Romney’s 47 Percent
Romney says 47% of voters depend on government and should be written off to Obama.
In 2008 Obama said that blue collar voters “cling to their guns and religion”.
Slate’s William Saletan says it’s not the same because in the end “Obama tells his audience not to write off any group”.
Thomas B. Edsall of the NYT missed that memo when he wrote last November that the Obama campaign would abandon the white working class vote:
“For decades, Democrats have suffered continuous and increasingly severe losses among white voters. But preparations by Democratic operatives for the 2012 election make it clear for the first time that the party will explicitly abandon the white working class.”
As for Romney, it’s true that almost half the population doesn’t pay federal income tax. But his 47% isn’t a permanent class of government serfs. It includes retired people and people just starting out, or starting over, who may hope one day to join the evil 1% who pay 38% of all federal income taxes.
Mitt should take Obama’s earlier advice.
The Pew Research Center poll showed that two in three Americans know that Mr. Romney made the comments, of which 49 2798 percent think the issue received too much coverage from news outlets.