There's No Joy in Mittville
Romney's comments on half the country being victims and on the dole cannot help his campaign chances.
There's No Joy in Mittville
John Baer, Daily News Political Columnist
There can be no joy in Mittville.
The GOP presidential candidate with a habit of living up to the caricature the Obama campaign pushes of an aloof plutocratic politician has yet again set himself squarely in the frame of that very picture.
Busted by a hidden camera at a Florida fundraiser last May (the video of which was released Monday), Romney was caught telling wealthy donors that, among other things, nearly half the country is made up of irresponsible takers on the government dole, adding, “My job is not to worry about those people.”
Late Monday, Romney held a news conference in which he did not back away from his assertions. He said only that his comments were “not elegantly stated.”
A fair statement.
But the problem here is two-fold: his own words highlight his image as an out-of-touch multi-millionaire with a car elevator who won’t release his tax returns; and they come just as voters are beginning to pay serious attention to the race.
His words will be repeated. “Those people” will be defined as unemployed or impaired military veterans, seniors on Social Security, students getting federal loan assistance, those with disabilities, etc.
All will be cast as viewed by Romney as people who cannot be convinced to “take personal responsibility and care for their lives.”
The Obama campaign, of course, pounced: it issued a fund-raising appeal saying that someone who “demonstrates such disgust and disdain for half of our fellow Americans” doesn’t deserve to be president.
The episode is a sort of replay of Obama’s 2008 primary campaign comments to a group of donors in California that people in rural Pennsylvania are bitter and “cling" to their guns and religion.
That comment dogs him to this day. GOP veep candidate Paul Ryan uses it in stump speeches saying that as a Catholic hunter he’s proud to cling to his guns and his faith.
The difference is that Obama’s gaffe came in a primary and Romney’s comes much closer to the general election.
The question is can Mitt weather his misstep (which is certain to be fodder for cartoonists, comics and editorials in the same way Obama’s was) and refocus voters’ attention away from the caricature he’s helping to solidify.
After mucking up reaction to the assault on the U.S. embassy in Libya just last week and now facing down comments about dependent Americans, Romney’s batting with two strikes. And there can’t be much joy in Mittville.
Comments (51)
LOL!!! You Libs are brain dead HATERS!! Barry said the same type of things regarding "guns and God"...What is this, part of "Forward" because you CAN'T look back at that record!!!
p.s. BARRY WAS NEVER HELD TO THE CARPET FOR HIS COMMENTS, WHY????...MORE TREASONOUS LIB MEDIA..... LOL!!!— sarah89- Sarah, if you HAD a brain, you'd probably eat it. And you're still sounding very frustrated. Did you buy that new hat for yourself I told you to get? I'm sure you'd feel much better if you did. — CommonSense in Philly
- Guys stop! Show some compassion towards Sarah.
Her own leader Santorum called her "not smart". It's not her fault that she was born this way. She can be only held responsible for not educating herself.— Seed 
Comment removed.- You want to talk treasonous, how about the Norquist pledge the GOP congress and senate members sighed on taxes they took a pledge to serve the people all the people not just a few. They would let the US rot on a vine to please a scummy little twert like Norquist, this Norquist also said that they want a president to just sign whatever they put in front of him, if the Teanuts are so patriotic they should be appalled by his words but you don't hear a peep from them. I agree that God and guns comment was dumb, but Mitts keeps saying dumber comments, and everybody who disagree's with the right is not a flaming liberal that you always spew out of your mouth alot of us dissagree with some policy's of the right, you can't handle dissagreement. — angrywhtguy
- You want to talk treasonous, how about the Norquist pledge the GOP congress and senate members sighed on taxes they took a pledge to serve the people all the people not just a few. They would let the US rot on a vine to please a scummy little twert like Norquist, this Norquist also said that they want a president to just sign whatever they put in front of him, if the Teanuts are so patriotic they should be appalled by his words but you don't hear a peep from them. I agree that God and guns comment was dumb, but Mitts keeps saying dumber comments, and everybody who disagree's with the right is not a flaming liberal that you always spew out of your mouth alot of us dissagree with some policy's of the right, you can't handle dissagreement. — angrywhtguy
- u mad sarah?
— daxtremesolja - Leftists are having a field day - in the meantime the world is falling apart and O is campaigning.
- Comment removed.
- Sharky - You overestimate your messiah's chances.
Scoreboard shows under Obama:
* Over 18% unemployment
* Over $16 Trillion in National Debt enslaving Americans to bankers (with over $5T of that coming from Obama alone).
* Massive unrest internationally due to a weak Foreign Pol.
* First Downgrade of US Debt ever
* Lack of leadership from WH leading to gridlock in Congress.
* Thanks to Democrats and private Central Bank, rich get richer and middle class gets poorer and poorer with endless printing of money!!!— Professor1982 - 1982: are you talking to an empty chair again?
Otherwise your lies need to be fine tuned for live human beings.— Seed - Seedless - If you think these are lies, you need to join us in reality and check the facts.
Typical liberals either ignore the fact or just simply don't understand them.— Professor1982 - What a waste of money Adelson is spending on Romney he should spend it on a better toupe and more clown makeup for his wife. Just boycott like I do any products made by the Koch brothers they should use that money for their employss's. Keep up the great post and I see the Nutty Professor is spewing more of whatever his small mind says. — angrywhtguy
- "Wet sock" as republican candidate. It fits. They nominated brain dead hollywood actor and drunken Texan as well and won.
Only difference, nice guy Democrats are finally growing some balls. No future for wet socks.— Seed - Willard's father was on welfare - I wonder who he would vote for?— Poit
- Clearly Willard has Hoof In Mouth Disease. He can't stop embarrassing himself. And the more he talks the more reminiscent he is of Bob Dole. Bob Dole was a shameful candidate for the Republicans back in '96 when it was Clinton vs Dole. Now Mitt The Twitt is picking up where Dole and McCain/Palin left off. As Sarah89 says above: LOL!!!— CommonSense in Philly
- Yo Sarah, if you actually read Obama's comments from 2008, he was expressing the need to reach out to these people and make them part of his coalition---he was not writing them off as being leeches, like Mitt is here. And the obvious fact is that Mitt is so wrong. Of the so-called 47% who pay no federal income taxes, there are many retirees (who paid in for their entire working lives), low income workers (who still pay in via the Payroll Tax), and disabled people who cannot work. Amazingly, many of these people are Republicans, as there are significantly more federal payouts to Red States than Blue. Moreover, 40% of the Democratic base consists of highly educated professionals who do indeed pay taxes. So if Mitt can't get 47% of the Vote which pays no taxes, he has no chance at all. Oh yes, rich guys like Mitt are less likely to pay federal taxes than any other group, since they can categorize their earnings as capital gains, and shelter it highly. That is why we continue to see no tax returns from Mitt.— Palestra Jon
- Prove it Poit. You are a liar. Why doesn't the media starting looking into what happened in Libya last week, instead of harping on what Mitt Romney said in May. Although what he said was true. Too many people on the government dole.— jersey girl
- This embarrassing POS makes Sarah Palin look like the best of Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln. But hey, when you are pandering to complete morons (on the surface) and the top 1/10 of the 1% (in reality), there is very little rope to walk on. This guy is an embarrassment to humanity. Thankfully, he will not be president.— CiceroSpuriousDeodatus
- And where do those 47% live? Well go find out:
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/09/where-are-the-47-of-americans-who-pay-no-income-taxes/262499/
— meteo30 - " 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 ".....most honest words ever spoken in a presidential campaign. So what's the problem?— jimmymack
- Let me put the 'dumb southern red state' thing to rest meteo....Where are the highest percentage of minorities located? You know, minorities....republican voters. I blame you for listening to the ATlantics fatuousness.— bannedrepublican
- This will come as a shock to the local folks at the DNC Communication Dept's Philadelphia REgion office but this is a winner for Romney.— bannedrepublican
- The last I heard Jersey girl was the warships and drones areon there way ,they are probaly targeting them right now.— angrywhtguy
- Mitt Romney is 100% correct.— kelprod2-freemarket
- Yes, yes he is. — Professor1982
- Everything he said was true, what's the problem now? If your feelings are hurt maybe the gov't can put a little something extra on the access card this month...babies!— mayfair_
- Banned: You brought up the red state argument not me. It's not just "other people" not paying taxes (dog whistle), it's senior citizens, college students, the unemployed and disabled military people. Romney is just parroting the Ayn Rand element in this country.— meteo30
- @jersey girl: First, Libya is really important as is what's going on in the Middle East, but Mitt's stupidity bear equal importance because we're talking about the possible leader of the free world. ::::shudder::::
As far as welfare goes, again, I agree with you. But, how 'bout some solutions? Welfare has wasted generations of people, particularly in Philadelphia. There are kids who don't know how to earn a living. So, how do we change that? Blaming the liberals because, after all, it was our guilt who created it, is only concentrating on what caused it. Again, I ask, what about a solution? Perhaps Mittens should try to offer a solution instead of marginalizing the people this dufus wants to lead.
The fact of the matter is there are people on welfare. Just pulling the plug isn't going to work. There has to be a way off of it. Clinton tried, but all of his changes have since reverted. No repub President has offered a solution. Flaming the base seems to be the only thing they know what to do!— PotteryPete - where is the story on REAL EVENTS?? Like our current president making a gaffe on a terrorist attack which killed 4 americans? oh that's right, philly.com has to protect Their savior and would never run a story like that let alone on the homepage. It's all good, the media and Eric Holder will continue to work together to influence what stories we the people hear about. and all you sheep in philly will keep voting democrat, doin so well for ya LOL oh and John Baer, Mitt will be plenty happy come November!— 420Phillie
- Meanwhile, no one in the main stream media is asking questions why the Libyan ambassador was flying into Bangazi on 9-11 with only a few guards. Hmmmm. What was he doing that day?— CD75
- Yet, in your heart you know he's right.— Wilhelm Von Humboldt
- When Romney said "I'm not worrying about those people" it was in reference to getting their votes. He knows the vast majority of poorer Americans vote Democrat, will vote for Obama, and he can't waste time trying to convince them otherwise. Romney's biggest mistake was lumping all 47% non federal taxpayers in one bucket. They are all not created equal.— intheweeds
- If Obama has 47% already, all he needs is 3.1% more. I'll take that.— brio
- brio - you realize that Al Gore won the popular vote over Bush, but lost the election.— intheweeds
- Posting to yourself? Congrats, this one made me laugh out loud!— Jabey
- In your heart you know you love fried calamari, Belgian ale and Abstract Expressionism.— Jabey
- hang in there mitt. the truth is hard for many to swallow.— jstash
- Romney is the kind of guy who would let a door slam in your face - and not blink. He's not of the world of everyman. He belongs with his own kind - the filthy, rich elite. He's not a man of the people, and probably couldn't conjure up what the term even means. He'd be a poor choice for the 99% that he doesn't identify with and obviously views disdainfully.— Boru
- Let's look at the 47% Mitt the Fraud says don't pay taxes and are on the Government dole. About 7000 are multi-millionaires and billionaires who don't pay taxes; it includes all those who don't earn more than $20,000/year so they don't pay Federal tax but do pay State, Local and payroll taxes; it includes students who need help to pay for their education with Government loans; it includes seniors who receive Social Security and Medicare; it includes the poor who need food stamps to survive (most of whom are white). So, Mitt the Fraud has denigrated all these people, including you conservatives who may be receiving Social Security and Medicare. On top of this, he makes a joke at the expense of Latinos about his family being in Mexico. You know why they were there. Because his great-grandfather took the Romneys to Mexico so he could have his 5 wives. His great grandson didn't fall far from the tree as he took his money to the Caymans and Swiss banks to avoid paying taxes and investing in America. This empty suit should be President?— lport
- @ ipotr, you must have been so proud when you hit the send button. Problem, your the only one who read the "long winded" boring mess. MITT, that kind of straight talk is what the doctor ordered. Nutter, hang your head in shame, the # speak for themselves, you are a FAILURE !— Christo1CG
- I am on both Social Security and Medicare but I do recognize that it isn't the Federal dependents,like me and my wife, who will get us out of hock.It's the 53%, those paying taxes, who will come up with hustle, muscle, and the creative ideas to move America ahead and prevent us becoming like Greece or Spain.Democrats and Obama will lead us to ruin and slavery to the Chinese.— penllynjohn
- Ignored is the fact that more people are unemployed or have stopped looking for jobs in this environment. More people are using food stamps. Who have been hit the hardest? The lower classes in our society, specifically blacks at, near or below the poverty line. This administration is not a friend to the lower class, no matter what you have been sold. At the highest level, these people in both parties do not care-they care about your votes. It should come down to who has the best policies-and the policy of dependency does not allow you to progress upwards. Sad, but true.— shirleyf
- Mr. Baer, I will vote for Mitt because of his statements like this. Dont let facts get in the way of the truth he is speaking. When an average of 16 people have to work full time to pay taxes to cover 1 welfare recipient, there is something wrong with this country. On top of this we have a president who cant seem to stop spending money, and passes Obamacare during the worst economy in history. Giving this guy 4 more years so "he can finish the job" is likely to "finish the Country".— Sane1
- Blah blah blah is all I here but the bottom line is Milt could care less about the middle class and even less about the poor!!! and before one of you say it no im not on welfare and dont get any assistance from our government but I do have common sense!!! speaking of the 47% he must be included in that number cause he is fighting like hell to hide is tax records so he must be using some of those same programs to pay fewer if no taxes at all!!!— dakee
- Professor1982
Where are you getting these numbers, Narnia? 18 percent unemployment? Not even hard core republican Fox news is reporting such a number. If it was 18 percent, we'd be in a depression, which means bread lines, shantytowns, and a complete crash of the market. And weak foreign policy? Every time you turn around Obama is sending a drone to bomb someone in the middle east, which is one of the reasons why there is so much animosity towards the U.S. in that part of the world. It doesn't take a foreign policy expert to figure that one out. What, does Obama need to do, invade every country in the middle east to be a tough guy? Seriously, of all the nonsense dribbled onto these pages, you by far are the biggest dribbler. Face the facts, man, Romney just had his Dukakis moment. By the way, Obama isn't my messiah. He's an elected official who just happens to be better than the clown the GOP pushed out there. I'd might actually consider voting for a republican if they could produce a candidate worth voting for. And I got news for you, Mitt Romney ain't that guy.— Hemingway - Professor1982Where are you getting these numbers, Narnia? 18 percent unemployment? Not even hard core republican Fox news is reporting such a number. If it was 18 percent, we'd be in a depression, which means bread lines, shantytowns, and a complete crash of the market. And weak foreign policy? Every time you turn around Obama is sending a drone to bomb someone in the middle east, which is one of the reasons why there is so much animosity towards the U.S. in that part of the world. It doesn't take a foreign policy expert to figure that one out. What, does Obama need to do, invade every country in the middle east to be a tough guy? Seriously, of all the nonsense dribbled onto these pages, you by far are the biggest dribbler. Face the facts, man, Romney just had his Dukakis moment. By the way, Obama isn't my messiah. He's an elected official who just happens to be better than the clown the GOP pushed out there. I'd might actually consider voting for a republican if they could produce a candidate worth voting for. And I got news for you, Mitt Romney ain't that guy. (HTML deleted)— Hemingway
- Hey professor, all those things you list were made possible by your republican led congress who's only goal was to set back the President. Now you're mad that CP30-Mitt keeps having malfunctions. And Ryan232 isn't much better, just numbers.— don369
- Romney Plan....Stop the school lunch program... these kids need to take responsibilty for hier own lives..."it is not our resposibility to provide food"...
Romnsy Plan....Stop the Pell Grants..."borrow the money from your folks"..It is not our responsility to provide higher education opportunity for lower income, otherwise excelent students
Romney Plan....Stop housing assistance....close down HUD, Freddie Mac,Fanny Mae, VA Housing assistance...it is not our responsibilty to aid our fellow Americans find and keep decent housing.....
Romney Plan....Lower the medicare benefits, givve it to a "voucher system which will allow the the insurance companies to set the rates...if the voucher doesn't cover the cost,so be it.... the elderly and infirm can pay more coverage out of thier meager social security .."it is not our responsility to worry about them ".... i have my own plan for this man... go home you son of a b----!— zoo7gardens - Does it matter that Romney realizes that many Americans want free stuff or like the government teat to suckle from cradle to grave? Of course, Romney would certainly let ANYONE who wanted to be successful become successful - Obama doesn't like successful so he wants to take away their hard earned money and give it to some third world that he thinks we owe. Obama said in 1998 at Loyola Univ. that his goal was to "redistribute" and the "trick" is to find a way to get that done." Obama is a freedom-crushing, hope-crushing, race-bating, covet-encouraging Prez. He is failing in foreign policy and his admin WILL be held accountable in the death of Ambassador Chris Stevens. WE will not forget about Mr. Stevens death just like we don't forget about the death of the border agent Brian Terry!
When the Obama Killed Osama movie comes out do you suppose that is going to make the radical Islamists happy? Do you suppose that just might add fuel to the fire. Obama is a loser and won't win re-election. Millions of O supporters of '08 are NOT going for him this time, McCain supporters of '08 are NOT going for Obama. We will send him packing to his beloved crime-ridden Chicago to community organize his little civilian army.— coniljw
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John Baer has been covering politics and government for the Daily News since 1987. The National Journal in 2002 called Baer one of the country's top 10 political journalists outside Washington, saying Baer has, "the ability to take the skin off a politician without making it hurt too much." E-mail John at baerj@phillynews.com.
John is the author of the book "On The Front Lines of Pennsylvania Politics: Twenty-Five Years of Keystone Reporting" (The History Press, 2012). Reach John at baerj@phillynews.com.
John Baer
Daily News Political Columnist
John is the author of the book "On The Front Lines of Pennsylvania Politics: Twenty-Five Years of Keystone Reporting" (The History Press, 2012). Reach John at baerj@phillynews.com.
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