How Romney’s "47 percent" percolated through the internet, and became a viral political moment

http://nefariousnewt.blogspot.com NefariousNewt

Mitt Romney has been the victim of an I.E.D. – Idiotic Expostulation Device.

http://www.epinardscaramel.com TokenFrenchDude

Now, now. I’m sure it wasn’t meant as a factual statement™.

Thad Boyd

Re-elect Carter!

Quiche de Resistance

“Monday night Mitt Romney called the release of the full video of him speaking at a donor’s house.”

This turned out to be an unwise move after the video showed him saying “these filthy serfs are dragging us all down, endangering our millions and millions of dollars.” and “These low-lifes will never get off the government tit until they are forced to face with dignity the decision between being hungry on the streets or getting a really shitty job, where they can at least eat OR pay rent.”

gandalf23

How is this: ” 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.

And I mean the president starts off with 48, 49, 4— he starts off with a huge number. These are people who pay no income tax. Forty-seven percent of Americans pay no income tax. So our message of low taxes doesn’t connect. So he’ll be out there talking about tax cuts for the rich.

I mean, that’s what they sell ever four years. And so my job is not to worry about those people. I’ll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives. What I have to do is to convince the five to ten percent in the center that are independents, that are thoughtful, that look at voting one way or the other depending upon in some cases emotion, whether they like the guy or not.”

Any differnet than this: “You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, 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 fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not.

And it’s not surprising then they get bitter, 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.”

Basically the first guy said “There’s this large group of people who are dependent on government, and won’t be weened off of it,” and the second guy said “There’s this large group of people who don’t trust the government to save them, and instead cling to religion and/or guns.”

They’re both CORRECT!

They both are going after the people in the middle, and that’s what’s going to decide things this election.

chenille

Except for the minor detail that Romney is not correct at all.

Deriding half the country as unwilling to take “personal responsibility” because they believe they are entitled to the same basic government functions as the whole developed world is stupid enough. But those aren’t even the same Americans who depend most on those functions, who include great numbers who always vote Republican.

So it’s just more nonsense and mischaracterizing his opponents, not speaking truth at all. How anyone can stand up for it is beyond me.
- Jellodyne
  
  That 47% statistic is one of the most disingenuous and divisive soundbites I’ve ever heard. Your brain is supposed to hear ‘welfare queens and parasites’ when the number is mostly the working poor, retirees, students, the temporarily unemployed AND IT PROBABLY INCLUDES MITT ROMNEY since his ‘income’ as it pertains to federal income taxes (excluding capital gains which of course which are taxed differently) is minor and his write-offs are large. But the point is to make it “us” versus “them.” I’m an “us”, right? Yeah, well it turns out that most of us are.
EvilSpirit

Correct, huh? “Correct,” you say.

By cherry-picking the Income Tax specifically, Romney gets to include the 28% of households that pay payroll taxes, but don’t make enough money to pay income tax (i.e., the working poor). Of the 18% who pay no Federal taxes, more than half are elderly.

So, your “large group” of moochers must be somewhere in that remaining 8%. That is, some of them there, and some in your own head.
SamSam

Bullshit. Find me any evidence that 47% of the population “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.”

Setting aside that he’s putting seniors, veterans, the disabled, students and people who hold two jobs and pay payroll taxes in with these “people who believe they are victims,” no one actively wants their children to be on welfare, or desires to be dependent on the government. 92% of Americans say that hard work is the key to success, according to a Pew Research Survey. cite. Indeed, a recent Times study showed that the majority of government assistance was actually going to middle class people (mostly, as it happens, in Republican states) who grow increasingly more and more resentful of the government the more they have to take.

koturnin

I wonder how many still pay no income tax after removing the retired, unemployed, and minors (or even up to 21)… It’s misleading to use the percent of the *entire population” as opposed to the workforce.

http://profile.yahoo.com/FOQJ2YRIDCTU6BDHUECE62DBC4 Randall

No, sorry, the law of equivalency doesn’t always prevail, despite wanting it to be so. One of those statements is a lie, repeated by a liar. The other Obama said.