For Mitt: End Of The Road Or Bump In The Road?
I’ve said from the start of the 2012 GOP primary that Mitt Romney is not a good candidate. When pressed, the most passionate defense I’ve ever been able to muster for the politician is, “He’ll do – against a President I like even less.”
The latest evidence of his sub-par prowess is a secret video recording posted at Mother Jones. The video, made public with the help of former President Jimmy Carter’s unemployed grandson, shows Romney at a private campaign event. In response to a question, Romney explains how 47% of the voting public won’t be supporting him – no matter what. He then conflates that percentage with the percentage of Americans tax filers who pay no federal income tax.
You see where this is headed…
Here’s the quote that is causing massive coronaries throughout the media world today. (After so many heart attacks, you’d think there would be a lot more vacancies in the major market newsrooms by now!)
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. The president starts off with 48-9 percent — He starts off with a huge number. These are people who pay no income taxes. 47 percent of Americans pay no incomes taxes. So our message of low taxes doesn’t come up. He’ll be out there talking about tax cuts for the rich. That’s what they say every four years. And so my job is to not to worry about those few (inaudible) they should take personal responsibility and take care for their lives. What I have to do is to convince the five to ten percent in the center.
Watch the video here:
So, what will it do to the race?
Josh Barro over at Bloomberg News says this is the day the Romney campaign died.
This is an utter disaster for Romney.
Romney already has trouble relating to the public and convincing people he cares about them. Now, he’s been caught on video saying that nearly half the country consists of hopeless losers.
Romney surrogate Bay Buchannan told CNN this morning that it’s just a bump in the road – not the end of the road.
“First of all, we’re not bashing them,” Romney adviser Bay Buchanan told CNN. “He was analyzing saying certain people are with [President] Barack [Obama]. Certain people we have. Certain people are in the middle. and that’s who we’re going to appeal to.”
Umm… okay.
In the NY Times, David Brooks says the GOP candidate has “… divided the nation into two groups: the makers and the moochers.”
First, it suggests that he really doesn’t know much about the country he inhabits. Who are these freeloaders? Is it the Iraq war veteran who goes to the V.A.? Is it the student getting a loan to go to college? Is it the retiree on Social Security or Medicare?
It suggests that Romney doesn’t know much about the culture of America. Yes, the entitlement state has expanded, but America remains one of the hardest-working nations on earth. Americans work longer hours than just about anyone else. Americans believe in work more than almost any other people. Ninety-two percent say that hard work is the key to success, according to a 2009 Pew Research Survey.
It says that Romney doesn’t know much about the political culture. Americans haven’t become childlike worshipers of big government. On the contrary, trust in government has declined. The number of people who think government spending promotes social mobility has fallen.
The people who receive the disproportionate share of government spending are not big-government lovers. They are Republicans. They are senior citizens. They are white men with high school degrees. As Bill Galston of the Brookings Institution has noted, the people who have benefited from the entitlements explosion are middle-class workers, more so than the dependent poor.
Last night, Romney held a brief news conference about the video. He stood by the remarks, although admitted the concepts he was outlining were “not elegantly stated.”
How damaging is it?
Well, a candidate doesn’t do a 9:00 p.m. Q & A with the media if it’s NOT a big deal.
Will it be the end of the campaign? Well, remember how Barack Obama lost to John McCain in 2008 over that “bitter clinger” remark… oh wait.
Republicans will note the media treatment of every misstatement and gaffe by Romney, while Obama gets a pass on every silly thing he says (the 57 states, the corpsemen, the dead heroes in the audience, Cinco de Quatro, come to mind).
Democrats will try to highlight every GOP-leaning voting bloc that might take offense at what Romney said, essentially arguing “Romney called you freeloaders, so you should vote for a guy you still thinks sucks.”
The real question, as Dr. Michael Bitzer from Catawba College noted last night in a Twitter discussion, is what impact will it have on the remaining undecided voters?
“This may not have great impact, but w/ 50 days out, this is just NOT the story the Mitt Romney campaign wants out there,” he said. “There’s still three weeks until the first debate, does this sink in too far?”
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Pete Kaliner hosts the 3-6PM slot on Ashville’s WWNC radio. Visit his blog and listen live at http://www.wwnc.com/pages/petekaliner.html
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