Last updated on September 19th, 2012 at 10:20 am
Was it the day Romney lost the election? That’s one of the reactions to Mitt Romney’s 47 percent tape.
Forbes wonders if it was political suicide? “Political suicide? I’ll leave it to the pundits to analyze the impact Romney’s comments will have on his election prospects. (It should be noted, however, that while Romney does have an edge among high-income voters, billionaire Warren Buffett is hardly the only rich guy supporting the Democratic incumbent. See Millionaire Towns For Obama.)”
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A round up of reactions to Romney’s Mittmockle:
AP: “Already scrambling to steady a struggling campaign, Republican Mitt Romney confronted a new headache Monday.”
Bloomberg’s Josh Barro: “This is an utter disaster for Romney.”
NY Times’ Paul Krugman: “The idea that half of Americans are just grifters is grotesque. If this is real, it’s very, very ugly.”
Washington Post’s Jonathan Capehart: “What the Republican presidential nominee said is reprehensible and unbecoming a man who claims to want to be president of all Americans.”
Slate’s Dave Weigel: “This is Tea Party rhetoric churned into something new and stupid.”
TPM’s Josh Marshall: ” It’s rare when the impact of some gaffe or embarrassment or revelation isn’t overstated on first blush. But this strikes me as possibly that rare exception. This tape strikes me as absolutely devastating.”
Jim Acosta @jimacostacnn
Shorter Romney statement… no apologies.
Kasie Hunt @kasie
Category of Americans who don’t pay federal income taxes: U.S. troops serving in combatzones.
Mark Halperin @MarkHalperin
Many of us have seen pols pander to donors in closed events. I’ve heard my share Rs+Ds. Never anything this damaging however.
@HowardKurtz
Romney on the 47 percent seems a stereotype of an unsympathetic venture capitalist–going to be hard to overcome among non-base voters.
@JohnJHarwood
Ex-GWBush ad-maker McKinnon: Romney fund-raiser tape “potentially crippling”
@JohnJHarwood
Dem pollster Garin on Romney fund-raiser tape: “Reinforces impression he’s mistake/prone & arrogant. would be better off if he apologized”
Pres. Obama Campaign National Co-Chair Strickland: “Well, it wasn’t a bump in the road, it was a deep chasm, in my judgment. And quite frankly, what the Governor said is very significant because it reveals something about his value system. For him to speak with such disdain about so many Americans and he wants to be our President? Some of those people that he was talking about, Soledad, are soldiers that are risking their lives at this very moment in Afghanistan. Some of those people he was talking about in such a disdainful way are older people. ow can this man who wants to be president talk in such a disdainful way about half of the American people, and then hope to pull this country together and to be our president. This man apparently feels that if you’re not a part of his social class or you don’t have his economic status, that somehow you’re a parasite.”
And you shouldn’t miss “Today, Mitt Romney Lost the Election” at Bloomberg by Josh Barro. A taste: “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.”
I saved David Frum’s lament for last: @davidfrum “If you’re not running for president of all the country, you won’t be elected president of any of it.” and, “The policy problem is that the Romney campaign offers nothing but bad news to hardpressed Americans and the broader middle class.”
Mitt Romney used to be the man you thought had to be better in person, among friends and family, than he was campaigning. Turns out, he’s much, much more cynical, nasty and clueless than his stiff persona leads you to believe.
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