked him to extend the ’causes of the deficit figure’, which showed the Bush tax cuts as the problem, back to 2001, he did!

  83. 83.

    flukebucket

    September 18, 2012 at 11:47 am

    @Xecky Gilchrist:

    “embrace of Paul Ryanism” implies he wasn’t like that before he met Paul Ryan. I’m going to guess he’s been like that his whole life.

    Exactly. Doesn’t he have a son named Taggert.I had always just assumed that Taggert was named after the character in Atlas Shrugged. Romney spouts a lot of Randian Objectivist philosophy. I assumed he picked Ryan because they share the same world view.

  84. 84.

    Omnes Omnibus

    September 18, 2012 at 11:49 am

    @Cacti: Saying “not as much of a douche…” is not the same as saying “not a douche at all.”

  85. 85.

    LongHairedWeirdo

    September 18, 2012 at 11:55 am

    @catclub:
    Agreed… that was why he said “bitter”. (But even bitter people don’t like to be told they’re bitter – I know this from experience (thankfully, more youthful experience :-). It’s easier to laugh at one’s self from the perspective of years.))

  86. 86.

    Brachiator

    September 18, 2012 at 11:57 am

    The revelations in this video come to me as a genuine shock.

    I’ve been able to observe quite a few wealthy people in their native habitat. Many people refuse to believe me when I tell them how contemptuous many of the rich are toward those they see as beneath them. Oddly enough, some of the most imperious are those who rose from modest circumstances themselves, and those who still have close relatives who are not as well off as they are.

    I have never hated Romney.

    I do. I have hated him since I saw him in one of the 2008 presidential debates hectoring Rudy 911 about illegal immigrants. I saw him for what he was, a bully and a coward.

    A bully and a coward who has contempt for people he believes are beneath him.

  87. 87.

    Ruckus

    September 18, 2012 at 12:04 pm

    @Cacti:
    Was going to say that mittshit probably thinks that beef comes in a foam tray like a little kid but I’m pretty sure he’s never even seen a foam tray. Apples and oranges are just arranged in a basket on the table, what the hell do you mean they grow on trees?
    I can just imagine how mittshit would get along if he was dropped out of a helicopter (from 500 ft) in a forest with a swiss army knife and the clothes on his back. Think he’d manage?

  88. 88.

    Lurking Canadian

    September 18, 2012 at 12:11 pm

    @Cacti: The book actually covers that. One of the gone-Galt industrialists sets up as a sheep farmer. I think he used to make auto parts. Another one (the philosopher, I think) grows cabbages. Francisco d’Antonia literally mines and smelts his own copper with hand tools. They also all build their own houses with their bare hands.

    It’s the “eat what we kill” principle taking to the extreme. Apparently genius industrialists can do frickin’ anything. In Rand’s world, no training or know-how is required to be a farmer or artisan or craftsman or anything else, provided you are a Galtian genius to begin with. Everybody else can starve and freeze in the dark.

  89. 89.

    Brachiator

    September 18, 2012 at 12:13 pm

    @LongHairedWeirdo:

    What frosts me about the Obama quote is that what he said was inartful, but broken down, is not that big a deal.

    Not true. It was, and continues to be a big deal. The Tea Party People and gun nuts continue to use it to nourish their hatred of Obama. And even some less rabid conservatives continue to use these remarks as “proof” that Obama does not understand them or care about them.

    Mitt’s statements may be much, much more toxic, but it is a mistake to underestimate the degree to which wingnuts thrive on looking at some of Obama’s statements in the worst possible light.

  90. 90.

    Bobby Thomson

    September 18, 2012 at 12:15 pm

    @joes527: Capital gains tax is income tax. It’s taxed at a different rate than ordinary income, but it’s still income.

  91. 91.

    catclub

    September 18, 2012 at 12:25 pm

    @Brachiator: Triple Guantanamo
    was a hint in the debates, also.

  92. 92.

    Cmm

    September 18, 2012 at 3:25 pm

    @Jeffrey Kramer:

    Take Saletan off the table. Pleaasantly surprised to see that he did the Obama guns/god comment comparison in a way that not only provided the full context of the comment but gave Obama credit for talking about reaching out to the demographic where Mitt is full of contempt for those he his “writing off”.

  93. 93.

    LongHairedWeirdo

    September 18, 2012 at 10:01 pm

    @Brachiator: I’d assumed it was completely bleedin’ obvious that my intention was to state that the substance of what Obama said was no big deal, and not to suggest that no one tried to make hay from it. After all, if people hadn’t tried to make political hay from it, it wouldn’t even be remembered.

    But you obviously didn’t get that. Okay: My intention was to state that the substance of what Obama said was no big deal, and I was not trying to suggest that no one tried to make political hay from it. After all, if people hadn’t tried to make political hay from it, it wouldn’t even be remembered.

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