October 02, 2012 05:20 PM UTC

How Can Romney Walk Back The "47% Victims" Debacle?

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• by: Colorado Pols

With Wednesday’s debate on economic policy at the University of Denver coming up, the Washington Post’s Philip Rucker asks an important question of GOP candidate Mitt Romney:

…[Romney] said that 47 percent of Americans will support Obama’s reelection and are government freeloaders who pay no income taxes, see themselves as “victims” and can’t be persuaded to “take personal responsibility and care for their lives.”

In the two weeks since a surreptitious video of the remarks surfaced, they have pierced the national consciousness in a way that few blunders do. In the closing stretch of the presidential campaign, the moment has become a defining element of Romney’s candidacy.

And on Wednesday, the 47 percent issue is likely to come to the fore in an even more pronounced way, during the first presidential debate. Romney’s advisers – who acknowledge that the moment has hurt the Republican nominee among independent voters in battleground states – said he has rehearsed debate answers in which he argues that he is for “the 100 percent” and that his policy prescriptions would help the growing number of Americans under Obama’s presidency who are struggling to find work or living on food stamps…

Romney’s comments about the 47 percent are weighing him down with voters, according to recent polls. Almost six in 10 voters nationally say that as president, he would do more to favor the wealthy than the middle class, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll released Monday. Specifically regarding the remarks, respondents to a Post-ABC poll from last week were displeased with Romney’s viewpoint: Fifty-four percent had an unfavorable impression of his comments, compared with 32 percent who had a favorable view.

Discussing Wednesday’s debate this past weekend, focused on the same issues Romney was discussing with wealthy donors at a secretly-recorded May fundraiser, we said that we really don’t know how Romney can plausibly defend those remarks–which he will be obliged to directly address for the first time. Setting aside partisanship, the simple fact is that Romney was crystal clear in his remarks about 47% of Americans considering themselves “victims,” and this is a candidate whose biggest problem before the release of this video was trustability.

What can you do when you’re caught behaving the way everyone is primed to expect? Dr. Evil was evil. Goldfinger loved gold. At this point, voters expect Romney to yuck it up with fellow rich guys about the accommodations in steerage class. He merely satisfied expectations.

Romney can claim he’s “for 100 percent of Americans” now all he wants. He has created the environment wherein nothing he says about this, other than owning up to it, is believable.

When we say we don’t know where you go with that politically, we objectively mean it. If you have any suggestions for Romney that don’t include the neuralizer from Men in Black, we’re all ears.