“One thing I’ve learned as president is that you represent the entire country,” he said to David Letterman. As for Romney’s statement about the 47 percent, “There are not a lot of people out there who think they are victims or simply entitled.”
Obama is not the only one blasting Romney. Privately, some powerful Republicans are letting Romney have it. They were harshly critical of Romney’s most recent comments and the overall campaign so far, accusing the former Massachusetts governor of squandering opportunities, according to the Associated Press. And, with early voting underway in some states, the time to recover from such blunders is very short.
The controversy began when a secretly taped video of Romney was uploaded to a liberal website and ignited a firestorm that Romney has spent the balance of the past 24 hours trying to recover from. In May, Romney told donors at a fundraiser that 47 percent of Americans pay no income taxes. They “believe the government has a responsibility to care for them … believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you name it. That that’s an entitlement,” Romney said off the cuff, adding, “I’ll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.”
The Republican presidential challenger refused to apologize, saying he didn’t speak eloquently enough to make his statements clear.
What remains on Romney’s side is the slumping economy that continues to dog Obama. That and the high rate of unemployment are the biggest issues of the election, and Romney’s case for the presidency is based on his claim that his success as a businessman has left him the skills needed to create jobs in a nation where unemployment is 8.1 percent.
