Mitt Romney, Wishing he Were Hispanic

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As if Mitt’s 47% remarks weren’t already totally revealing of his disdain for people less well-off than himself, another part of the same leaked tape includes this doozy, where he claims he wishes he’d been born a Latino.

What does Mitt mean–that had he been born Latino, he could somehow have taken advantage of affirmative action? There are some other lines that slay me , referring to his father, whose own father had chosen to leave the United States so he could continue practicing polygamous Mormonism,

“Had he been born of Mexican parents, I’d have a better shot at winning this. But he was unfortunately born to Americans living in Mexico. But he was unfortunately born to Americans living in Mexico.. . . .it would be helpful to be Latino.”

I scarcely know how to write about such idiotic words.

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What Mitt Romney Thinks of Obama Voters

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Late Monday Update: This link is to the entire Mother Jones piece by David Corn that unearthed the video of Mitt Romney disparaging Obama voters. Corn’s piece is excellent reporting, and goes well beyond the video that has so quickly become notorious, and emblematic of Romney’s disdain for close to half the country.
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This afternoon Taegan Goddard’s PoliticalWire.com has posted shocking audio and video of Mitt Romney, at a fundraiser, characterizing Obama voters in a most denigrating way. The whole clip runs about 2 minutes. Here’s an excerpt quote from PoliticalWire.com:

Said Romney: “There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it. That that’s an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what…These are people who pay no income tax.”

He adds: “My job is is not to worry about those people. I’ll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.”
Here’s the clip:

This feels like a kind of bombshell.

Sometime after it appeared on politicalwire.com, the Obama Campaign sent out these remarks:

STATEMENT ON ROMNEY’S BEHIND CLOSED DOORS REMARKS

CHICAGO – “It’s shocking that a candidate for President of the United States would go behind closed doors and declare to a group of wealthy donors that half the American people view themselves as ‘victims,’ entitled to handouts, and are unwilling to take ‘personal responsibility’ for their lives. It’s hard to serve as president for all Americans when you’ve disdainfully written off half the nation.” – Jim Messina, Obama for America Campaign Manager

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Reading along with Richard Ford

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Fascinating Q&A with novelist Richard Ford in the “Books” section of the Boston Globe over the weekend. I was mesmerized by his latest novel Canada, which I blogged about several times (1, 2, and 3) while caught up in the reading of it last May and June. These are two of the most interesting bits from Ford’s discussion with Amy Sutherland:

BOOKS: Are you a slow or fast reader?

FORD: Slow. I’m dyslexic. If you can reconcile yourself to not being able to burn through books, which you shouldn’t any way, you can slow the whole process down. Then, because of my disability, there is more for me in imaginative literature than there is for other people. . .

BOOKS: What was your reading like before this?

FORD: Dutiful. Remember when you were kid in school and the teacher was always telling you there’s more here than you see. There’s a line of Henry Moore’s, “Never think of the surface except as an extension of a volume.” I was thinking there was a volume but where the hell was it?

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