Associated Press
The Romney campaign and its surrogates are eager to convince the public the candidate's "47 percent" problem is little more than clumsy language, but keep an eye on Republican candidates who'll face a simple question: do you agree with the presidential candidate?
Republican U.S. Senate candidate Linda McMahon was quick to distance herself from Mitt Romney's remarks captured on video at a closed-door fundraiser in Florida. [...]
"I disagree with Governor Romney's insinuation that 47 percent of Americans believe they are victims who must depend on the government for their care," McMahon said on her Facebook page around 10:30 a.m. "I know that the vast majority of those who rely on government are not in that situation because they want to be."
Now, it's worth remembering that McMahon's perspective on this has, shall we say, evolved. A year ago, the wrestling-company-executive turned Senate candidate complained, "47 percent of the people today don't pay any taxes, so let's have a fair tax code where everybody pays their taxes." As of today, however, the candidate seems to have a different perspective.
But the larger point is, McMahon is a Republican in a competitive Senate race, and within a day of her party's presidential candidate running into another round of trouble, she wasted no time in saying, in effect, "I'm not with that guy."
One assumes plenty of other Republican candidates will be asked to weigh in as well. Pay particular attention to Sen. Scott Brown (R) in Massachusetts -- he and Mitt Romney share a campaign strategist.
Update: Brown also distanced himself from Romney's comments, saying in an email, "That's not the way I view the world. As someone who grew up in tough circumstances, I know that being on public assistance is not a spot that anyone wants to be in. Too many people today who want to work are being forced into public assistance for lack of jobs."
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Mitt will have to double down on the debates which makes it likely that he will go for a dramatic moment with a stake raiser. Just as likely to backfire unless rehearsed to perfection. He gets in trouble with spontaneity (bet you $10,000!).
I can only wish that Howard Stern was to be the debate moderator.
Interesting prediction, Robert DuBois, and I hope Pres.Obama sees it and is prepared to take advantage of it. I'm not a trained debater, but I hope there are ways one can steer an opponent off script. Ill bet Pres. Obama is watching tapes of Mitt's primary debates, learning his style and his weaknesses. In the debates, Mitt will have to double down on his previous positions (such as they were). To admit he was wrong will alienate his base and concede the truth of the many criticisms directed at him.
How ironic is it that Linda McMahon had to flip-flop in order to distance herself from Mitt, the apotheosis of flip flopping. Can the President bring an etch-a-sketch to shake during the debates?
Outside the Romney fantasy box we note that wage disparity has risen to 500% for CEOs compared to average worker's wages so the CEO kept getting raises while their employee's wages stayed the same or worse their jobs were outsourced to slave labor working for $5/day while the CEOs still gained from job profiteering...and then turn around and complain the average worker doesn't pay income taxes (cause they don't make enough money) and then ask "why should I pay taxes if they don't".
Give workers decent pay and stop offshoring and outsourcing jobs and more people will be able to pay income taxes goober.
Romney's royalty attitude believes "if they aren't voting for ME then something must be wrong with THEM". Hopefully most people will see through this phony.
Very, very well said!
A nice example is CEO pay for Romney's top 5 contributors.
Here's how it breaks down per hour...
Goldman Sachs CEO: $7,800.00 an hour
JPMorgan Chase CEO: $11,058.00 an hour
Morgan Stanley CEO: $5,048.00 an hour
Bank of America CEO: $3,894.00 an hour
Credit Suisse (a Swiss bank) asset manager: $4,269.00/hr
Record corporate profits and record CEO pay packages in the midst of recession and high unemployment. Swiss banks dumping hundreds of thousands into US presidential campaigns. When/where did it all go so wrong?
1st off , he is being dishonest in claiming only those on assistance pay no income taxes .. don't you just love it when the gop get nailed on the lies they repeat endlessly ? until election time that is , then they never said these things
We can rest assured the dems and Warren will hammer the liars on this subject ... because the gop have never said , or legislated , anything bad for regular working folks , right? >snark<
How much do the Presidents top five donor CEOs make?
Someone in the media should ask whatever GOP candidate they have in front of them:
"So if you think 47% is too high a percentage of Americans not paying federal income taxes, and since we were at 34.1% before the Bush tax cuts, don't you agree that allowing those cuts to expire for at least some would be a reasonable step?"
...then just sit back and watch them twist in the wind. After all, if they're bitching about A) too many people not paying taxes AND B) the deficit, aren't they admitting that revenue is part of the problem?
Clever rats abandon a sinking ship.
Wise ones never climb aboard.
(Only 1,068 days to the Iowa Caucus)
Romney is in that 47% that don't pay income taxes. What a deadbeat!
And the chatter in the rummey crowd will always include "welfare recipients should have to push a broom somewhere and wear orange jumpsuits". I'm thinking we get rid of street signal lights and make poor people direct traffic.. How about we outlaw mechanical looms and make poor people weave cloth? I guess that my being a secular utopian socialist means I want poor people to be well educated small farmers? or maybe I believe people livings in "pods" of 120-150 will solve all the worlds' problems,, yeah that's it..
My helper quit me (good move) to go to college (eh) and become a graphics artist (yao). I asked him if he's heard of the innovation (an obvious innovation) called clip art. Hasn't clip art put thousands of graphics artists out of work? And do you really need to rack up $30,000 college debt to get into the feild? And yes, I do think being a sign maker would be fun..
Oh come off it. He was just repeating the same line the right has been using for over a year.
Why all of a sudden is this little republican rant so unpopular even with the tea party that started it?
Could it be they just now realized that some of that 47% are white working stiffs?
The reason people like Linda McMahon don't hide behind Romney is the same reason it is generally not wise to hide behind a tractor driving in a dirty field. The clods fly and make you messy, and why would you want to put yourself through that so unnecessarily. Not as if a CT Senate candidate has any hope of riding GOP tailcoats!
Defeat is assured when Republicans tell the truth.
The thing that gets me about Romney's statement in the video is that it echoes what he said at a fundraiser directly after his disgraceful appearance at the NAACP -- "Look, if they want free stuff from the government, they can go vote for the other guy." In Romney's world, 100% of people who vote for Obama make up the 47% who apparently can't be swayed by Himself to an attitude of "personal responsibility." The other thing that gets me is that Mr. $100M IRA account/offshore tax havens/corporate welfare queen is incapable of recognizing the hypocrisy of what's coming out of his own mouth.
Rich people and corporations do not get welfare; they get tax shelters and subsidies. In business-speak and the tax code, terminology is most important. Now we, the middle class and poor, have to figure out how we can buy some terminology from Congress.
Mike, by any other name that rose is still W-E-L-F-A-R-E! Sorry, but that's what it is! And Mr. I like to fire people and offshore my money so I don't have to pay taxes along with the rest of the GOP are sucking on the government teet getting theirs!
Zora-I was being facetious.
Now nobody in R-world wants to be associated with either Mittens or Shrub anymore! At what point do they start to think that their party is out of step with the nation?
"It's not what you don't know that causes all the trouble, it's what you know for sure that isn't so."
Apparently Gallup has a new poll showing that one third of the bottom income voters are Mitt voters. Talk about Mitt biting the hand that feeds him.
And talk about how twisted the minds of those po' folks on welfare who welcome this plutocrat to their midst.
I wonder what would have happened if other presidents had muttered the words "my job is not to worry about those people"?
http://nursingclio.org/2012/09/18/my-job-is-not-to-worry-about-those-people/
One wonders if all the conservative rhetoric chucked overboard in the face of yet another tidal gaffe spreading out from Mitt's mouth will be washed up on the beach to rot in the sun.
Nahh, the beachcombers will be out to pick over the flopping fish because its what they do. "Oooh look, here's a dog whistle I can use."
After watching in disgust, the clip, that started the riots in the mid east, one factor came out to me. The sceen of mohamid, having sex with a women, and when it turned, it had the face of a donkey. Which as you know is the dem0s simble of their party. Question I have, is "did the repub's get this clip, alter it, to make it look like the demo's did it? Did the repub's get this clip, to hurt Obama? When Romney came out so early, in his remarks, have first hand info, that our people in libya, wher to be killed? Is it poaaible for a political party, to throw, americans into a death situation, just to win the whitehouse? think about it!
Wow! Talk about a conspiracy theory! First, I don't think the Republicans could pull off your scenario...nobody could.
Also,
If this crappy Youtube video was the catalyst for the rioting, I think the movie about the killing of Bin Laden should not be released later this year. Although it has nothing to do with the Muslim religion, I would imagine some elements out there will whip up anger on it - and that film will be shown in theaters nationwide, not just a clip on the internet.
Money can do that and many other things.
I will come at this as one of those who is disabled...retired...on medicare... but livng on my own. I am not ashamed of how my life got me to where I am now. It is my story. I have some pretty not so nice things to say to Mitt the Twit and Lyin Ryan.... You do not know me....know my life...nor will either of you ever be able to relate to me. You two simply do not care. I feel that because my choice is President Obama... I am forced to hear you both tell lies...time and time again. Your party has done nothing to help this country recover from the Bush years.... And you sit on your Ivory towers and make judgements on those of us who do what we can... Stop telling me what my choices for my body are....stop saying that as a woman I an not worth equal pay for equal work. Stop saying that because I am disabled and low income that I am somehow less qualified to decide who I want for president. Stop evading questions that are put to you two. You two seem to be masters of not saying a thing and yet making so many promises.
Per Chris Rock ... in 2008!
Chris Rock: "George Bush has @!$%#ed up so bad, he made it hard for a white man to run for president! People are like "give me a black man, a white woman, a giraffe, a zebra... anything but another white man! That last one @!$%#ed up my roof!" LOL
Romney is just another rich, white man who proves everyday he is unfit to be President...he does not need the next 4 years to prove it.
Obama/Biden 2012
So Romney thinks Obama's entire 47 percent comes from the people he described as paying no taxes? Well I support President Obama and have a job, I pay taxes, I take responsibility and am not dependent on the government.
I wonder how he would explain that.
I imagine that Romney would simply refuse to process that information, such as the time when he was governor that he insisted on referring to a gay woman's biological daughter as her 'adopted' daughter despite knowing the true relationship.
WOW! I wouldn't have believed this if I hadn't heard it straight from the source, but aparently Mitt Romney called Paul Ryan's mother a free-loader! Talk about in-fighting.
I can't imagine Romney winning now - he's going to go down in flames just like McCain did when he sold his soul to the rightwingnuts.
Those in the Republican Party who are moderates had better get control of their party NOW and eject these crazy rightwingnuts! They had better distance themselves immediately from the Romney/Fox/Trump/Limbaugh/Koch Brothers ilk if they ever expect to win any presidential elections ever again or if they want to be taken as a serious political party ever again. It will be too late after the election because these rightwingnuts will begin the 2016 election politicking on November 6th if someone doesn't stop them!!
Don't be overconfident. It's too early to tell what impact, if any, this tape will have on the election. Let's see how long this story plays, and let's see where the polling stands by the time the debates happen. Also, we shouldn't discount the money on the Republican side.
Wow, some skunks are dyeing that white stripe down their backs after the head skunk unleashed an identifying scent into the party.
WOW! It seems Mitt Romney thinks Paul Ryan's mother is a free-loader. Talk about campaign in-fighting.
Scott Brown's smart - he stayed away from the RNC Convention and is distancing himself from Mittens. He's a moderate Republican running in a liberal state - he HAS to distance himself. My only concern is that he will realize that in being moderate he won't advance within the party because he plays with the democrats.
This is reality as he sees it. His world (Like Ryan's) is the fantasy of Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged." Mitt really believes that he worked for everything he has, and if you are not as successful (ie: rich) as he is you are a loser. To Mitt the world is divided between "makers" and "takers." His people are the "makers", the "job creators" who he claims "built it" with their own two hands and no government help. The "takers" are moochers who survive by looting the proper wealth of people like him, and rely on the government to pass laws that allow them (you!) to live on an undeserved, and unearned, easy street.
Like he said, this was "off the cuff." No staff wrote that. It really was what he thinks! This is the REAL Mitt Romney.
Now, if the GOPers would figure out that the 47% is not all people who are on welfare. Many are retirees who EARNED and PAID for their social security, some are students, many are working families that simply make below the income tax threshold. And some are ridiculously rich folks who use tax loopholes. And then, of course, there are the corporations that pay no tax. Time for the GOP to get off their holier-than-thou high horse.