The following is an edited transcript from the Question and Answer session in that infamous meeting with Republicans behind closed doors. You know, the one that mentioned the 47%. The transcript was compiled and published in The New York Post. If you have the patience for it all (it goes nine pages followed by four pages of journalist comments which don’t add that much) you should read it through. If you have any doubts whether Mitt Romney has what it takes to be a great president, this will put those doubts to rest.
Here is just a sample. He is responding to those who believe that winning ought to be a simple matter of going for the jugular. Romney has a different view. From his reply you can better understand the direction the campaign has taken and why.
Man in audience: . . . I wanna see you take the gloves off and talk to people that actually read the paper, that read the book and care about knowing the facts and — knowledge is power. As opposed to people that are swayed by, you know, what sounds good at the moment. You know, I — if you turned into a — like eager to kill, it would be a landslide, in my humble opinion.
Romney: Well, I wrote a book that lays out my view for what has to happen in the country and people who are fascinated by policy will read the book. We have a website that lays out white papers on a whole series of issues that I care about.
I have to tell you, I don’t think this will have a significant impact on my electability. I wish it– I wish it did, but I think our ads will have a much bigger impact and the debates will have a big impact.
. . . My dad used to say, “Being right early is not good in politics.” And . . . discussion of a whole series of important topics typically doesn’t win elections. And there are– for instance, this president won because of “hope and change.”
. . . I can say this, which — and I’m sure you’ll agree with this as well — we speak with voters across the country about their perceptions. Those people I told you, the 5%, to 6% or 7% that we have to sort of bring on our side? They all voted for Barack Obama four years ago.
So — and, by the way, when you ) when you say to them, “Do you think Barack Obama is a failure?” they overwhelmingly say, “No.” They like him. But when you say, “Are you disappointed that his policies haven’t worked?” they say, “Yes.” And because they voted for him they don’t wanna be told that they were wrong. That he’s a bad guy. That he did bad things. That he’s corrupt.
Those people that we have to get, they want to believe they did the right thing but he just wasn’t up to the task. They love the phrase that he’s over his head.
. . . But, you see, you and I, we spend our day with Republicans. We spend our days with people who agree with us. And these people are people who voted for him and don’t agree with us.
An so the things that animate us are not the things that animate them. And the best success I have in speaking with those people is saying, you know, “The president’s been a disappointment. He told you he’d keep unemployment below 8%. Hasn’t been below 8% since. 50% of kids coming out of school can’t get a job. 50%. 50% of the kids in high school in our 50 largest cities won’t graduate from high school. What are they gonna do?”
And the — these are the kinds of things that I can say to that audience that — that they nod they head and say, “Yeah, I think you’re right.”
What he’s gonna do, by the way, is try and vilify me as someone who’s been successful. Or who’s, you know, closed businesses or laid people off and this is an evil bad guy. And that may work. I actually think that right now people are saying, “I want someone who can make things better. That’s what — that’s gonna motivate me. Who can get jobs for my kids and get rising incomes.” And I hope to be able to be the one that wins that battle.
How do I feel today? I feel that Romney’s going to win.
How will I feel next week…..? I think others here feel like this too.
Alex Pundit
24 Sep 12 at 12:32 am
There are two snippets used by the MSM.
The first is the 47% quote but there was no complete video. There was a cut in the middle of those remarks so we lost the context of the 47% remarks despite being told the video was complete.
When challenged Mother Jones said the recorder was inadvertently switched off for 2 minutes.
The second was edited to misinform wrt to the Palestinian remarks as Megyn Kelly on FoxNews demonstrated so scathingly (see my comment on the OT thread)
Lastly it seems plain that these were released by the Obumma campaign and hyped by his fully owned corrupt MSM for many days with the express purpose of obfuscating Obumma’s failure in Libya and his disgraceful offhand treatment and management of the assassination of his ambassador.
JamesK
24 Sep 12 at 12:45 am
Very funny video: Can we get back to “you didn’t build that”.
C.L.
24 Sep 12 at 1:15 am
CL -
Great video, sums up Obama’s
photolife-bombing of ordinary hardworking Americans and their achievementsNanuestalker
24 Sep 12 at 1:37 am
Lesson – always hold your meetings in a room with clocks clearly visible on every wall. IIRC, this is how they found that Michael Moore had cut and pasted his interview with Charlton Heston in “Bowling for Columbine”.
You may not be able to erase your gaffes that way, but it lets you nail the other side for dishonesty if they’ve cut stuff about to put their point across.
perturbed
24 Sep 12 at 1:52 am
Romney seems very keen not to fool himself or others. Comes with doing turn-arounds I guess.
laterite
24 Sep 12 at 7:15 am
This is another example of the “Teflon” Mitt we saw in the primaries. For all his lack of lustre as a candidate, Mitt has a Peter Beaty-like ability to get through issues which would take down other candidates.
The issue is sliding away and the Lefties are getting more shrill & deperate. They know the Sun King is going down.
Over the past 5 years I listened to weekly podcasts from NYT, Wash Post & NPR to get an understanding of what the thinking of the left in America is. In the past month I have to give up on all of them as they have become so shrill with an approach to Romney, Romney, Romney that is the mirror to Abbott, Abbott, Abbott.
What screams as me from these attacks is that they don’t actually believe in Obama as a leader or candidate as they are living by the rule, if you can’t say anything nice…
Token
24 Sep 12 at 8:05 am
Agree with Newt in this interview. He highlights the many failings of Obama and how Mitt has to fight hard and tough like he did in the Republican primaries as he’ll always have the MSM headwind against him.
Token
24 Sep 12 at 8:42 am
Romeny ought to point that out. I suppose he is with the mute button ad.
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25 Sep 12 at 10:38 am