By: Jason EasleyFeb. 14th, 2013more from Jason Easley

Barack Obama personally thanked James Carter for his role in giving the world Mitt Romney’s 47% video before his speech on early education in Georgia today.

Politico reported that before the event, “Upon being introduced and told of James Carter’s role in the 47 percent video, Obama jumped forward to embrace him. ‘Thank you, thank you so much,” Obama told James Carter, his cousin said.

If you listen closely, you can hear the paranoid howls of Fox News, Drudge, and talk radio getting ready to echo through the political valley. This tidbit of news is certain to fuel right wing conspiracy theories about how Obama set Romney up and stole the election. Can’t you just hear the excuses? Romney’s 47% video was all an Obama plot to make the GOP look bad. Obama has eyes and ears everywhere. This teeny tiny bit of news is certain to feed into the right’s paranoid delusion that Barack Obama is right wing dictator who is out to get them.

The problem for the Republican Party is that the 47% video will have a legacy. As long as Republicans continue to stick to their defenders of the super rich ideology, Mitt Romney’s words will live on. While the 47% video confirmed what voters already suspected about Romney, it also confirmed the beliefs of the Republican Party.

Those who followed politics at the most basic level always suspected that the Republican Party had become the party of the wealthy in both words and deeds. Romney’s video simply confirmed how rich right wing Republican donors and their candidates interact behind closed doors. The president was right to thank James Carter. Mr. Carter has done the nation a great service.

As long as Republicans continue to dabble in the Randian fantasy of makers and takers, the legacy of Romney’s 47% video will live on. If Republicans think that a new candidate will make the memory of that video go away, they are mistaken. Forty seven percent has been burned into voters’ minds, and for this, we all have James Carter and the bartender who shot the video to thank.