[quote=zk]High comedy? Sure. Saying what he was really thinking? I doubt it.

I’d be surprised if he actually believes that 47% of Americans think that they’re victims who are entitled to “you-name-it.” I think he was just toadying up to those who 1) believe everything Rush tells them and 2)have lots of money that they’re willing to give to him.

Rush, Sean, etc. are very fond of these statistics. And so are their followers. So, like any politician, Mitt is playing to the audience in front of him. In this case, people who respond to the right-wing myth that all people who don’t pay federal income tax consider themselves victims who are entitled to support from the government.

I don’t think we’ll ever hear what a politician really thinks. And if we do, he probably won’t go very far. Because most voters don’t want to hear what a politician thinks. Most voters want to hear what they want to hear.

Politicians have no doubt been saying things like this to groups like this for centuries. But with pocket-sized cameras in virtually every room they’ll ever speak in, and especially after this debacle, I doubt the tradition will continue much longer.[/quote]

you’re right. I withdraw my theoretical support for romney based on frankness. i migt have cast my vote for him still on a humor basis. im still flabbergasted at the utter wrongness of the statement. it’s just beautifully inept and meanspirited. it really ties in nicely with the bullying episode from high school.

just such a …dick….

frankly, makes me wanna go get my buds on the chess team and give romney a swirlie.

Romney Apologizes To Nation’s 150 Million ‘Starving, Filthy Beggars’
SEPTEMBER 18, 2012 | ISSUE 48•38 | MORE NEWS

SALT LAKE CITY—Seeking to limit the fallout from a videotaped speech in which he asserts 47 percent of Americans “pay no taxes” and do not take “personal responsibility and care for their lives,” Mitt Romney hastily called a press conference today to apologize personally to the “150 million starving, filthy beggars [he] might have offended.”

Saying that he deeply regretted his choice of words at a private $50,000-a-plate fundraising function in May—during which he argued “[his] job is not to worry” about the lower-earning half of the nation’s populace—Romney personally appealed to the country’s “dirt-caked garbage pickers and toothless street urchins” for forgiveness.

“First and foremost, I would like to offer a heartfelt apology to all the whores, junkies, bums, and grime-covered derelicts out there who make up nearly half our nation,” a visibly contrite and solemn Romney said outside a campaign stop at a local high school. “Let me assure you that I in no way meant to offend any of the putrid-smelling, barefoot masses out there. My campaign is not about dividing this nation, but about bringing all sides together—the rich, elegant members of the upper class, as well as the 47 percent who are covered in flies and eat directly from back-alley dumpsters.”

“I am fully committed to building a better future for every American,” Romney continued, “and that means ensuring all 150 million grease-and-urine-soaked members of our society get a fair shake.”

The Romney campaign reportedly scrambled into damage-control mode after the video leaked Monday, issuing a statement late last night stating that the intended target of Romney’s remarks was ingrained big-government largesse, not the “hordes of uneducated, loathsome scum who unfortunately populate this country.”

However, with Romney’s comments continuing to dominate the news cycle today, the campaign opted to convene a press event to allow Romney to speak directly to the nation’s “grimy panhandlers and coke-addled whores” so that he could issue an apology and explain his familiarity with their struggles.

NEWS

Romney Campaign Sends In Champion Of The Poor Paul Ryan For Damage Control
“I know just how hard it must be to get through a miserable, destitute life that is rife with crying babies whose shrieks consistently disrupt the affluent members of society who actually contribute something to this world,” said the GOP candidate, adding that he wanted to make amends for his recent statements and reach out to what he called the country’s “snaggle-toothed street people” and “hell-spawned savages.” “I know it can be challenging to wake each morning, covered in your own feces and refuse, and get back out there on the streets to beg for spare change and food scraps, always one step from dying right there in an alley.”

“I know your challenges, and I am ready to fight for you,” he added

Romney also said he recognized that the hardships of the nation’s low-earners are made more difficult by the fact that so “very, very many of them are drug-addicted, high-school-dropout single mothers and fathers who sleep in gutters while sewer rats nibble at their necrotic flesh.”

In an effort to right his campaign and rebuild his image, Romney promised to bring his message of compassion and economic opportunity to the “ramshackle, mud-floored huts” in which half of all U.S. residents live.

“Let me make this absolutely clear: I have the utmost respect for all of the filth-encrusted, lesion-covered degenerates of this nation,” Romney said. “In the coming weeks, I look forward to meeting real Americans in their squalid, roach-infested hellholes in every corner of this country. I promise to stand up for every one of you, even the 47 percent of you huddled together for warmth, fighting your own family members for moldy crusts of bread as you wallow in your own excrement.”

Added Romney, “And I look forward to serving you as your next president.”

i dissent. I think it’s a little shocking. Do all rich people really think half the country are deadbeats who are never gonna be able to support themselves adn are perpetually looking for a handout? it just sounds…super anti-democratic. i understand the rich think they’re better, but really,, HALF the country being perceived as not taking responsibility for their lives?

now, if briansd1 were here, he would probably argue that poor republicans are dupes who believe that by going along with the republicans it somehow elevates them, and they’re going to be rich soon anyway, so what do they need with things like food stamps, gov health insurance etc. and that by voting against their own immediate self-interest they are living in a fantasyland and only hurting themselves.

which makes me wonder whether briansd1 would question…does a statement like Mitts disturb the fantasy that by voting republican your’e part of the moneyed power structure?

Is briansd1 thinking: Does it have any effect on relatively broke republican wealthy-wannabees? Does it make them pause and say, shit, the big boys actually think we’re kind of a bunch of filthy grubby vagrants beyond hope? maybe i should vote in my own more immediate self interest and vote myself some benefits?

briansd1 is not saying the republicans are wrong to vote republican, or that it’s necessarily irrational to vote against your own immediate short term benefits for the good of the nation, or because you think it’s right…or because you think people with money are cool and you wanna be one of them and enjoy slightly lower marginal rates when you arrive….

briansd1’s saying…it kind of requires a leap of faith to do so…a leap that mitts rude comments might somehow render somewhat less appealing…

or do they think, hey, Mitt’s talking about someone else, not me?

briansd1can see the appeal of wanting to be allied with the party you view as money and power, even if you live in a crappy trailerpark, smoke generic cigs cause you cannot afford camels, and have no health insurance, but when the main dude starts dissing you to your face, does it have any effect on the fantasy?

man, if only briansd1 were here…

there’s really nothing worse he could say about mitt than mitt said about himself though….