Bloomberg.com: Today, Mitt Romney Lost the Election

Sep 17, 2012 You can mark my prediction now: A secret recording from a closed-door Mitt Romney fundraiser, released today by David Corn at Mother Jones, has killed Mitt Romney's campaign for president. On the tape, Romney explains that his electoral strategy involves writing off nearly half the country as unmoveable Obama voters. As Romney explains, 47 percent of Americans "believe that they are victims." He laments: "I'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives." So what's the upshot? "My job is not to worry about those people," he says. He also notes, describing President Obama's base, "These are people who pay no income tax. Forty-seven percent of Americans pay no income tax." 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 has been vigorously denying President Obama's claims that his tax plan would raise taxes on the middle class. Now, he's been caught on video suggesting that low- and middle-income Americans are undertaxed. (That one is especially problematic given the speculation about what's on Mitt's unreleased pre-2010 tax returns.) Corn tells us there are more embarrassing moments on segments of the video he hasn't released yet. Romney jokes that he'd be more likely to win the election if he were Hispanic. He makes some awkward comments about whether he was born with a "silver spoon" in his mouth. But those are survivable. The really disastrous thing is the clip about "victims," and the combination of contempt and pity that Romney shows for anyone who isn't going to vote for him. Romney is the most opaque presidential nominee since Nixon, and people have been reduced to guessing what his true feelings are. This video provides an answer: He feels that you're a loser. It's not an answer that wins elections.

http%3A//www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-09-17/today-mitt-romney-lost-the-election.html



• This is strike three. Strike 1 was the RNC. Strike 2 was the handling of the Middle East crisis.

• Okay, okay, I'm pivoting back to the economy. See me pivoting, everyone? I didn't really mean what I said. I was just trying to raise some money. Hey, come on, it's me--Mr. Fix-It Businessman Mitt.

• Every day I come to DL for more worthwhile entertainment news; what did R/R do LOL to screw themselves. You never fail me, DL.

• Suddenly the subject of your tax returns looks pretty, pretty, pretty good, eh, Mitt?

  Larry%20David

• Ooooh, this was bad. I just saw it on The Ed Show.

• Not a problem! No one will hear of this in the mainstream media anyway, so only the folks who wouldn't vote for him in a million years will actually see this. And the ones who will vote for him are too stupid to care.

• Yes, but Nixon still won.

  Paranoid%20Pessimist

• [quote]No one will hear of this in the mainstream media anyway It's on all the news shows tonight, dear.

• This article did not come from a liberal blogger. It came from BLOOMBERG. The businessman's friend. The Republicans must be ripping their hair out about nominating such a hapless yutz.

• [quote] This is strike three It is for that week. I said it before and I'll say it again: How the hell can the media keep describing Romney as smart. From the primaries through the elections, it's been one nincompoop misstep after another. W in comparison, is looking positively intellectual.

• And it's the Republicans who say that the Democrats are engaging in class warfare.

• It's like a big 'ol slushie, purchased with food stamps, tossed in the face of half of America.

  and%20I%20feel%20like%20I%20just%20joined%20the%20cast%20of%20Glee

• I bet Palin just had an orgasm.

  GreenJeans

• The funny thing is all of the damage to the Romney campaign is done by Romney himself. Obama just has to look 'Presidential'. And hopefully Bill Clinton will continue to campaign for him. It's good practice for 2016 when Hillary becomes the first woman to become President.

• [quote]This article did not come from a liberal blogger. It came from BLOOMBERG. Actually it came from Josh Barro, a columnist at Bloomberg. You're dreaming if you think Bloomberg News is going to dump Romney.

• Watch Anderson Cooper play the Obama "cling to their guns and religion" video tonight to take the heat off Romney.

• I hope this is true. Now let's concentrate on the House and Senate.

• Please donate to Chris Murphy in CT. He's in a tight senate race with that wrestler trash, McMahon. It's a seat we can't afford to lose.

• I hope it's true too R17, I just don't want to see us lose concentration on the Presidential election. The margins are too close based on recent polls. Perhaps if Obama opens up a 10% lead, we can focus on just 2 things (House and Senate) instead of all three objectives (Obama reelection included).

• R18 is right. The DSCC didn't expect the race to be this close in Connecticut and they are now transferring funds to Chris Murphy to help him.

• Mitt just doen't know when to shut up. He's dumber than a Dan Quayle. OTOH, maybe it's a Republican thing. You have Michele Bachmann yelling "Happy Birthday Elvis" on the anniversary of his death. Then you have Palin rewriting the midnight ride of Paul Revere warning the British patriots that the Redcoats are coming.

  Mr. Potatoe Head

• [quote]2016 when Hillary becomes the first woman to become President. Its going to be awesome. I was 110% Obama in 2008, but the idea of Madame President makes me moist. Repig heads will explode.

• Here's the video:

  http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DdfwRyal5fVk%26feature%3Dyoutube_gdata_player%20%20%20

• "I'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives." Republicans like to preach "personal responsiblity" but they just blame gays and feminists and liberals for everything they don't like. If straights can't keep their marriages together - blame gay marriage! And the people who are so down on welfare recipients are the ones who were BORN RICH like Dumbya and Shitt.

• Does that also apply to corporate welfare? Should corporations just give up all those tax breaks and other special government handouts and man up and take responsibility for their own companies?

• Thank you, r45!

• Exactly, R25. Corporations benefit from publicly funded goods, such as roads, railways, etc. They're not doing anyone any favors when they pay no income taxes and, to top it off, when they ship jobs overseas.

• The Late Gov. Ann Richards summed up W - "He was born on third base and thinks he hit a tripple". Same applies to Romney, they have no idea what it is like to be a regular person.

• Are those numbers he's using EVEN CORRECT?

• And then Ann Richards hit the tipple.

• So... this is front and center on the cnn.com home page. But it's not mentioned at all that I can see on the msnbc.com (now "nbcnews.com") .... So much for msnbc being "liberal", huh?

• R28 - actually she summed up Bush's FATHER that way.

• But remember that Obama is so hated by some, that Romney could stomp on a puppy on live TV and people will still vote for the Bozo.

• IIRC, Politifact determined that the 47% figure is correct, so long as only Federal income taxes are considered. Different matter if payroll and state taxes are considered.

• But of course many within that 47% are Romney supporters...

• r34, I've never understood the tax structure. What is the difference between federal income tax and payroll tax? I mean, everybody who has a job, don't they automatically pay taxes?

• That stupid goddamn mother fucker hasn't a clue and he'll die as dumb as he is today. He'll never learn anything about life and other human beings and I guess he really doesn't have to

• [quote]I mean, everybody who has a job, don't they automatically pay taxes? Yes. But Federal Income taxes, even if withheld, are refunded due to all sorts of deductions (earned income credit, dependent credits, etc), such that they get it back in their tax returns. In some cases, none is even withheld. But there are always payroll taxes... medicare, social security, unemployment coverage, etc.

• Romney mini apology press conference =FLOP SWEAT maybe he can turn this into an apology tour

• It couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

• This reminds me a bit of the 2004 election. Kerry had been successfully swiftboated and people pretty much knew he wasn't going to come back from it after the rich guy image stuck. The thing to look for are the ad buys. Even the crazy rich republicans hate to throw good money after bad.

• Romney will have to reset his etch a sketch again.

• "Romney will have to reset his etch a sketch again." This fuck up is a game changer. By now someone's been bloodied by that Etch A Sketch, and we'll be watching Mitt's Campaign Murder Mystery Dinner Theater.

• hope

• He may have lost but he spoke the truth. America is a nation of professional victims.

• R45 - seems more likely that the current GOP is full of potential bullies who cry to mommy when people stand up to them.

• Yes, R45, professional victims like Bain Capital which got a federal bailout.

• Yes, R45. And they're called "millionaires, billionaires, CEOs, Wall-Street traders, bankers, and Republicans"

• No wonder Nancy Pelosi was mocking his chances of victory.

  Put a fork in it.

• He's a totally idiot. He's yapping about people not paying taxes when he's too terrified to show us his tax returns. What are ya hiding Mitt? And this business of "My job is not to worry about those people.". What does he think the job is? Only to look after just half the country? Only an idiot would vote for him now. He doesn't care about you, average Americans, he only cares about winning. His silver spoon is so far up his butt, he can't see half the country out there.

  He%27s%20flat%20out%20doesn%27t%20give%20a%20shit

• r45 wants his daddy

• R45 must mean that we're all victims of the predations of Republican administrations and their corporate cronies, because that's certainly true.

• Im making a fortune selling T-shirts : I'm an IDIOT, therefore I am a Republican "I'm Mitt Romney and I approve this message."

• A lot of people in this country openly and secretly agree with what he said. Sad but very true.

• bullshit

• R45, we're happy that in this great land you feel free to shout both your failure to understand history and the American context, and the fact that you have the same lack of plausibility as a presidential nominee as does Mr. Romney. Now kindly go to the donkey shed and have one kick you in your cunt.

• What about proud to work, I can make a difference. The liberals are taking away ALL of your freedoms, starting with God and Christmas. Saying sorry to the world over, if more WWII vets were alive none of this would be happening. It's a damm shame that there is no pride in the White House today.

• R57, is fucking crazy!

• Please note -- the right response to trolls is to either ignore or viciously insult them, not to debate them.

• Prediction: Romney will be the first candidate to wave a gun around at the debates before having a complete meltdown.

• At least R57 can read those Republican talking points well enough to retype them.

• So is 58 you faggot

• The breakout on the 47% includes Senior Citizens (the ones Mitt is asking to take personal responsibility for themselves) and millionaires. he doesn't consider all the millioniares we subsidize with tax breaks and corporate welfare.

• F&F @ R58/R62. This isn't the site for you. Shoo!

• ^ Whoops -- meant R57, not R58.

• R60 Correction: handguns are for low class moochers. Mitt Romney will instead fire off his Holland & Holland finely crafted $100k + shotgun.

  Ann%20R.

• When Romney gives his concession speech, I hope it's him, Anne, the five boys and Rafalca standing there in support.

• Yeah, we're getting trolled by the bat-shit crazy division of the GOP, which is almost all of them these days.

• r45 is right! Half the people in this country are victims. The majority of them live in red states. That's why republican states receive the most welfare and contribute the least amount of taxes to the nation. If this country broke up into two countries. The country made up of blue states would be a rich prosperous nation while the the country made up of red states would be in 3rd world conditions.

• Am I missing posts or something? So many people referring to post #s that this thread hasn't even reached...

• You must be misreading R70. I scanned through the last 30 posts and didn't see that.

• Please, bitch/R67. I've been trying to kill the Romneys for years.

  Rafalca

• Nancy was right!

• What Romney said was terrible and he is being fried for it. But I'm not so sure it will be viewed as terrible by the base who supports him. These are white working class people who don't see themselves in his comments they see the "other". They see illegals and Blacks. They resent freeloaders as much as Romney disdains them. So if Romney plays to their bitterness and their resentment and their fear, they'll keep supporting him. There's only five points separating Romney & Obama according to the WSJ/NBC poll released today. These comments havn't yet been measured. Maybe by nextweek they will be. But all these well-meaning pundits who are castigating Romney are overlooking the baseness of the base. As it were. There are some mean, ugly irrational people out here. Even if some of these Romney supporters are getting food stamps, they view it as "different" they think of it as temporary, not like those permanent freeloaders. Romney is also playing the welfare to work commercial again, even though it's been discredited as a lie.

• Don't forget that many many of those who are getting food stamps and other government aid blame Obama's economy, so they will feel that, yes, it is an entitlement and "damn those democrats, this is what they've done to me."

  Anon

• [quote]But I'm not so sure it will be viewed as terrible by the base who supports him. It won't, but nobody really expected it to. It's the 10% uncommitted that these comments will matter to. And even if it just sways the vote total by 1%, that may well be enough to put this race away. This is as much about the conventional wisdom being developed about Romney as it is about this one particular gaffe. Obama has been spending millions portraying Romney as an out-of-touch one-percenter unable to understand or sympathize with the concerns of ordinary Americans. With this one unguarded moment, Romney has cemented that meme. If this is boxing, this isn't a knockout blow, despite what a couple of overheated pundits are saying; it's just the latest in a series of jabs that are rocking the fighter back, flailing and out of control.

• R76: in your dreams. Don't think that the election has been won yet. It's only mid-September. Who knows what will happen between now and election day.

  Anon

• CNN's Money page lead story:

  http://money.cnn.com/2012/09/18/news/economy/romney-seniors-benefits/index.html%3Fiid%3DLead

• [quote]in your dreams. Um, which statement is "in my dreams?" [quote]Don't think that the election has been won yet. I don't. I said "if". [quote]It's only mid-September. Who knows what will happen between now and election day. No shit, Sherlock.

• [quote] Who knows what will happen between now and election day. My bold prediction: there will be more (paid) Republican trolls like R75/R77 coming to Datalounge.

• And her's an opposing view, from a solid liberal... let's all hope he's wrong (he sure does): "Mitt Romney just won the election. I ain't kidding. Here's what he said: "I believe the point I was made is that the president starts off with a large number of the voters, 47, 48, 49 percent, something like that. These are people who are in his camp and, uh, they will vote for him almost no matter what. [...] I point out I recognize that among those that pay no tax, approximately 47 percent of Americans, I’m not likely to be highly successful with the message of lowering taxes. [...] And so I then focus on those individuals who I believe are most likely to be able to be pulled into my camp and help me win the 51 or 50.1 percent that I need to become the next President." If this message from Romney goes unchallenged, he will win the election. Here's why: 1. He signals that there's a group that will "uh" vote for him no matter what. You know and I know and everybody knows he means African-Americans. Mission accomplished. Now everyone has their race-colored glasses on. 2. He handily conflates the 47 percent of people who may vote for Obama with the 47 percent of people who pay no federal income tax. Now his audience (and his audience is very specific) thinks that those "uh" people will don't pay income tax (never mind that most pay state tax, payroll tax, sales tax and that the real tax freeloaders are those lazy elderly people). 3. He gets out a free plug for lowering taxes on the 53 remaining percent, never mind that his tax plan will actually raise taxes on most Americans. His goal is to rile HIS base up and get them to the polls, and messages like this do just that. Remember: It looked like Kerry was going to beat Bush, but a growndswell of white, working class voters showed up at the polls to win the day for Bush in Ohio. He's stoking race resentment and class resentment, treading on the fiction that white working class voters are in the same class as he is. The fact that he's doing it so hamfistedly may seem funny to you and me, but it will work on his base."

• Americans, for the most part, DO NOT WANT extremism like this. They may be fooled into voting for it, they may be in denial or intellectually dishonest about voting for it, but when it's put in their face that a candidate is willing to write off 47% of the people - Americans DON'T want that.

• [bold]FiveThirtyEight Forecast: G.O.P. Senate Hopes Slipping[/bold]

  http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/18/fivethirtyeight-forecast-g-o-p-senate-hopes-slipping

• Fact-Checking Mitt Romney: Dependency and Romney’s 47 Percenters Mitt Romney was wrong when he said the 47 percent of Americans who pay no federal income taxes are “dependent on the government.” Most of them are working people who simply do not earn very much money. Romney also assumed that all of those in the 47 percent who pay no federal income tax vote Democratic. But polling data suggest that’s just not true. President Obama is faring better than Romney among the lowest earners — those most likely to be among the 47 percent who pay no federal income tax — but polls show Romney is supported by some 40 percent of those earning the lowest income. In fact, a healthy chunk of the 47 percent are seniors who tend to vote Republican. Lots more at the link:

  http://factcheck.org/2012/09/dependency-and-romneys-47-percenters/

• Rachel Maddow is now wearing a monocle and asking where Romney's tax returns are.

  Lol.

• R81, who wrote that utter and complete nonsense? You attribute it to some liberal and hope that "he" is wrong, but you never mention who came up with that preposterous blather. There is so much supposition and giant leaps of faith that go into his hypothesis as to make it untenable. The Rethug "value voters" already believe that blacks will vote for Obama and that Obama supporters want a handout. And, Mitt is still losing in every major poll. Plus, this is total fantasy: [quote] He gets out a free plug for lowering taxes on the 53 remaining percent That argument has not been presented in any retelling of this sorry story. Moreover, Obama has effectively made the case that the Rmoney plan raises taxes on the middle class while lowering them for millionaires. So, no, that thing is pure fiction.

• Anybody see Obama's appearance on Letterman?

• [quote]When I won in 2008, 47% of the American people voted for John McCain. They didn’t vote for me and what I said on Election Night was: ‘Even though you didn’t vote for me, I hear your voices, and I’m going to work as hard as I can to be your president.’”

  http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2012/09/18/obama-on-letterman-not-a-lot-of-people-think-theyre-entitled/

• Good for Rachel! Now we MUST see his tax returns.

• R86, you completely missed the point. The point is not what reasonable people hear and take away. It's what the delusional Obama-bashing racists, tea-partiers, libertarian-tards, and the others "hear" ... it's the dog-whistles and coded messages. And it's been verified by a few of my interactions with those idiots on #tcot on twitter. They really are brain-damaged and mentally ill... I have no other way of explaining how they can see and hear the exact opposite of reality, and think the most horrible things are great.

• [quote]It's what the delusional Obama-bashing racists, tea-partiers, libertarian-tards, and the others "hear" ... it's the dog-whistles and coded messages. Yeah, but that's roughly 27% of the voters, and they were already rabidly opposed to Obama, anyway. Sorry, but I don't buy the reasoning behind that blog post, either.

• [quote]His goal is to rile HIS base up and get them to the polls, and messages like this do just that. I could just as easily claim, and with a bit more justification, that messages like this do more to rile up his opponents than his supporters. Based on what we've seen after the two conventions, the enthusiasm gap seems to have largely disappeared.

• [quote]R86 you completely missed the point. No, actually, I did not: [quote]The Rethug "value voters" already believe that blacks will vote for Obama and that Obama supporters want a handout. And, Mitt is still losing in every major poll. I know what your point is and I disagree with it. R91 is correct. Those voters are roughly 27 percent of the voting population. He already had the Obama-haters and he cannot win the election with them alone. The only thing that Mitt said that was correct was that he needed to get that narrow class of independent voters to vote for him. But, from all indications, he has probably lost them through a series of very bad missteps -- including this nonsense about the 47 percent. [quote]And it's been verified by a few of my interactions with those idiots on #tcot on twitter. That's nice. But it is anecdotal evidence and hardly proof of anything. But, you are certainly entitled to your opinion. We'll see who was right in about six weeks from now.

• Sure enough, R81 was wrong and the author of the Bloomberg.com article was right.