I Can't Thank Mother Jones

Enough For This!

As Dana Loesch put it in her tweet today: 

Indeed they have.  You want a national discussion of gov't dependency/wealth redistribution vs. individual freedom/personal responsibility?  

YOU JUST GOT IT.    That distraction/shiny object/LOOK - A SQUIRREL!!! strategy is now officially OVER. 

Thanks, Mother Jones! 

There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it. That that’s an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what…These are people who pay no income tax.


How deep is the cocoon these people live in?  'Jim Treacher' at The Daily Caller sums it up:

http://dailycaller.com/2012/09/18/democrats-think-romney-just-self-destructed-by-pointing-out-um-their-entire-strategy/

Wait 'til it dawns on them this means they have to actually DISCUSS Obama's philosophy of a government-centric life being what he wants for more and more Americans.

UPDATE:  Some scandal they got here when it turns out Mitt was essentially saying the same thing back in March: 

http://dailycaller.com/2012/09/18/mitt-romney-march-2012-in-broad-daylight-if-youre-looking-for-free-stuff-vote-for-the-other-guy/

Mitt Romney, March 2012, in broad daylight: “If you’re looking for free stuff, vote for the other guy”

By the way, there’s a reason you don’t know that woman’s name, address, tax status, rap sheet, and whatever else the media can find out about her: They agree with her. And they’re offended that Romney doesn’t.

Oh yeah? Well I'M offended that THEY'RE offended.  

Get ready folks.  Like a lawyer at trial that just asked a question he didn't know the answer to, Mother Jones & Co. just helped focus this election like a laser on Obama's view of the gov't being absolutely central to American life, and how he views dependency on it as not only a good thing, but something he hopes to dramatically increase if re-elected.  

UPDATE II:  After claiming they would go ahead and release the 'full' and 'complete' video of the possibly illegally recorded Romney fundraiser from May, David Corn and Mother Jones now admit there is a big gap in the video.  

It apparently was a 'Part 1' that cuts off right at the moment Romney is talking about the '47%' that are dependent on the government, then picks up in 'Part 2' with Romney now on a completely different subject: China.  

http://legalinsurrection.com/2012/09/critical-audio-gap-in-complete-romney-tape-released-by-mother-jones/

[Romney]“We do all these polls — I find it amazing. We poll all these people to see where you stand in the polls but 45 percent of the people vote for the Republicans and 48 or 49–,” This is where the first part of the video cuts out. 

Part two picks up seemingly on a completely different subject: China. 

“…about twice as much as China, not 10 times as much like is reported. And we have responsibility for the whole world, they’re only focused on one little area of the world, the south china sea…”

Something is missing.  Romney’s 47% answer was cut off before completed, and is not picked up on the Part 2 audio video.

So the “complete” audio/video has not been released by Corn, or Corn never had it to begin with.

I found Corn’s email address, and he responded as follows:

According to the source, the recording device inadvertently turned off. The source noticed this quickly and turned it back one. The source estimates that one to two minutes, maybe less, of recording was missed.

In an update to this developing fiasco, Prof. Jacobson added this:

http://legalinsurrection.com/2012/09/maybe-romney-answer-was-inelegant-only-because-mother-jones-didnt-disclose-that-part-of-tape-was-missing/

Corn says that his source told him the recorder shut off on its own right in the middle of Romney’s answer, and then was not turned on until Romney already was into a different topic. We have no way of verifying that source’s story, but we do know that there were various edited pieces of the tape circulating prior to Corn’s involvement, so it is just as possible that Corn’s source or someone else handling the video prior to Corn edited out part of the answer. 

It is impossible for us to know if Romney said something which changed or put the remarks in context. Romney doesn’t remember the event except for what exists on audio/video. Maybe in the fullness of the answer, the answer was less “inelegant” than it appears. Maybe Romney put some of the context on it that we have heard in his interviews the past two days. 

What difference does it make? 

Think how the initial 24 hours of controversy might have played out differently had Corn made the disclosure up front. That part of the answer was missing from the tape would have provided a valuable context both to readers/listeners, and to the Romney campaign. That never happened because there was no disclosure by Corn that part of the tape was missing. 

Go read the whole thing to fully appreciate how this is blowing up in their faces.

UPDATE III:  Corn's source supposedly told him he noticed his camera had stopped recording, so he started it up again.  

Yeah.....uh....without moving it?  Uhmm........ok.  Sure. 

From the 'Not Yet Europe: Let America Be America' blog: 

http://not-yet-europe.com/2012/09/19/romney-tape-gap-not-recording-error/