Kind of. For about 10 seconds.
It’s tough to be a politician nowadays what with the ever shrinking size of recording devices and of course, the Internet. Oftentimes in this hyper-connected, over-sharing, real-time-news-update-by-the-second, meme-obsessed world, WWW is the kingmaker. At the same time, it could also easily topple a career. (Ironically, the same world is causing its people to command shorter and shorter attention spans and therefore the ups and downs are becoming less and less definitive and permanent. Think Mel Gibson. Think Numa Numa Kid. Who? Exactly my point).
What the Internet giveth, the Internet taketh.
But I digress (which happens often here by the way).
I felt sorry for Mitt Romney in the first ten seconds after I read about (and later saw) the recordings taken by someone at a closed-door fundraiser of his. What happened to the sacred divide between public and private? What has the world come to if one cannot speak with candor at a private event? If one has to worry about tapes of one speaking one’s mind behind a closed door being leaked and then shared and reshared across the Interwebs faster than one could stick one’s foot in one’s mouth?
Here is one of the choicest quotes from Romney’s private speech to his wealthy donors back in May, in case you have not encountered it (i.e. your butcher’s wife’s brother-in-law has not sent it to you yet):
There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it. That that’s an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what… These are people who pay no income tax…
My job is is not to worry about those people. I’ll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.”
Transcription of the above quotes from Mother Jones
In addition, the following is actually my favorite because Romney told a joke and his audience actually laughed! Who said that he had trouble connecting with his voters?
“My dad, as you probably know, was the governor of Michigan and was the head of a car company. But he was born in Mexico… and had he been born of, uh, Mexican parents, I’d have a better shot at winning this. But he was unfortunately born to Americans living in Mexico. He lived there for a number of years. I mean, I say that jokingly, but it would be helpful to be Latino.”
Sounded like someone who was denied entrance to a university and blamed on all those people of color for taking his spot. We can debate the (de)merits of Affirmative Action until the cows come home, but, wait, News Flash! You are running for the President of the United States, and your strategy is to whine about it being “Not fair!”?
Not surprisingly, Romney’s got the facts wrong. I don’t really fault him for it, for about ten seconds, since he is not the only one getting confused. Thanks to Fact Checkers (courtesy of Washington Post), we know the following
“Some 44 percent of those who do not pay income taxes are because they benefit from tax benefits aimed at the elderly, while another 30 percent benefit from tax credits for children or for the working poor…
But not all of these people are automatically Obama supporters. In fact, according to a map published by the Tax Foundation, eight of the top ten states with the lowest income-tax liability are the heart of Romney country — the deep south. The only exceptions are Florida, a battleground state, and New Mexico, which leans toward Obama. Meanwhile, most of the states with the lowest level of nonpayers are Obama states.
As for other entitlements, of course Social Security and Medicare are reserved for the elderly — and are generally popular. But it seems simplistic to think these are all Obama voters, especially since polling indicates that the Republican share of the vote among white seniors have increased in each of the last five elections, to 58 percent in 2008.” [Emphasis mine]
Or, you could save yourself some time by looking at this easy-to-read chart from Tax Policy Center:
So there you have it.
Ever since the release of the tape on Mother Jones there has been a lot of outcry by the “liberal media” against Romney’s equating Obama voters with people who wait for government handouts (and vice versa). The Washington Post went a bit on the side of overdramatic and called this “Mitt Romney’s Darkest Hour“, and so did one of Bloomberg‘s bloggers who predicted “Today, Mitt Romney Lost the Election“.
All the brouhaha aside, IMO, this is not going to change anybody’s mind. On the contrary, any such talk will most likely deepen the resentment felt by many GOP supporters who are already deeply suspicious of the so-called liberal media. (Thanks to Faux News.) I don’t see white seniors changing their minds because of what Romney was caught saying. It’s the liberal media’s fault! It’s a conspiracy! as it always is. The “fact checkers” are probably in on it too! There is no winning an argument if people whose minds you are trying to change distrust “facts”. Besides, when Romney’s talking about people who sit around and wait for handouts, he was obviously not talking about THEM. It is not an outcome I’d like to see if Romney somehow comes out of this 47%gate a victim of “espionage” planned by the Obama campaign. I can already see them turning this whole thing around by pointing a finger at the oh-so-scary, conniving “liberal media” in cahoots with the Dems.
So why am I wasting your time with this mental dribble?
Here is a collection of Tweets today from my Twitter stream. Quickly! I’d better put this up before HuffPo publishes yet another Top 10 Most Hilarious Tweets on [some mistake made by some celeb’s] masked as journalism.
In conclusion…
Perfect, b/c this man, though many believe he can show us the way out of all this debt mountage, is a man who sees America made up of classes; n’er a hint of “we’re all in this together” but smackful of “our money don’t touch it!”
SO sad, when a country turns its back on poor, unemployed, elderly, and first generation.
SO SAD.
Alexandra recently posted…For The What Just Happened Moments
Sometimes I see my blog as a way to collect all the awesome things I found on the Internet. Here is one excellent, well-argued, and CALM and FAIR rebuttal to Romney’s 47%gate from the Mayor of Minnespolis (which by the way is an awesome city).
http://rtrybak.tumblr.com/post/31894420969/we-built-it-together-a-hand-up-for-mitt-romneys
Romney doesn’t even get ten seconds of pity from me. And where did the divide between public and private go? Right out the window when you run for political office. If you choose to be ignorant and intolerant and then choose to work as a public servant with that mindset, there is no privacy. And there shouldn’t be. We should ALL get to know that this is the way Romney views his constituents.
Secret Agent Woman recently posted…A cautionary tale.
#headdesk
I have family who are up in arms, when Fool News tells them to be, about half the country not paying taxes. I ask them if children should. No, of course not. Should retired people with no income? No, that’s dumb. Should people who are working and poor? Yes. They think that if you’re working two minimum wage jobs full time and can’t feed your kids you should pay more taxes.
#facepalm
I don’t think he even understands that if his dad were Latino, that he would be, too.
Naptimewriting recently posted…If You Feel It
I like him. I think he would be good for our country.
Life with Kaishon recently posted…‘Take rest; a field that has rested gives a bountiful crop.’ ~Ovid
Those Tweets were hilarious! I can’t wait for the debates to begin!
Jotter Girl recently posted…Vintage Roll Call…..Leo
Don’t know much about politics, and have been avoiding the political interweb sites like they have the plague. But this much I know:
1.) I like tunafish sandwiches
2.) The only sure fire way to avoid internet scandal is to make yourself so transparent on the interweb that everyone yawns, and goes back to looking at topless photos of British Royalty. Blogging is like a vaccination this way.
3.) If I could have been born something else, I’d choose being a liberal Chinese woman from Tapei who lives in Chicago and works in the tech industry.
Miss you. Luv,
Me
Tom G. recently posted…Fine
3) You forgot to add “who has a screw loose and absolutely detests writing self-assessment for work performance reviews”…
Miss you too.
AND OMG! Thank goodness I still had some braincells left in me and checked on your post. CONGRATULATIONS!!!!! Your goal, should be to knock 50 Shades of Grey off of its place on Amazon… 😉
Tell you what, I’ll write your self assessment, and you can write mine.
Seriously though, the performance review process has gotten so ridiculous. this year we were asked to submit our recommendations for raises on our direct reports BEFORE WE EVEN SOUGHT PERFORMANCE FEEDBACK, AND SELF ASSESSMENTS. Kinda makes the whole process seem worthless. Not that it hasn’t always been worthless, just that they used to do a better job of disguising it.
Tom G. recently posted…Fine
Ha ha. I live way deep down in one of those Southern red states and of course my liberal friends (who do not live here, of course) all sent me this video and links and the usual “how in the double eff can you live there with all those idiots?” Well, we don’t all get to live where we want and this is a great place to be if you’re a liberal and don’t mind getting your car keyed just because you dare to sport an “Obama” bumpersticker and don’t mind getting shot the bird and angrily tailgated while going 80 on the interstate due to aforementioned bumpersticker. When I watched the video I, like you, kinda felt sorry for this man for about the same ten seconds. And then of course we realize that he could actually become POTUS and it’s not funny any longer.
I love your comment!
“And then of course we realize that he could actually become POTUS and it’s not funny any longer.”
*shudder* indeed.
And I salute your courage for standing by what you believe. May all the honkers and car-keyers have a bad day of diarrhea. Or as Aziz Ansari likes to “curse” people with, “I wish them a day of INCONVENIENCE!”
p.s. Of course, being a liberal, I am pretty lame even when wishing people ill…
My GOD! I just watched someone try to navigate the devilish trickery of DuPont Circle (NW DC) while sporting a Romney bumper sticker and a thousand furious liberals rolled down their windows and screamed “Your merging skills are right up there with your political choice, FOR SHIT”
I, like Absence, laughed and merely wished them a day of inconvenience.
It really is getting good in the home stretch now. With as much nailbiting as I do over the whole process, I still love a country where we can have a knock down drag out over differences and elect someone to lead.
My next rant will be about my need for a woman candidate.
dufmanno recently posted…Thor Jesus
RANT RANT RANT RANT…
I am pounding my fists on the table demanding the rant that you’ve promised!
But could we qualify it though? I remember how I was kind of excited when Palin was added to the ticket because she had seemed quite normal and even smart back then…