The Romney Tapes - thoughts as to how they'll affect the election?

[MacCat]

@lance_strongarm

He risked everything! If he had failed, he would have been homeless and had to go back to live in one of his parents’ vacation homes.

It’s sad to think of Mitt, Ann and the five little Mitts sitting around the ironing board with their cans of tuna fish.

[RTFirefly]

@Ravenman

Then he makes the shocking allegation that poor people are clinging to entitlements like… like… bitter Americans cling to guns or religion.

For you and Marley23 and Pashnish Ewing, here’s the actual Obama quote:

But the truth is, is that our challenge is to get people persuaded that we can make progress when there’s no evidence of that in their daily lives. You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, a lot – like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing’s replaced them. And they’ve gone through the Clinton administration and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are going to regenerate, and they have not. It’s not surprising, then, that they get bitter, and they cling to guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations. At least in some communities, anyway.

That’s called compassion, that’s called understanding, that’s called realizing what it must be like to be in the other guy’s shoes.

I get so fucking tired of seeing a snippet taken out of context, to make it sound like he’s dissing them, when he’s doing exactly the opposite.

Meanwhile, Romney’s crapping all over one-half of the country:

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.

Yeah, just the same.

[adaher]

This reminds me of the “bitter clingers” comment. Same exact situation. And we all see how it destroyed the candidate in question. Wonder what ever happened to that guy?

And that statement was compassionate? Only in the most condescending way possible. “Aw, those poor stupid hicks. I care so much about those morons.”

[AnalogSignal]

I think this could be big. It is the top story on nytimes.com now.

It’s not just the words Mittens used. If you listen to the tone of his voice in the clip, it sounds like he really dislikes 47% of the country. If campaign ads use this clip, it could be damaging. Would you vote for someone who dislikes you?

[adaher]

Of course it’s the top story at the Times. They want to beat Romney.

[Marley23]

@RTFirefly

Yeah, just the same.

It came off about as well for Obama as this does for Romney. While I don’t think what Obama said was meanspirited or completely inaccurate, it’s tactless and it was quite condescending. So that did him no favors. The online conservative response to Romney’s comments should tell you that, inaccurate as the statements were, it’s what a chunk of his supporters want to hear - which is why he said it to donors. So in that sense, this probably doesn’t change the race that much but it also helps reminds everybody why Romney is seen as out of touch and doesn’t care that much about their problems.

[Richard_Parker]

@adaher

Of course it’s the top story at the Times. They want to beat Romney.

Does that mean the failure to even mention the story on the Fox homepage means they want Romney to win?

[Simplicio]

I think the damage will be considerably magnified if people start breaking down the “47%” into its constituent parts. Its almost entirely made up of a) the working poor (60%) and b) retirees (23%).

Romney calling some vague mass of people mooches is one thing, calling the elderly and the bottom third of workers mooches is the kind of thing pro-Obama campaign ad writers don’t even dare to dream of.

[Richard_Parker]

He just held a press conference, apparently, standing by the comments. What else could he do, I guess.

[Wesley_Clark]

@JohnT

I’m interested as to who took the video and why they released it now. Is it a donor mad at Romney? A staff worker (say, a waiter) at the event?

If it’s one of his donors, the fact that the video was released prior to the election is far more troubling to the Romney campaign than the actual contents.

I doubt this person’s identity will remain secret for very long.

LOL. while looking into it apparently the video has had snippets online for a few months. Then Jimmy Carter’s grandson was searching online for things to make republicans look bad, found a snippet and passed it to David Corn of mother jones who got in contact with the guy who made the video, which is why the story just exploded today.

That is awesome. If Jimmy Carter’s grandson helped destroy Romney that would be poetic what with all the ‘worse than Carter’ anti-Obama insults going around.

That still doesn’t answer who made the video though. But the shots seem to be shot from the bartender’s perspective so I assume one of the caterers did it.

[Folacin]

@lance_strongarm

He risked everything! If he had failed, he would have been homeless and had to go back to live in one of his parents’ vacation homes.

Well, except that when he took over Bain, they structured it so that he had no risk at all.

So, other than that, he risked it all.

[Simplicio]

@Richard_Parker

He just held a press conference, apparently, standing by the comments. What else could he do, I guess.

Wow, really? I felt certain he’d walk them back, or at least qualify them into oblivion. The Obama campaign is going to spend the next week going nuts quoting Romney saying the elderly and bottom third of workers are dependent on handouts.

But the shots seem to be shot from the bartender’s perspective so I assume one of the caterers did it.

“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

[jshore]

I all can say is WOW! Just wow! This is what I just posted on my Facebook page:

What a jerk…This Romney Revealed: Leaked Footage Shows GOP Candidate Claiming 47 Percent of Americans Will Vote Obama Because They Want Gov’t to Take Care of Them from the guy who seems to feel that he is perfectly entitled to pay taxes at a rate lower than many of us in the middle class pay…And, someone who got his company bailed out by the federal government when it was in trouble: The Federal Bailout That Saved Mitt Romney – Rolling Stone

Mitt, there are some of us who actually feel so little sense of entitlement relative to you that we are perfectly happy to pay our fair share of taxes rather than putting our money in all sorts of tax shelters. Don’t lecture us on people feeling entitled!!!

This guy doesn’t just deserve to lose the election; he deserves to be vilified as the jerk that he is.

[Richard_Parker]

So reports TPM.

[adaher]

@Simplicio

Wow, really? I felt certain he’d walk them back, or at least qualify them into oblivion. The Obama campaign is going to spend the next week going nuts quoting Romney saying the elderly and bottom third of workers are dependent on handouts.

Given the news coverage, there wouldn’t be any need for the Obama campaign to harp on it. The really devastating stuff doesn’t even require comment from the other side. If the other side feels the need to make it a story, that means it’s not a big problem in and of itself. With the right messaging of course it can be made into a problem. But I don’t think the Obama team is all that talented. They tend to just pounce on everything and hope something carries them over the finish line.

[Richard_Parker]

So, to be clear, you think it is not independently newsworthy that Mitt Romney thinks 47% of the country is in the bag for Obama because of their dependency on government?

[Marley23]

@Simplicio

Wow, really? I felt certain he’d walk them back, or at least qualify them into oblivion.

‘I would have preferred you didn’t find out this is how Republican donors feel about you even though a lot of us have been saying so for years.’ He modified the comments to an extent but he can’t entirely take them back. It’s the same as the Libya deal: what he said looks terrible but he feels he can’t be seen apologizing because that would hurt him more with his base.

[Marley23]

@adaher

But I don’t think the Obama team is all that talented.

If he’d had a better political team, he could’ve been Super-President by now.

[Fiddle_Peghead]

@Ravenman

I read the quoted comments carefully, and as a Democrat, I couldn’t care less. For example, the 47% thing. Yes, there’s probably a good percentage of people who will vote for Obama no matter what. I would say that’s closer to 43% or so, but whatever.

@from the OP

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.

The point is not just that 47% will vote for him. The reprehensible thing about what Romney said is his belief that those same 47% are lazy do-nothings who depend upon government handouts to survive.

[Andiethewestie]

Hmmm…given the state of the economy the President shouldn’t be on the upside of the polling and yet, there he is. Yeah, I think the Obama team has been doing particularly well this election cycle.