# Romney Says He Was Wrong About The 47% **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [October 5, 2012, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-says-he-was-wrong-about-the-47/636822 "2012-10-05T16:27:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![SpadeMarlowe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6bbea6/32.png) [@SpadeMarlowe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpadeMarlowe)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2012, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-says-he-was-wrong-about-the-47/636822/41 "2012-10-06T21:47:38Z")
He didn’t buy it maybe he build it. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Zagna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d2c977/32.png) [@El\_Zagna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Zagna)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2012, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-says-he-was-wrong-about-the-47/636822/42 "2012-10-06T21:52:45Z")
Well, why couldn’t Obama have prepared a canned response to any prepared statement about the 47%? Hmmm… did Romney make any statements about the 47% between the time he first mentioned it and the debate? ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2012, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-says-he-was-wrong-about-the-47/636822/43 "2012-10-06T22:29:35Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > Jeez, I could use a sincere smile! Where did he buy his? You couldn’t afford it. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2012, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-says-he-was-wrong-about-the-47/636822/44 "2012-10-06T22:31:15Z")
> [@AnalogSignal](#): > > At a press conference on Sep 17 when the 47% tape first broke, Mittens said, “It’s not elegantly stated … but it’s a message which I’m going to carry.” Now Mittens says he was “completely wrong” on the 47%. > > Gee Mittens, I am confused. Why didn’t you say you were wrong on Sep 17? Duh. Because the polls didn’t indicate he was losing support back then. Anyhow, now it’s probably 55% of people who’d never vote for him. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Niply\_Elder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8e8cbc/32.png) [@The\_Niply\_Elder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Niply_Elder)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2012, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-says-he-was-wrong-about-the-47/636822/45 "2012-10-09T06:09:14Z")
I also noticed that romney mentioned something about “47 million” americans during the economy section, that was such an obvious bait for Obama to bring up the 47% its pathetic. Im glad that Obama sidestepped that one, and it lends credence to the idea that Mitt had a precanned zinger. ---
**Author:** ![Enderw24](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba9def/32.png) [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2012, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-says-he-was-wrong-about-the-47/636822/46 "2012-10-09T14:42:39Z")
> [@El\_Zagna](#): > > Well, why couldn’t Obama have prepared a canned response to any prepared statement about the 47%? What response could he have made? No matter how eloquent a retort Obama came up with, it would essentially be boiled down to “Nuh uh, that’s not what you meant!” They could go back and forth and back and forth on the point until it ends up like a Pit thread where you’ve lost the original topic and you’re just debating semantics and menutia. The unfortunate thing is that the “debates” aren’t really a debate. For the most part, it’s one candidate reciting a memorized remark and the other side countering with another memorized remark and then moving on to the next topic to do again. It’s not designed to really delve into any one issue in depth. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Zagna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d2c977/32.png) [@El\_Zagna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Zagna)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2012, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-says-he-was-wrong-about-the-47/636822/47 "2012-10-09T16:53:02Z")
Well, if he’s going to shy away from the 47% remark what issues is he willing to challenge him on? There may be zingers prepared for any of them. ---
**Author:** ![jshore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b5e925/32.png) [@jshore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jshore)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2012, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-says-he-was-wrong-about-the-47/636822/48 "2012-10-10T01:32:29Z")
Another reason that Obama may have decided to avoid it is that the Romney remark is most damning if you quote the whole thing. That’s why it lends itself so well to a commercial where one just quotes it. Unless Obama memorized the whole thing word-for-word, bringing it up wouldn’t really work since Romney could just try to turn it around and claim that he said something other than what he really said. I think the Obama team wants every voter in the swing states to hear exactly what Romney said, word for word and the best way to deliver that to people is in the TV commercia that does that. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2012, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-says-he-was-wrong-about-the-47/636822/49 "2012-10-10T01:45:25Z")
> [@jshore](#): > > Another reason that Obama may have decided to avoid it is that the Romney remark is most damning if you quote the whole thing. That’s why it lends itself so well to a commercial where one just quotes it. > > Unless Obama memorized the whole thing word-for-word, bringing it up wouldn’t really work since Romney could just try to turn it around and claim that he said something other than what he really said. I think the Obama team wants every voter in the swing states to hear exactly what Romney said, word for word and the best way to deliver that to people is in the TV commercia that does that. There is one commercial playing now where they repeat the 47 percent phrase 4 or 5 times, and try to turn that into Romney being against veterans. And it is sponsored by something like The American Public Service Employees or something like that. I bet there are a lot of those employees that disagree with their dues being spent on that commercial. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Zagna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d2c977/32.png) [@El\_Zagna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Zagna)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2012, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-says-he-was-wrong-about-the-47/636822/50 "2012-10-12T17:10:32Z")
Well, the 47% issue was certainly brought up last night by Biden, and there were no snappy responses from Ryan. That argues against Obama avoiding the issue because of fear that the Romney camp had prepared some clever way to spin it. ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2012, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-says-he-was-wrong-about-the-47/636822/51 "2012-10-12T17:14:02Z")
> [@DMark](#): > > Read the article. His response was: > > “Well, clearly in a campaign, with hundreds if not thousands of speeches and question-and-answer sessions, now and then you’re going to say something that doesn’t come out right, In this case, I said something that’s just completely wrong. I absolutely believe, however, that my life has shown that I care about 100% and that’s been demonstrated throughout my life. And this whole campaign is about the 100%.” > > There is is…word for word…the statement he didn’t get to make in the debate, but had probably rehearsed over and over and over again, with a very sincere smile. It was enlightening to see that _Paul Ryan used almost those exact words_ when Biden brought up the subject. Looks like I was right that this was their new screed. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-says-he-was-wrong-about-the-47/636822.md?page=2)