ABC News has recordings from Mitt Romney’s Obama-gave-away-too-many-gifts” call to donors. An excerpt from the report:
Romney: “What the president’s campaign did was focus on certain members of his base coalition, give them extraordinary financial gifts from the government, and then work very aggressively to turn them out to vote, and that strategy worked.”
Romney’s campaign manager, Matt Rhoades, listed a few specifics: “Whether it was free contraceptives for 18 to 29 year-old women, DREAM Act waivers, student loan interest rate cuts for college students, and other initiatives geared toward energizing their coalition. They succeeded.”
Romney: ” It’s a proven political strategy, which is give a bunch of money to a group and, guess what, they’ll vote for you. … Immigration we can solve, but the giving away free stuff is a hard thing to compete with.”
The comments haven’t done him much good with his fellow Republicans.
From another direction, New York’s Jonathan Chait reacts:
Sadly, the reporter does not have a full transcript of the remarks, so we don’t have the context. In theory, this set of facts could be Romney offering a fulsome endorsement of the Obama presidency. Look at the helpful things he has done — he’s made college and health care more affordable, helped the children of illegal immigrants build a life in America, and so on! But I suspect Romney offered this in a more critical context rather than in the spirit of “all these people voted for Obama because he’s actually been a really good president.” It’s essentially the same idea Romney offered up when he insisted the NAACP didn’t support him because its members wanted “free stuff.”
I think the latest Romney donor remarks ought to put to rest the debate about his sincerity. When the 47 percent remarks emerged, I argued that it was the real Romney speaking. Some moderate Republicans suggested he was merely pandering to people whose donations he badly needed. I never thought this made much sense — surely Romney had ways of relating to wealthy Republicans without launching an extended analysis he didn’t believe — but the latest version of essentially the same riff ought to put that debate to rest. He’s never running again. He doesn’t need these people. The real Romney is indeed a sneering plutocrat.
Talking Points Memo zeroes in on comments about immigration:
Romney also suggested Obama’s support for “amnesty for those that are here illegally” was critical to Latino voters and urged the party to address immigration in Congress or risk getting beaten again in 2016.
“Going forward, clearly we have to have an immigration plan, this idea of just kicking this down the field until every four years the Democrats use it as an issue to hit us over the head with is nuts,” he said. “We have to have an immigration plan and program, and I certainly hope that our leaders in Washington are willing to put that forward.”
He sounded more hopeful on that front than others.
“Immigration we can solve,” he said, “but the giving away free stuff is a hard thing to compete with.”
Watching Arizona politics as the national GOP wrestles with comprehensive immigration reform is going to fascinating.
This article appears in Nov 15-21, 2012.
Mister Romney.. I can call you that because your political suicide was your problem….giving away free stuff… I worked for 55 years to get “Free Stuff”… you never acknowledged for a moment that the Vietnam Veterans who suffered from the effects of Agent Orange.. or PTS, or the rest of us who contributed to Social Security were in that 47%, and didn’t make enough to pay taxes under a Republcian Tax Cut, that you were not interested in our vote: We gave all we could, while you were off in France or Spain, or wherever the hell you were in a safe zone prosthelizing your Religion… which by the way, is more profitable than any Televangelist, or the Catholic Church… for crying out loud it’s more profitable than most Drug Cartels….
It wasn’t free stuff.. Mr. Romney.. it was your arogance.. your willingness to compromise any decent values and preach to the chior you were in front of.. you had no credibility.. in womens’ rights….equity for the middle class, social issues, NOTHING…
President Obama didn’t win this election.. you and your party lost it.. primarily because you’ve lost touch with reality, the American Way, and today’s populace… this song would have done better in 1950… not 2012
like the free stuff, millions and millions of gifts to billionaires that the plutocratic 1% Mr. Romney was promising would have given the greedy filthy rich, who, by the way, were gobbling up every bit of it and repaying him with votes and campaign funds. what a pathetic piggy racist caste-system whiny sore Loser.
Romney is right. Obama literally bought the election with other people’s money. They can raise taxes on the rich and give it to the masses for votes for a while–a really short while. And then the US will be like Greece.
walter, you can rest assured that the one percent you are currently defending are not about to pay their fair share. Guess what! they found individuals such as yourself to carry the burden.
Gov. Romney, the election is over. President Obama won. You must need a rest. Why don’t you take a nice long vacation and give us a rest from your incessant whining?
LEAST WE FORGET THE THOUSANDS SLAUGHTERED BY ILLEGAL ALIENS ANNUALLY.
Over the first two year period, Nov. 4, 2012 will mark the National Remembrance Day for those killed by illegal migrants and immigrants. The National Remembrance Day was conceived by the Tea Party Immigration Coalition (TPIC) and last year, Rep. Steve King (R-IA) announced his sponsorship of a declaration making the first Sunday of every November the day we honor those Americans killed by illegal aliens. These numbers are in the hundreds of thousands, from drunken drivers, female assaults to child molesters. These daily occurrences hardly ever hit the headlines, because the Liberal media suffocates the facts to the general public. For far too long, we have sat around and watched as our fellow citizens die every year at the hands of illegal aliens, while our elected officials simply ignore the ever-growing crisis. The federal government does not keep comprehensive statistics (may be intentionally) on the number of crimes committed in this country by illegal aliens. On November 3, Rep. King, stood in silence just outside the Capitol building with Congressman Walter Jones, activists Jeff Lewis and TPIC founder John Stahl stood alongside Jamiel Shaw Sr.( a California athlete shot because he was dressed in the wrong colors) and Ray Tranchant My 16-year-old daughter, Tessa, was killed by a drunken illegal alien in Virginia Beach three years ago while sitting at a stop light (both of whom lost their children to the uncontrolled and even murderous actions of illegal aliens) and said:
“These are real human misery stories, where there’s real hurt and real agony going on a daily basis in the United States of America, and we treat it as if it’s just some kind of acceptable disruption of our lives. It’s not. It’s an interruption of innocent lives that takes place because we have years of administrations that refuses to enforce immigration law.” Even before the Obama administration little was done to cauterize the murderous rampage of foreign nationals in our nation. For those lost, there are no wreath-laying ceremonies, no flag lowering or community congregations. For those families who are left behind truly suffer in silence. Perhaps if one of the immediate family members of politicians was slaughtered on the highway, or one of their children disappeared or a spouse was attacked, then they would expedite the right laws to stop these hideous travesties. Let us see how quick Democrat majority leader Harry Reid would fly into legislative action if on a Nevada highway he was holding in his bloody hands his injured daughter or GOP speaker of the House John Boehner, that one of two daughters was assaulted in Cincinnati, Ohio.
BEFORE PRESIDENT OBAMA PUSHES A PATH TO CITIZENSHIP FOR ALL ILLEGAL ALIENS ALREADY HERE, WITHOUT THESE POLICIES. THEN BE PREPARED TO BE PAY MORE TAX MONEY AND EVEN BE AWARE OF A GUARANTEED ONSLAUGHT FROM ACROSS THE WORLD OF OUR LAX ENFORCEMENT IMMIGRATION SYSTEM?
BEFORE ANY PASSAGE OF IMMIGRATION REFORM FINDS ITS WAY THROUGH THE COMATOSED CONGRESS, TWO BILLS ARE A ESSENTIAL TO EVENTUALLY STOP THE INGRESS OF ANY MORE FLOWS OF HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS. 1. THE LEGAL WORKFORCE ACT CONTAINING MANDATORY E-VERIFY AND HALT ILLEGAL ALIENS TAKING JOBS AND HOLDING EMPLOYERS ACCOUNTABLE. 2. A SIMPLE AMENDMENT TO END THE BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP BILL TO STEM THE INFLOW OF SMUGGLED BABIES EITHER UNBORN OR AS AN INFANT, INTO THE UNITED STATES TO GAIN INTENTIONAL RIGHTS TO BE A CITIZEN AND A MASSIVE FINANCIAL BURDENING THE U.S. TAXPAYER. 3. THE REINTRODUCTION OF FORMER PRESIDENT BUSH 2006 SECURE FENCE ACT IN ITS ENTIRETY. THIS IS A DOUBLE PARALLEL FENCE STRETCHING ALONG THE BORDER OF THE U.S STATES AND ITS SOUTHERN NEIGHBOR. AMERICA MUST REDUCE SANCTUARY CITIES, CHAIN MIGRATION, DREAM ACT LAWS AND THE ILLEGAL ALIEN INVASION. 4. A FEDERAL GOVERNMENT ISSUED PICTURE ID CARD, WHICH CONTAINS INFORMATION TO USE IN PROVING WHO YOU ARE?