Ender

During a private fundraiser earlier this year, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney told a small group of wealthy contributors what he truly thinks of all the voters who support President Barack Obama. He dismissed these Americans as freeloaders who pay no taxes, who don't assume responsibility for their lives, and who think government should take care of them. Fielding a question from a donor about how he could triumph in November, Romney replied:

Romney went on: "[M]y job is is not to worry about those people. I'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives."

Mother Jones has obtained video of Romney at this intimate fundraiser—where he candidly discussed his campaign strategy and foreign policy ideas in stark terms he does not use in public—and has confirmed its authenticity. To protect the confidential source who provided the video, we have blurred some of the image, and we will not identify the date or location of the event, which occurred after Romney had clinched the Republican presidential nomination. Here is Romney expressing his disdain for Americans who back the president:



At the dinner, Romney often stuck to familiar talking points. But there were moments when he went beyond the familiar campaign lines. Describing his family background, he quipped about his father, "Had he been born of Mexican parents, I'd have a better shot of winning this." Contending that he is a self-made millionaire who earned his own fortune, Romney insisted, "I have inherited nothing." He remarked, "There is a perception, 'Oh, we were born with a silver spoon, he never had to earn anything and so forth.' Frankly, I was born with a silver spoon, which is the greatest gift you can have: which is to get born in America."

Romney told the contributors that "women are open to supporting me," but that "we are having a much harder time with Hispanic voters, and if the Hispanic voting bloc becomes as committed to the Democrats as the African American voting block has in the past, why, we're in trouble as a party and, I think, as a nation." When one attendee asked how this group could help Romney sell himself to others, he answered, "Frankly, what I need you to do is to raise millions of dollars." He added, "The fact that I'm either tied or close to the president…that's very interesting."

Asked why he wouldn't go full-throttle and assail Obama as corrupt, Romney explained the internal thinking of his campaign and revealed that he and his aides, in response to focus-group studies conducted by his consultants, were hesitant to hammer the president too hard out of fear of alienating independents who voted for Obama in 2008:



(Note: Obama did not promise his policies would keep unemployment under 8 percent, and 50 percent of college graduates are not unemployed.)

To assure the donors that he and his campaign knew what they were doing, Romney boasted about the consultants he had retained, emphasizing that several had worked for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu:



When one donor said he was disappointed that Romney wasn't attacking Obama with sufficient intellectual firepower, Romney groused that the campaign trail was no place for high-minded and detail-oriented arguments:



Romney, who spoke confidently throughout the event and seemed quite at ease with the well-heeled group, insisted that his election in and of itself would lead to economic growth and that the markets would react favorably if his chances seemed good in the fall:



At the dinner, Romney also said that the campaign purposefully was using Ann Romney "sparingly... so that people don't get tired of her." And he noted that he had turned down an invitation from Saturday Night Live because such an appearance "has the potential of looking slapstick and not presidential."

Here was Romney raw and unplugged—sort of unscripted. With this crowd of fellow millionaires, he apparently felt free to utter what he really believes and would never dare say out in the open. He displayed a high degree of disgust for nearly half of his fellow citizens, lumping all Obama voters into a mass of shiftless moochers who don't contribute much, if anything, to society, and he indicated that he viewed the election as a battle between strivers (such as himself and the donors before him) and parasitic free-riders who lack character, fortitude, and initiative. Yet Romney explained to his patrons that he could not speak such harsh words about Obama in public, lest he insult those independent voters who sided with Obama in 2008 and whom he desperately needs in this election. These were sentiments not to be shared with the voters; it was inside information, available only to the select few who had paid for the privilege of experiencing the real Romney.

COMNIG SOON: More from the secret Romney video.

Video production: James West, Adam Serwer, Dana Liebelson, and Erika Eichelberger

Research assistance: James Carter

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/...rticle+Feed%29

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"Winning is the most important thing in my life,after breathing. Breathing first, winning next"-George Steinbrenner

TheAnswer

Well Romney wasn't gonna win anyway, but this will likely cause him to lose some voters.

FSH

Dem's already on the attack with this stuff



Romney is ****ed.

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Diable

It probably doesn't hurt him at all with the people most inclined to vote for him. The opposite is true. This will help him with the hardcore of the Republican base and he still has problems there.

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rocketeer

wait, you mean that a politician doesn't care about trying to get votes they have no chance at getting? no shit.

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Rodney Rogers!!!!!

Game3525

Just....damn.

After his response to the protest, I thought he still had a chance.......he is toast now.

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Ron

This does nothing, absolutely nothing to hurt his chances.

He never had a chance to begin with, and he knows it. So, he might as well speak his ignorant, arrogant, and insensitive typical Repub mind away.

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R-Star

I agree with everything he said.

Look after yourselves instead of always having your hand out for help from the government you lazy ****s.

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Dornado

R-Star's arms are tired from pulling himself up by the bootstraps

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King Joseus

Yeah, but now he's got guns up there.

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R-Star

Does saying things like this make you feel better about amounting to nothing over your life?

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Nimreitz

Except for the huge portion of his base who are in this 47% that he talks about. The red states have a waaaay larger proportion of poors.

Nimreitz

He's an attorney.

seifer0406

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics...pital-20120829

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Mrs. Thang

The biggest problem with the 47% statement is that it's internally inconsistant with his message. The majority of the people who pay no income tax are employers who owe payroll taxes, so he's basically criticizing his own base.

Other than that, this is a closed-doors campaign speech for private donors. He's playing to his audience. If you don't want to know how the sausage gets made stay out of the kitchen. I guarantee Obama has said just as incindiary of things behind closed doors. They are schilling for money, that's how it goes.

I view the person who made this video with the same contempt as the low-lifes who hide in bushes to snap pictures of celebrities in their back yards.