The Gaffe That Can Sink Romney

Mitt Romney thinks that half of Americans “believe that they are victims” and “depend on the government to survive.” So he might as well not concern himself with the 47 percent of voters who “think they’re entitled to healthcare, food, housing” and who of course are bound to vote for Barack Obama.

The contemptuous judgment that the Republican candidate passed on half of the country was revealed by a reporter from Mother Jones magazine who sneaked into a fundraiser. And the video produced by the magazine — which has always been committed to the left and is even left of Obama — is wreaking such havoc in the U.S. that one commentator, a leading Bloomberg analyst, said that with these declarations Romney has practically lost the election.

“These are people who don’t even have to pay income tax,” Mitt contemptuously says in one of the most incriminating clips of the video of his fellow citizens — citizens who in 50 days are going to be asked to vote for him. “And our message on lowering taxes has no chance of swaying them.” Alienating himself from half of all Americans, and especially the poorest, doesn’t scare the billionaire candidate who, among other things, has disclosed only his most recent tax returns — revealing earnings of over $45 million.

“It’s not my place to worry about these people,” the former governor of Massachusetts candidly affirms. It is what it is. The judgment on the poor who are forced to live off of state aid is definitive: “I’ll never convince them that they have to take personal care of themselves and their lives.”

Jim Messina, coordinator of the Obama campaign, quickly defined the Republican candidate’s words as “shocking.” He was outraged that the president’s rival had to go “behind closed doors” to say what he really thinks of Americans. “It’s hard to serve as president for all Americans,” said Messina “when you’ve disdainfully written off half the nation.”

The statements come at the most delicate moment of the campaign. After the two opposing conventions Barack gained a lead that, according to surveys, ranges from three to six percentage points, managing to bring him ahead especially in the so-called swing states that are going to decide the election, from Florida to Ohio. Romney has tried to attack him in terms of foreign policy, but criticism of the management of the Middle East crisis has proved to be a double-edged sword: You don’t accuse the nation’s president in a time of mourning.

The very latest polls showed the Republican in recovery again. The closed-door statements now risk compromising for the umpteenth time the image of a candidate who hasn’t succeeded in convincing the American people that he should be president — particularly because he does not think it’s even worth it to convince at least half of them: those who believe that they are victims, those who would be lost without the government and Barack Obama.