and now lectures us about personal responsibility. And let's not dig too deep on how he made that money in the first place, or how he relied on government to fund pension plans and health insurance obligations for employees whose companies he looted.

He is seriously fucked up.

has no way out so he's trying to create the impression that his moronic comments weren't despicable and false.

the "carried interest" tax loophole . . . and he can pay back that $10 million he begged the government for when Bain was tanking.

I headed over to USA Today and read the whole thing. It's circular and redundant and tells me everything and nothing at all.

American's need GOOD PAYING jobs...yet I'll bet he's against the minimum wage being increased. That is the ONLY way there will be good paying jobs. There are just so many mid and upper level jobs in existance and those are not going to increase by any large amount. Most jobs are at the menial level, so there is a real need to increase the pay of the lower level jobs to a living wage.

people who take advantage of welfare programs...that there might be welfare queens. But the program overall does much more good, reaches many many more people who need the program, than it does letting some people get away easy. And that much of this debate epitomizes an approach the gop uses to gut institutions the gop doesn't like. This is a dangerous, disingenuous pattern:

...The GOP would strip many Americans of an important safety net in order to prevent a few abuses of the welfare system. Dems would tolerate a little inefficiency in order to provide critical support.

...The GOP would disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of eligible voters in order to literally keep one or two cases of voter fraud from happening in each state. Dems are willing to tolerate meaningless voter error in order to increase democracy and protect voter rights.

...The GOP would deny women access to a variety of critical Planned Parenthood health care services in order to keep them from using pregnancy termination services that make up only 3% of what Planned Parenthood does. Dems are willing to let women decide what services they need, even if they are personally uncomfortable with a small portion of the services.

...The GOP is willing to fundamentally change and diminish one of the most successful, effective govt programs ever, social security, because of the notion that slightly increasing taxes on those making over 108,000 per year (AGI) doesn't meet some ideological purity test. Dems are willing to bite the bullet politically and say that making small adjustments are completely worth saving an important program that provides security to not just individuals but to society as a whole. Social Security.

...The GOP is willing to gut public education and neuter teacher unions to avoid the rare cases where bad teachers continue to teach and some administrators spike income to get unjustified pensions. Dems are willing to accept that no system is perfect in order to widen quality education access for all people.

...The GOP is willing to use the actions of a few radical Muslims to make broad inaccurate statements about the dangers and otherness of all Muslims including those wishing to build community centers in New York. Dems are willing to engage in discussions that go beyond this black and white thinking and are comfortable with tolerance, openness, and reality.

...The GOP uses rare instances of strange research funding to paint government funded research with a broad brush of inanity. Dems are willing to accept that once in a while a research subject will be esoteric but recognizes that the importance of science and knowledge far far outweighs any concern about inefficiency.

...etc etc.

This is an overall case that could be made vigorously and effectively and honestly. Would further clarify how the GOP operates and would help people see what the differences are. People aren't perfect, institutions aren't perfect and lack of purity shouldn't be used to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Dems are willing to put up with imperfection in order for a chance to achieve much greater good. It's dealing with reality.

until after the election.

That's something that could ease the economy right now. Seems the media has forgotten all about it too.

Is the America where a bunch of brown-skinned leaches beg for money from the white people. It's where people who aren't filing for a new business name with the secretary of state are losers who deserve to have their jobs shipped to Mexico or Indonesia. It's where single mothers who raise children alone with the assistance of TANF are "victims" who are lazy, shiftless, and dependent, while his own wife -- who was similarly unemployed and raised children with the help of several maids and nannies -- was a woman doing the "hardest job in the world." Romney's world is a world where the privileged few succeed, ignorant of their privilege, and spend leisure time ridiculing those who don't HAVE leisure time.

That's not my America. Perhaps Romney has lived in a closed circle, where the poor and middle class are discussed, but never seen. My America is quite different.

In my America, the one I've grown up in, people WANT to depend on themselves. They don't want to have to beg, to have to constantly display gratitude to others for a pillow, and a roof. They want to be self-sufficient, they want to have pride, and more often than not, they do. They scrap and claw, they drive forklifts, they answer phones, they dig ditches, they sweat, they break their backs, they spend 9 hours a day listening to complaints of customers with a smile, they re-stock inventory, they seek out customers, they wipe children's tears and bottoms, they get up at 3 am to console and feed a crying baby then show up to work on time at 7, they use their lunch break to pick up prescriptions for their kids or their spouse, they mow their own lawns, they can't afford movers so they bribe friends with lite beer, they kill a weekend cleaning the house and umpiring a ball game, they visit an uncle in the hospital or an aunt in jail, and use it as a teaching moment for their kids.

In my America, the 47% is the freaking BACKBONE of this country, not the dependent class. In my America, without that 47%, we're seriously fucked.