How Mitt Lost: Remembering Romney’s 11 Biggest Gaffes

Last updated on February 7th, 2013 at 05:42 pm

Get your Mitt memories here. Now you can laugh.

The Republican who lost the 2012 election a rather infamous reputation for putting his foot in it. Sometimes he meant what he said and at other times, what appears to be a gaffe was really a more telling indication of how he views some segments of the population. Here are Mitt Romney’s 11 goofiest gaffes and most disturbing comments:

To get more stories like this, subscribe to our newsletter The Daily.

1) Mitt Romney told Bret Baier on Fox News today that he did not talk about the troops in his convention speech because, “You don’t go through a laundry list; you talk about the things you think are important.”

2) To NASCAR fans, mocking a group of fans wearing plastic ponchos, “I like those fancy raincoats you bought. Really sprung for the big bucks.” Also, trying to everyman it, Romney said, “I have some great friends who are Nascar team owners.”

3) The 47% comments from a private fundraiser in May of this year, “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. My job is not to worry about those people. I’ll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.'”

4) Romney, who has disdained social programs, said in January of this year that he’s not concerned about the very poor, “I’m not concerned about the very poor. We have a safety net there.”

5) In September, Romney rushed a statement within hours of an attack in Libya, trying to politicize the deaths of four Americans in Libya. In his statement, he earned a round of pants on fire factchecks for falsely accusing Obama of apologizing for America, after being caught on tape promising his wealthy donors that if there were an “opportunity” like a hostage situation he would “take advantage of it”. Romney wrote in an email within hours of the attacks but embargoed until midnight so as to avoid looking like he was taking advantage of a tragedy, “The Obama administration’s first response was not to condemn attacks on our diplomatic missions, but to sympathize with those who waged the attacks.” Later he went on about Obama’s imaginary apology tour, forgetting that it was he who had been forced to apologize in Britain over the summer.

6) Over the summer, Romney committed his Olympics gaffe in which he suggested Britain wasn’t prepared for the games — part one in a series of international mishaps resulting in him being called a “car crash” and another Dubya by the British press. He said, “You know, it’s hard to know just how well it were turn out- will turn out. There are a few things that were disconcerting, the stories about the- private security firm not having enough people- the sup- supposed strike of the immigration and customs officials, that obviously is not something which is encouraging. Because in the games, there- there are three parts that makes games successful.”

7) In 2007, Mitt Romney said that his sons are not fighting for the country because “one of the ways my sons are showing support for our nation is helping me get elected.”

8) Romney said Syria is Iran’s route to the sea in the foreign policy debate. Romney said (again), “Syria is Iran’s . . . route to the sea.”

9) Romney called the withdrawal of the troops from Iraq “tragic”. “It is my view that the withdrawal of all of our troops from Iraq by the end of this year is an enormous mistake, and failing by the Obama administration. The precipitous withdrawal is unfortunate – it’s more than unfortunate, I think it’s tragic.”

10) Romney touted his binders full of women in the second presidential debate, “I went to a number of women’s groups and said, “Can you help us find folks,” and they brought us whole binders full of women.”

11) Pandering gone wrong collection:

“I’m learning to say ‘y’all’ and I like grits. Strange things are happening to me.”

“This feels good, being back in Michigan. You know, the trees are the right height.”

“I saw the young man over there with eggs Benedict, with hollandaise sauce. And I was going to suggest to you that you serve your eggs with hollandaise sauce in hubcaps. Because there’s no plates like chrome for the hollandaise.”

“I’m not sure about these cookies. They don’t look like you made them. No, no. They came from the local 7-eleven, bakery, or whatever.” (Resulting in the bakery owner telling the WSJ, “Let him eat cake then.”)

Turns out, America was paying attention. Goodbye, Mitt Romney.



Copyright PoliticusUSA LLC 2008-2023