Paul Revere by Cyrus Dallin, North End, Boston

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Saturday, September 22, 2012

Moochers For Romney

I predicted that Mr. Romney's inept remarks about the 47% of Americans who pay no taxes--"moochers" would come back to bite him on his arse. 

Guess what.

Gallup has published a poll of the highest and lowest income earners and for whom they are most likely to vote.  The highest and the lowest income earners are those who pay the lowest income tax rates (see Romney, 14%) or the least likely to pay income taxes at all--the highest earners because they can stash their money in foreign bank accounts and hire armies of lawyers to find every loophole available to them so that they pay a rate lower than the people who wait on them hand and foot; and the lowest income earners, Romney's "moochers," are also those who pay no income tax.

The Gallup poll shows that those are the two segments of the population most likely to vote for Romney.


 
 
 
Implications

"Romney's comments in the recently released video clip from a May fundraiser implied that he has written off as certain Obama voters about half of the population whom he says pay no income tax. Gallup does not track voters who pay no income tax, so it is not possible to isolate these voters precisely.

Still, government data suggest that those who are most likely to pay no income tax are those who have very low incomes and are the youngest and oldest segments of society.

Recent Gallup Daily tracking data show Romney in fact has significant support among these segments: those with the lowest incomes, the young, the old, and the older voters who have low incomes."

SOURCE

Romney's secret remarks to a room full of mega-wealthy donors insulted those people moochers most likely to vote for him.

It's difficult to come up with something more stupid for a candidate to do than that.


Fellow blogger Infidel753 has a blogpost up that elaborates on this subject.  Here's a teaser:

"Former Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan has downgraded her assessment of Romney's campaign from "incompetent" to "rolling calamity". She offered some advice, too, as other Republicans have, but the candidate insists everything is fine, and Ann "Dances with Horses" Romney waved off all those trying to throw buckets of cold water on this Hindenburg disaster with an imperative that may yet win immortality: "Stop it! This is hard!" No wonder Republicans are becoming disgusted and divided and even campaign insiders are in despair."

And finally, this:

"The attack on Mitt Romney was tough, even vicious.

As expressed at a now-infamous fundraiser in Florida, the Republican nominee's 'ideology, pitting the 'makers' against the 'takers,' offers nothing,' the writer said. 'No sympathy for our fellow citizens. No insight into our social challenge. No hope of change.'

'This approach involves a relentless reductionism,' the writer argued Thursday in the Washington Post. 'Human worth is reduced to economic production. Social problems are reduced to personal vices. Politics is reduced to class warfare on behalf of the upper class.'

It was perhaps the most thorough, full-throated denunciation of Romney this year -- and, of course, a conservative Republican wrote it.

The author, Michael Gerson, has impeccable right-wing bona fides: He worked at the Heritage Foundation, served Chuck Colson and Bob Dole, and was President George W. Bush's chief speechwriter."

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Shameless. But it gives people something to write about anyway. There sure isn't much positive coming out of the other side to write home about.

Kevin Robbins said...

So, if there were more rich people in this country Willard would be a shoo-in.

KP said...

@Shaw << It's difficult to come up with something more stupid for a candidate to do than that. >>

At this point I am guessing Romney and his staff would privately agree with you.

Back in 1968, early in George Romney's Presidential campaign, he said "When I came back from Viet Nam (in November 1965), I'd just had the greatest brainwashing that anybody can get."

Even though he was correct to oppose invlovement in the Viet Nam war, he was skewered for the gaffe. Senator Eugene McCarthy had the best line: "a light rinse would have been sufficient."

I expect we will have additional opportunities to add to the lists of stoopid things said by both candidates. The hits just keep coming!

Rational Nation said...

And the cliff just keeps getting closer...

Paul said...

Right, the response to Romney doing so bad, is to say Obama is just as bad. I guess that's why Obama's polls are rising and Romney's sinking.
This false equivalency is all they have. Lies are all they have.
If you can be duped by the lie that cutting taxes, but not spending (Repuibliscums fiscal policies for the last 30 years) will create jobs and balance the debt, than you can believe anything. That doesn't make it true, and the facts show the failure of their dishonest policies.
Kind of like believing supporting ChickFlic, is not supporting the Republiscum anti-gay legislative agenda.
ChickFlic proved that this week by saying they will no longer donate to those elected officials that support ant-gay legislation, but wait, these ChickFlic supporters (and ChickFlic) said they did not support an anti-gay agenda.
Republiscums thinking is deeply flawed, most of the time, intentionally.

Anonymous said...

Palin Advises Romney: ‘Go Rogue’


Because that worked so well for her. Bwahahahahaha!

Anonymous said...

David Brooks says Romney is the most unpopular (low approval stats) presidential candidate in History.

Shaw Kenawe said...

So long as the GOP allows the radicals to run the party, they will not appeal to independents, Latinos, women, and African Americans.

They've allowed the crazies to take over the party--Romney should have known better. He was a moderate Republican while he was governor of Massachusetts, but he sold out to the fringies in the GOP.

And look where it's gotten him.

In an election that everyone thought would be an easy grab for the Republicans, it now looks like not only will Mr. Obama retain the WH, but there's a good chance the GOP will lose the House as well.

Elizabeth Warren is out-polling Scott Brown, who's been running away from Romney here in Mass.

No one likes a guy who has no core beliefs.

Shaw Kenawe said...

This is from Nate Silver, who called all the states, but one [he called Indiana for McCain, but it went for Obama], in the last presidential election, and he got all the senatorial races correct:


Sept. 22: Little Agreement Among Pollsters on ‘Enthusiasm Gap’

By NATE SILVER


Saturday brought a light volume of polling data, and the FiveThirtyEight forecast was not much changed. Barack Obama’s chances of winning the Electoral College, according to the model, are slightly improved from Friday’s forecast.
.

September 21, 2012, 10:33 pm145 Comments

Sept. 21: Presidential Race Changes, but Swing States Stay the Same

By NATE SILVER


Emblematic of Mr. Obama’s good-but-not-great polling day were a set of polls, which had him ahead in four of the five swing states: Ohio, Virginia, Colorado and North Carolina.



September 21, 2012, 8:19 am503 Comments

Sept. 20: Obama’s Convention Bounce May Not Be Receding

By NATE SILVER


President Obama’s position inched forward in the FiveThirtyEight forecast on Thursday, as he continues to do well in swing states and in surveys that use industry-standard polling methodology.

S.W. Anderson said...

While it's surprising and counterintuitive that Romney gets any traction among low-income people of any age, I must be missing something. Percentage wise his numbers with low-income people are terrible.

We're hearing a lot about how he's got the support of older retired voters. As Ryan's Friday AARP debacle shows, those voters are far from monolithic.

Young independent voters and white working-class men are probably most receptive to Romney's attempts to divide people and pander to their fears and resentment. Many of these people are rootless as to party. Their philosophy mostly ranges from skepticism laced with resentment to outright cynicism. They therefore are much more inclined to vote against who and what they don't like than to embrace someone they do like. Unfortunately for them and everyone else, these characteristics make them made to order for Karl Rove and his very special "political" talents. He plays them the way Liberace played the piano.

Les Carpenter said...

"So long as the GOP allows the radicals to run the party"

Agreed.

But then again the dem party is run by the opposing radicals.

I suppose it is really a question of perception and the principles one stands by.

Polities is politics. And it just keeps getting worse...

Enjoy the fall.

Anonymous said...

"But then again the dem party is run by the opposing radicals."

Who are the "radicals" running the Democratic Party?

Republican Racism said...

You won't get an answer to that from RN