Romney: Obama voters 'believe they are victims'
Republican presidential candidate filmed mocking voting sectors that favor President Obama; says: My job is not to worry about those people
WASHINGTON – Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney confronted a "new headache" after a video showing him mocking entire voting sectors that favor US President Barack Obama surfaced on Monday night.
Romney was filmed telling wealthy donors that almost half of all Americans "believe they are victims" entitled to extensive government support.
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"My job is not to worry about those people," he added.
President Obama's campaign quickly seized on the video, obtained by the magazine Mother Jones and made public on a day that Romney's campaign conceded it needed a change in campaign strategy to gain momentum in the presidential race.
"There are 47% of the people who will vote for the president no matter what," Romney is shown saying in a video posted online by the magazine. "There are 47% who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe that 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."
"Forty-seven percent of Americans pay no income tax," Romney said.
Romney said his role "is not to worry about those people. I'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives."
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Romney's campaign released a statement seeking to clarify his remarks: "Mitt Romney wants to help all Americans struggling in the Obama economy," spokeswoman Gail Gitcho said.
"He is concerned about the growing number of people who are dependent on the federal government."
'Video Shocking'
Obama's campaign called the video "shocking": "It's hard to serve as president for all Americans when you've disdainfully written off half the nation," Obama campaign manager Jim Messina said in a statement.
An Obama adviser said the Democratic campaign might use Romney's comments from the fundraising video in television advertisements.
The private remarks are the latest in a string of comments from the multimillionaire Republican businessman whom Democrats have criticized as out of touch.
During the primary campaign, Romney insisted that he was "not concerned" about the very poor, said he knew what it felt like to worry about being "pink-slipped," and said that his wife drove a "couple of Cadillacs."
Aides to Obama's campaign said the latest video would help them continue to make the case that Romney does not understand the concerns of average Americans.
Voters say they believe Obama has a better understanding of their problems and concerns than Romney does.
A recent poll by CBS News and the New York Times poll showed 60% of likely voters said Obama understands the needs and problems of people like them, while 37 %said he did not. For Romney, the same question found that 46% felt he did understand people's needs, 48% said he did not.
Romney's running mate, Wisconsin Republican Paul Ryan, made reference to that remark Monday at a campaign event in Des Moines, Iowa.
"I remember that one time when he was talking to a bunch of donors in San Francisco and he said people like us, people from the Midwest like to cling to their guns and religion," Ryan said.
Ryan went on: "And I've got to tell you this Catholic deer hunter is guilty as charged and proud to say so. That's just weird. Who says things like that? That's just strange."
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