Romney and the 47% that are dependent on the govt.

[leebee]

Regardless of the source and the fact that this issue doesn't really relate to the topic of the thread....

I do think that the media's slant on this was a bit skewed. The soundbite they reduced the issue to was clearly not neutral reporting. Both candidates said basically the same thing. The media spin on this issue was not right.

While I agree there is a slant to some articles, literally EVERY one I read contained a "to be fair" statement referring to Obama's use of the $250K figure as an illustration of "middle income" with respect to tax cuts. And, while I was looking around, there was one headline that said "Obama's War on the Middle Class." So there's slant every which way out there. This is coming up now, because it JUST came up in an interview. Should the headline be, "Romney Agrees With Obama" or "Obama Already Said Something Romney Said Today." It's not how news works. And if the headline said, "Romney States Something We Probably Misunderstand" it wouldn't work very well either. So, they say things, it's reported. People are going to be looking for Romney to say something to grab people. It worked.

Now, in the interest of full disclosure, I think the way the two candidates use the information is vastly different. I do believe that Obama was referring to "middle income" & meaning the financial point with respect to tax cuts and where the threshold would be. I do believe that Mitt Romney would consider it as more a combo of "middle income" and "middle class" context--more of the socio-economic idea. But that's me, and I do have an admitted bias. If he were to clearly state otherwise, I would give him the benefit of the doubt. I say that fairly confident that I won't have to. But I would.

[Gumbeaux]

This is a part of Romney's 47%. Very sad.

[amarante]

The 47% comment is the one that is garnering all the attention but just as telling in terms of his view of the world is his belief that he is a self made man. I know quite a few of these kinds of wealthy people who were born on third base and think they hit a home run and use it to increase their feelings of contempt for those who don't have what it takes.

In reality, Romney was born to quite a wealthy man. His family supported him through college and both law and business school and even bought him a house in Boston while he was in school - adjusted for inflation, I would assume it's about a million dollar home.

When his father died, he makes a point of saying that he gave the money away - ignoring that but that time he was 1) far wealthier than his father and 2) the donation provided him with a tax shelter.

And the gall of someone who is using every tax trick in the book including sheltering off shore income to look at low income/retired/soldiers as moochers because their "taxable" income is too low - I bet the real amount they are taxed as a percentage of income - state, payroll, sales is higher than Mitt's effective tax rate.

And one final repulsive note if you heard the transcript when he laughs scornfully at the thought of anyone who would sacrifice so that their brother could go to college. It wasn't uncommon at all and I imagine in lower income families today, there are family members making sacrifices to help others in their family in all kinds of ways.


And-- and then they got together as a family and said, "You know, to be successful in America you've gotta get an education." And they couldn't afford an education. And the kids and the parents said, "You know, if we all work and we all save we could afford to send one of us to college." And they-- they sent my wife's dad. Can you imagine working every day, taking a couple of jobs and saving your money so that your brother could go to-- I mean I would never do that for my brother. (LAUGHTER)

http://firstread.nbcnews.com/_news/2...r-remarks?lite