Mother Jones has a leaked video and their commentary of Mittens Romney discussing his plans for the election, and I think it’s interesting to see what he says when he doesn’t realize he’s on camera. As the Mother Jones article this links to states, he’s really rather creepy when he discusses the 47% (his numbers) of people who would support Obama no matter what. In his mind, these are the shiftless layabouts of society who simply cannot imagine life without freebies, and whom he can never inspire to vote Republican. He dismisses this portion of the vote saying, “[M]y job is is not to worry about those people. I’ll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.”

Now, he’s right to ignore the rather large demographic that will not vote Republican no matter what. When I was one the ole’ campaign trail, I quickly figured out that there were people who were simply Mind Made Up, and nothing I said or did would make them even consider an alternative. That’s fine. When we encountered those people out door-knocking, my job was to remove the candidate from the situation without making the candidate look like a prick. It’s simply a waste of time to preach to someone else’s choir, and best to keep moving. That’s what Romney is doing.

But his arrogance? That’s a whole ‘nother ballgame. He flat out says that almost half of all Americans cannot be convinced to look after themselves. That’s a total bullshit rich guy statement, and one that disgusts me beyond words. Believing in the other guy doesn’t mean you don’t take responsibility for your life. Would the same comments, if said by Obama, be given a pass by Romney if they were applied to his 47%? Somehow I doubt it.

But nobody is surprised by the arrogance of a rich jackass talking to his rich jackass cronies.

Another comment from him about needing to appeal to Hispanic voters is quite telling, not because it isn’t true, and not because his comment (“…if the Hispanic voting bloc becomes as committed to the Democrats as the African American voting block has in the past, why, we’re in trouble as a party and, I think, as a nation.”) isn’t true for the party, it goes further to showing just how he sees people. Obama’s core supporters are shifty layabouts who offer nothing to society. Blacks vote Democratic simply because they’re black. For now, we can try to win over the Hispanics, but if we don’t, they’ll just one-mind their way to Obama’s camp and ruin everything for everyone forever.

Now, I admit that large portions of the African American population vote Democrat, but can you honestly tell me that Colin Powell wouldn’t be remotely appealing to them? It seems laughable to write off an entire segment of the population just because of their skin color, and it is just as laughable to target Hispanic voters in the same fashion. I suppose it might come with the job to break things into demographics, but if I were either Hispanic or Black and living in the US, I’d be a little offended by being lumped in like that.

The next segment that Mother Jones talks about is sensible business by Romney, and it is awfully nice to see him tip his hand early. Essentially, the big focus of his campaign is going to be on the swing voters, as it pretty much always is. Those who haven’t made up their minds are going to be key to whether or not Romney can garner enough support to take down Obama. And it should come as no surprise that he has had experts looking into the best way to gain the trust of the swing vote.

It’s unfortunate that Mittens is pulling up facts about Obama’s promises that offer no basis in reality, but a politician who lies about his opponent is hardly a shock to the system…

Mother Jones makes a big deal out of the fact that Mittens’s team are the same people who ran Netanyahu’s election in Israel. I don’t know why they would be surprised by this fact. First off, Netanyahu is the head of the Likud, which is a Conservative party. Second, when you’re running for the leadership of the country, you probably don’t get your mom and sister to run your campaign. You probably look to find experts who have experience and who are politically in line with you. Netanyahu’s people would be a sensible choice; they’ve succeeded with this before, they’re Conservatives, and they’re available. Duh.

His comments on how elections don’t come down to intellectual conversations are definitely spot on. People elected George W. Bush, a man who (at least publicly, I’m still not sold on his being that big an idiot in real life) couldn’t debate his way through breakfast. And Obama definitely won “because of ‘hope and change’”, but I think Romney’s missing the point here. It wasn’t that Obama said, “Hope! Change!” and people flooded the voting stations. He was a lucid, interesting man who offered a change from eight years of George W. Bush’s sodomizing of the economy. Dismissing that as lip service is foolish.

Did Obama blow me away as a President? No, he didn’t. That’s no big surprise, he’s had to deal with a very unreceptive Congress the entire time, and the Democrats have by and large allowed the Republicans to muscle their way through the past four years. At the same time, I can’t rightly say that his hands were as tied as all that. He has made choices, has moved away from some of the things he promised, and is generally a fairly lackluster President. Now, me, I’ll take lackluster over a shiny turd like Romney or George W. Bush or Bush Senior or Reagan. The history of the US is telling enough; you elect a Republican, he ruins the economy, you elect a Democrat, he brings things back, and then you elect a Republican again. And thus, the cycle begins anew.

There’s a lot more in the video and Mother Jones’ comments. I don’t think any of Mitt’s statements are disconcerting or monstrous, but it certainly is interesting to look in at the guy when he’s in a safe environment, talking to his peers. His ego is obviously massive, but I would imagine that anyone running for that level of office would probably have a pretty significant ego. Look past that, and evaluate what he says, why he says it, and what it means. Some of it is a little disgusting, but at least in my opinion, he comes across as a guy who understands exactly what he needs to do to win, and has a plan for getting it done. And definitely comes across quite differently than he does on the TV news. I hope Obama’s people read this too.

Jim