Once again, Mitt Romney is on the defensive over his wealth on Wednesday after telling a CNN reporter that “I’m not concerned about the very poor, we have a safety net there.” And once again, pundits on the right are smacking their foreheads in amazement the usually controlled candidate can’t stop handing Democrats’ more “rich guy” gaffes.
“Facepalm,” Michelle Malkin wrote of the incident, which she said “could easily have been a Saturday Night Live parody”
Over at the National Review, Jonah Goldberg said the quote raised concerns that Romney is “simply not a good enough politician” to beat Obama.
“There are plenty of things one could say to defend Romney on the merits of what he says here,” he wrote. “But great politicians on the morning after a big win, don’t force their supporters to go around defending the candidate from the charge that he doesn’t care about the poor. They just don’t.”
“Romney’s ‘I’m not concerned with the very poor’ line may be the most idiotic thing a politician has ever said,” The Weekly Standard’s John McCormack tweeted.
RedState, whose bloggers have traditionally not been Romney fans, added their voices to the pile. According to co-founder Erick Erickson, Romney “played straight into the liberal caricature that Republicans don’t have hearts.” He added that “The issue here is not that Romney is right or wrong, but that he is handing choice sound bites to the Democrats to make him as unlikeable as he made Newt Gingrich.”
Still others were upset with Romney’s apparently sanguine take on the current state of entitlement spending on the poor.
“The subtext of Romney’s comment is actually worse - that the safety net is the only answer the poor need,” conservative blogger Ben Domenech tweeted.
As Romney moves closer the nomination, there’s increasing anxiety on the right that Democrats have found his weak spot by trying to brand him as a callous “Gordon Gekko,” fears that are further stoked by Romney’s cratering favorability ratings with independents. Could this be Newt’s opening to keep up his assault on Romney’s Bain Capital days and his tax returns?
Benjy Sarlin
Benjy Sarlin is a reporter for Talking Points Memo and co-writes the campaign blog, TPM2012. He previously reported for The Daily Beast/Newsweek as their Washington Correspondent and covered local politics for the New York Sun.
These gaffes are puzzling to me. The man is smart, well educated, etc. That of course doesn't mean I would ever vote for him. He, to me, is basically an 8X10 glossy. Seems to me that he may have lived in a world surrounded by people who always laughed with him, and not at him, and listened to what he had to say and made excuses if he said verbal gaffes. In other words, he grew up in a bubble. Having had most everything in life he may think that the Presidency will also be his for the asking. It didn't work last go around but thinks this time he is the heir apparent. As there are few better in the offing for the GOP he in effect is the heir apparent. And, that may be as far as it will go. Maybe third time will be charmed.
He's just Mitt being Mitt. It's just another day in 1% America to him.
He just say's what most repubs were thinking,
but if you dig you'll find that it run's much deeper.
It's obvious the Republicans aren't trying to win anymore than the Democrats were trying to when they ran that loser Kerry against Bush or when they ran that senile old fool McCain against BO It's all been decided already. This is just a big show to fool the sheeple. It's working....
Foot, Mouth...Mitt!
make that:
Foot, Mouth, Face, Palm...Mitt!
What Romney left out: "Most poor people are not Mormons so I don't care about them".
There wasn't another rich guy the Establishment Republicans could have ran with at least some cunning? He may be devious and corrupt like all the rest of them but he can't sell himself.
It still amazes me how weak a candidate and a field they ran this time. Even the better candidates like Daniels and Thune just couldn't get it up when they had the chance. Are they all afraid of Romney and the Mormons for some reason? Why does Trump hate him so much?
sandyok1950 The smarter ones decided to wait for 2016.
turnaroundsandyok1950 Which means the Dems have better start looking and grooming. I would hope that Obama could select another VP to run and get experience. I don't think Biden would run and there is a place for him in the administration.
well, at least he's not forgotten the dog in the cage on the roof of his car road trip story...
Romney does manage to make John Kerry look charismatic
Why is this considered a gaffe? He meant what he said and had said it before at other functions and before other audiences.
ambarn922 Because that was before Newt was kind enough to set up the "Romney is a mega-rich douchebag" narrative a few weeks back. So now everything Romney says will be inserted into that box. Politics is storytelling, and Mitt's story as an out-of-touch corporate marauder is taking hold with the public.
ambarn922 You're absolutely right. The CNN host gave him an opportunity to correct the so-called "gaffe," and Romney not only passed it up, he repeated and reinforced his position. It's what the guy thinks, and that's it.
I find it amusing though that the wack pack Republican writers wish he was an even better liar than he already is. That's a good Christian Conservative way to go.
The man has no common sense. ambarn922 Maybe because he chose to say it again right after a victory and thus diminish all the momentum he made? This guy exhibits the worst sort of judgment as a candidate. Lord knows what he would do as a president.
The reporter asked him a simple question. He took this opportunity to shine and turned it around and made it into a negative. He failed on both accounts. All the debate and media training in the world is not going to work with this guy. The man has no common sense.
It's so obvious that his only agenda is to advance his own wealth and ambitions. He doesn't care about the GOP social issues. He's not on the same page with his his own party's base in this respect. Nor is he on the same page on economic issues with Independents. He lives in a world of his own Top 1% and disregards everyone else.
He helped make the middle class poor in this country and now ignores that his party wants to get rid of the safety nets he says will help them? Another contradiction of reasoning. Maybe he's just plain inbred trust fund dumb?
ambarn922 Romney, as a believer in the Ryan Kill Medicare Plan is NOT suppose to believe in "safety nets". He's SUPPOSE to be against Medicaid and Social Security. The Republicans have been trying to get rid of the "safety net" ever since they were enacted. So Romney stepped in it for more than one reason.
It's also a gaff because all Repubs want to do is GUT that "safety net". They hate the safety net. So it's incredibly strange/weak/hypocritical [I could go on] to say that *the existence of the very thing they want to destroy* is why you don't worry about the very poor.
Be interesting to take a look at gaffes historically. Have they ever made much of a difference or do the voters basically discount them? If you didn't like Obama to begin with, his "bitter" comment or his wife's "first time proud of my country" comment put you in a snit. The rest of us rolled our eyes; it was no big deal. Likewise, I found McCain's "bomb, bomb Iran" and Hillary's fantasy about being under sniper fire in Tuzla just appalling.
sagae444 Well, what the Obamas said weren't gaffes either. They were true. Hillary lied and McCain was being an idiot.
sagae444 Gaffe's don't affect partisans, they affect independents.
Romney has a saftey net for the poor :It's called a GILL Net !
The anxiety on the right, left and moderates, should be about whether Americans are electing leaders based on sound bites rather than substance.
Rebecca Dalmas Ship sailed on that about 20 years ago. Of course we are. Karl Rove said you run a presidential campaign like voters are watching the TV with the sound turned off... in 1999.
Erick Erickson is wrong. The caricature is not that Republicans have no hearts (that Conservatives who have no hearts!)--Republicans have no brain! How else could one explain that two leading Republican presidential contenders for the past two months have been Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich? (And Romney is well on the way to locking up the nomination by early March.)
Buck Turgidson Jr Yeah, thought it was funny that EE was annoyed that Romney was feeding the caricature. If you say something that fits a previous claim, is that fitting a caricature, or is it, you know, just another fact to back up the claim?
Please Romney keep telling us what you really think. Romney was born with a sliver foot in his mouth.
Not one republican defender to simply state that they actually do care about the very poor. Instead, they are far more concerned about how what Romney said might have a negative impact on the public relations of the campaign.
Kaneblues Well spotted, and well-put!
I DARE Mitt (or any of the GOP plutocrats vying for the Oval Office) to do what Barbara Ehrenreich did to research her book "Nickel & Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America".. who went undercover as a low wage worker to find out how non-skilled workers make ends meet.
The experiment took place in Florida, Maine, and Minnesota, with the author finding a job and lodgings in each location. The experiment was to be held for one month in each location, working full time and living only off the amount of money earned in low-wage jobs.
The goal was to determine whether or not she could both live off the money earned and have enough money at the end of the month to pay the next month’s rent.
The first city chosen was Key West, Florida, due to the proximity to her home. Ehrenreich gets a job as a waitress in a diner-style restaurant, and finds a trailer to rent nearby. The income she receives from waiting tables is not enough to support her and to pay the next installment of rent, and Ehrenreich takes on a second job working as a hotel maid. The two jobs become too physically demanding for her to continue, and she vacates the maid position after one day. The waitress position becomes increasingly difficult as well, and Ehrenreich leaves the job before the month has been completed.
The second city chosen for the experiment was Portland, Maine. In this city, Ehrenreich found a job with The Maids, a residential housekeeping service. Knowing that it would likely take two jobs to meet her goals, she also took a job as a dietary aide in a nursing home. Her two jobs are staggered so that Ehrenreich works seven days a week. The housekeeping position proved to be physically demanding as well as low paying, and Ehrenreich also felt the job to be degrading. After one of the other maids in injured on the job, Ehrenreich demands that the younger maid stop working, and tries to halt the work of all the maids.
Unsuccessful, Ehrenreich complains to the manager and wins a day off for the injured worker. As a dietary aide, Ehrenreich finds herself taking care of the entire Alzheimer’s ward by herself, afraid that by making a mistake she could harm her patients.
After leaving Maine, Ehrenreich travels to Minnesota, where she attempts to find both a job and an affordable place to live. Because of Minneapolis’ low apartment vacancy rate, she is unable to secure and apartment. She does quickly get hired by Wal-Mart as a “softlines” worker, putting errant clothing back on the racks. She finds a hotel to live in, but stays worried about the boltless door, and moves to a nicer hotel.
After leaving each job, Ehrenreich tells a few employees who have gained her trust that her reason for being in the job had only been to write a book about the experience. She is surprised that there is never a dramatic response to the confession, but the workers are caught up in their own low-wage situations and show little interest in her reasons for leaving.
A MUST READ.
SandyBerman Mitt would be running that restaurant and hotel within weeks.
Joe LawyerSandyBerman You mean running from it? I think a little lettuce and grape picking would be good for him as well.
In his mind, the poor are the people making $374K and below.
Here is a little know fact that should make us all proud: A child born today has a fifty percent chance of being on food stamps before the age of twenty. But Mitt's not worried one bit. Hell, wide spread poverty is a great way to build the next generation.
In the meantime, Rush Limbaugh is freaking out because Romney's comment suggests that the safety net is a good thing.
@litigatormom That's just the oxycontin talking again
Small axelitigatormom Now that "Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow" has raised over a megabuck could we draft Stephen to focus his light on Rushbutt?
litigatormom From a Republican point of view, Romney made no sense. If he's supposed to be this right-wing conservative, he's supposed to ignore the poor and unravel the safety net. Isn't that the point of conservatism? Every man for himself? The poor are supposed to pull themselves up, the way he did, with no help from anyone, just the way Mitt did it.
Red Staters have a point; if Romney were a true conservative, he would demand death camps for the poor.
Small axe Hell, most of the posters on Redstate would probably be in those poor camps.
Hobbes83
I think my post here was pulled because I referred to redstaters as white-trash crackers. I actually meant to refer to them as toothless, mouth-breathing, retro-mengent, half-witted, white trash crackers.
I apologize if there was some confusion resulting from my omissions.
Hobbes83Small axe Don't forget that "poor" is the current by-word for "black" in racist jargon. You know, now that "busing" and "states' rights" just sound retarded.
mycleveridHobbes83Small axe Exactly. I suspect he was using "very poor" to mean "black." He was using "middle class" to mean white.
Because you know, living off the safety net is just a grand life. No reason to help those people.
Mr. Romney is over-his-head on issues he claims to own (economy, jobs). How is he not going to drown on the topics he's avoided: like the details of environmental policy, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, modernizing infrastructure, and cyber-terrorism?
So why does Romney want to even be President?
dylan59 Because he WANTS to be president. Isn't that enough?
Hobbes83 No,not really. Why would anyone want that job? I've never understood it.LBJ just walked away...so much grief, screw it. I think Obama should just tell America to take a hike. You broke it George....fix it.
dylan59 Well, to be honest with you, LBJ had a hand in his own demise; the Vietnam War. Obama can claim a mandate to finish off what Bush started, so I can understand why he would want a second term. And, since he is the first non-white president, he needs to see this thing through. I don't think that it is out of the ordinary for Obama to ask for a mandate, and that's what he needs to do.
Hobbes83 I agree....but even with said mandate he hasn't anything to go on trying to get a super majority. So in the end it another four years of losing.
NEOCONSERVATISM IS JUST RE-PACKAGED COMMUNISM. "Jews" are only "conservative" when it comes to two things: 1) "Defense", i.e. conning their American useful idiots into taking over every economy they want to control, and 2) "Free enterprise", i.e. conning their American useful idiots into allowing them to monopolize every sector of the American economy they want to control. "Jews" founded communism, socialism, and liberalism - the direct opposites of conservatism. This is historical fact. Marx, Lenin, and Trotsky were all "jews". Read the "jewish" playbook at http://100777.com/protocols. You'll see that "jews" are rabidly dedicated to destroying EVERY CHRISTIAN NATION ON EARTH. Also, learn how YOU can become a REAL CONSERVATIVE by visiting the barometer of what's really conservative - The John Birch Society - at http://jbs.org. DEAN BERRY MINISTRIES: "When you get tired of fighting the truth."
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