Mitt Romney states that half of the population of the United States are parasites who think of themselves as victims who deserve everything (food, housing, healthcare, “you name it”) from the government. And as an add-on, that group of people… well, they’re Obama’s core support group. Everyone else is presumably either an independent or a Republican.

It’s very rare that the first report of “gaffes” from Mitt Romney, Barack Obama and pretty much any other politician lives up to the hype of the first breathless headlines. By the time you read the quote in context you realize that the intent has been exaggerated or overblown, the real meaning lost by taking it out of context, the subtleties removed.

But…

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 …

 

These are people who pay no income tax. 47 percent of Americans pay no income tax. So our message of low taxes doesn’t connect… my job is not to worry about those people. I’ll never convince them that they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.

But… I don’t see this with these recent recorded quotes from Romney at a fundraiser for the wealthiest of his supporters, published by Mother Jones. I really don’t read any subtlety or context missing here. I hear Mitt Romney expressing, in very clear language, two things:

1. The very worst opinions he has been accused of holding, but has always denied
2. The very worst opinions from what we just thought was the right-wing extremist fringe of his party

And what is particularly damning is that Romney’s campaign response to the release of these videos was not to distance himself from the comments, or claim they were taken out of context, or even to admit that he might have chosen his words or phrasing poorly. The campaign response was more of the same: we really *care* about the people who are unemployed, truly we do, even though our candidate thinks they’re freeloading moochers who deserve nothing. Oh, and he stands by the comments in the video.

Romney apparently wants to be president of a country where he believes half the population are money-grubbing parasites who take no responsibility for their lives. He expresses, quite frankly, disgust at half the population of the entire United States. They’re not achievers like him, and they deserve nothing. Not even that 11% who pay no federal taxes because they are elderly, retired and living off the Social Security income that they rightfully deserve because they already PAID for it. Not even that 28% of people who pay no federal taxes but still pay state and local and payroll taxes because they, you know, have a job.

I guess that since they don’t pay federal taxes, they wouldn’t pay any of his salary if he were to become president, so why should he care about them?

Boy, you thought Kanye West saying “George Bush doesn’t care about black people” was a crazy statement. “Mitt Romney doesn’t care about half the population of the United States” is even crazier… and it was Romney himself caught on tape saying it.

More on the reality behind the “47% don’t pay taxes” comments here and here.