In a series of leaked videos that have been confirmed as authentic by Mother Jones’ David Corn, Mitt Romney can be seen and heard speaking to a group of about 30 high-value, millionaire donors at a fundraiser earlier this year. Romney tells them very openly what he thinks of President Obama (corrupt) and what he thinks of the average American voter (lazy and looking for handouts, an entity he merely needs to “animate.”)
In a related video published earlier today, Romney tells the group of 30 major donors that 47% of Americans are Barack Obama supporters because they believe they are entitled to health care, food, and housing.
In this video below, Romney tells the donors that American voters don’t want a “highly intellectual subject—discussion on a whole series of important topics,” because that “typically doesn’t win elections.”
In another video, Romney explains how he has molded his campaign into what he thinks is appealing to the average American who voted for Barack Obama in 2008:
We speak with voters across the country about their perceptions. Those people I told you—the five to six or seven percent that we have to bring onto our side—they all voted for Barack Obama four years ago. So, and by the way, 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 want to 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 if we’re– but we, 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. And so the things that animate us are not the things that animate them. And the best success I have at speaking with those people is saying, you know, the president has been a disappointment. He told you he’d keep unemployment below eight percent. Hasn’t been below eight percent since. Fifty percent of kids coming out of school can’t get a job. Fifty percent. Fifty percent of the kids in high school in our 50 largest cities won’t graduate from high school. What’re they gonna do? These are the kinds of things that I can say to that audience that they nod their head and say, “Yeah, I think you’re right.” What he’s going to 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 is an evil bad guy. And that may work.
[bolding ours]
David Corn at Mother Jones adds:
Note: Obama did not promise his policies would keep unemployment under 8 percent, and 50 percent of college graduates are not unemployed.
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