
If Romney were savvier, he'd have denied saying this to PolitiFact, which might have agreed
So I saw this tweet from David Corn...
...and I thought to myself, "No way! Not even Mitt Romney could say something that dumb." But David Corn is the guy who broke the whole 47 percent thing in the first place, so I clicked.
And sure enough:
[Washington Post Reporter Dan] Balz tried to point this out: "But when you said there are 47 percent who won't take personal responsibility—." Romney interrupted: "Actually, I didn’t say that... That's how it began to be perceived, and so I had to ultimately respond to the perception, because perception is reality."
Gee, Mitt, where could that perception possibly have come from? Perhaps the simple fact that it's
exactly what you said?
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. [...] My job is is not to worry about those people. I'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.
It'd be one thing if Mitt Romney apologized for his comments—or if he defended them. But pretending that he never even said them in the first place? That's like saying that not only does he believe 47 percent of Americans are lazy freeloaders who refuse to take personal responsibility for themselves, they—along with the rest of Americans—are stupid idiots who would trust Romney's revisionism over their lying eyes. Well, in this case eyes and ears.