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September 20, 2012 12:58 AM UTC

Talk Radio's Selective Defense of Mitt Romney

  • 3 Comments
  • by: Jason Salzman

( – promoted by Colorado Pols)

Colorado’s conservative talk radio world sounds thrilled to defend Mitt Romney’s comments at a GOP fundraiser, but the more you listen, and hear what they’re not saying, the more you realize that, in reality, they don’t seem to know what to say.

Take, for example, KOA’s Mike Rosen, who describes himself as a partisan Republican, addressing Romney’s comments on his show this morning:

“The thrust of what [Romney] said is absolutely on target, and I have no difficulty defending that thrust; I’ve been talking about this for years…”

“By having so many people who don’t feel any pain from the income tax, you build an army of people who simply want other people to pay taxes, and when they hear  something about tax rates being increased, they say, ‘We don’t care because we don’t pay taxes anyway.'”

Rosen went on to say that it’s not all of the non-income-tax-paying “47%” who see things this way, but a large number do. That’s basically what Romney meant, he said, a large number of people but not 47%.

Unfortunately, Rosen said, Romney was “imprecise, worst case, sloppy.”

Still, even if you accept the sloppy talk, how do Rosen and his fellow Romney defenders on the radio deal with Romney’s comment that Romney’s “job is not to worry about those people….”

The radio talkers don’t deal with that comment. They don’t defend it, even though it arguably reflects, to some degree, their attitude here in Colorado (i.e., a willingness to cut government-funded health care for children in poverty, putting their lives at risk, because their parents don’t have sufficient “skin in the game.”)

But as Rosen did this morning, the conservatives on the radio are largely ignoring much of what Romeny said at the fundraiser, including:

  • 47% of Americans “believe that they are victims,”
  • 47% of Americans “believe the government has a responsibility to care for them,”
  • 47% of Americans “believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it. That that’s an entitlement.”
  • 47% of Americans are “dependent upon government.”

So the defense of Romney on talk radio is so selective and riddled with omissions that it’s pretty funny to listen to, actually. And it makes you wonder: Do they agree with it? Are they scared to defend it? What’s up?

Tune in, if you get a chance. Or call  in and ask about Romney’s comments that aren’t being aired.

Comments

3 thoughts on “Talk Radio’s Selective Defense of Mitt Romney

  1. “[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.”

    I can excuse the first sentence, as I believe he means “worry” as in “try to convince them to vote for me.”

    The most disgusting part of this whole episode is that somehow people too poor to pay federal income tax don’t have personal responsibility or take care of themselves, as that’s all that’s necessary to make it in America.  Just because you don’t pay income tax doesn’t mean you’re a “moocher”, and you could in fact be paying your way for everything.

  2. Water is wet.  Not a surprise that much of the conservative talk radio world doesn’t want to criticize these comments.  Their audience is more likely to believe that the 47% is some sort of mob of welfare queens out to take the gub’mint for every penny they can.

    Being a little flippant about it, sorry, couldn’t help but comment on this one.  Back to lurking

  3. hegemony ain’t what it used to be. If it was, we never would have had candidate McCain, President Obama or candidate Romney, would we?

    On a sort of related subject, Fox news lost the prized demo, 20 something to 54, two nights running recently with Maddow beating O’Really in that category. O’Really losing, even in that demo, has been pretty much unthinkable until now.  20 somethings may not be the best voters but 40 and 50 somethings do a pretty good job.

    Meantime, the average age of righty radio listeners and Fox viewers is around 70 so they’re fast approaching the same tipping point the GOP is approaching; a shortage of grumpy old white men due to increasing rates of attrition.

    Rosen is on a downward trajectory with no chance of reversal as far as influence and relevance is concerned. Soon enough, he and Rush and all their ilk will be reduced to yelling at the young people to get off of his lawn.    

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