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Ronald Reagan
and What I Got Wrong
By Erick Erickson
November 20th, 2012
Every person who talks and writes about politics gets stuff wrong. I’ve
gotten my fair share wrong. But what I think I got most wrong in
Campaign 2012 was the damage Mitt Romney’s “47%” remark would do to him.
It may seem obvious, but bear with me.
Mitt Romney was talking off the cuff to a supposedly off the record
group of donors and muddled several data points together, ultimately
telling the tale of the 47% who won’t vote for him for any reason. He
was referencing the 47% who don’t pay taxes and interwove it with a 47%
of locked in Obama support. The statement was a mess.
I didn’t think Mitt Romney would be as hurt by the statement as he was
because I assumed Romney had misspoken in an off the cuff way. I
assumed Romney would clarify that he knew many of those who have
government assistance did not actually want the assistance, but needed
it. I assumed he’d make the case that he’d help those people get off
the government dole and back into work.
In other words, I assumed Romney believed what I believe — many of
those people are good people who fell on hard times and are not of the
same class of people who will vote for Barack Obama for free stuff. I
was absolutely wrong. Romney not only believes completely what he said
as he said it, he reinforced it with his post election analysis of his
defeat blaming gifts to various classes of people. If that was true, as
Newt Gingrich pointed out, Romney had plenty to gift to plenty strapped
to the back of marching elephants.
Note to Mitt Romney: really, it’s you, not them. Seriously.
Read the rest of the article at Redstate
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