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- Jul 1, 2011
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I don't understand why anybody thought the 47% remarks were, well, relevant to the 2012 election. I had been following the poll numbers fairly closely at the time and detected absolutely no shift in the polls after that remark. By the time it was made, the independents and Republicans who ended up voting for him had already fully agreed with him about the parasitic nature of the 47% (indeed, it's been a conservative talking point for years at this point) and the Democrats and independents who disliked that remark had already made up their minds that Mr. Venture Capitalist Romney simply wasn't their man.
i think it's obvious enough : he was already fighting a Gordon Gecko image, and that comment cemented it. he ended up coming off as an elitist plutocrat at a time when a significant portion of that 47 percent were in that 47 percent because of decisions made by executives just like Romney. it was just too steep of a hill to climb. he needed crossover votes, and he didn't get them. it wasn't solely because of that comment, but it was still a pretty big deal.