Romney stands by those remarks, good on him, he should.
When a reporter asked what Romney meant by the words “victims” and “personal responsibility,” Romney said that he was “talking about the political process of drawing people into my own campaign.”
“Of course individuals are going to take responsibility for their lives,” Romney said. “My campaign is about helping people take more responsibility and becoming employed again, particularly those who don’t have work. This whole campaign is based on getting people jobs again, putting people back to work,” he said. “This is ultimately a question about direction for the country. Do you believe in a government-centered society that provides more and more benefits or do you believe instead in a free enterprise society where people are able to pursue their dreams?”
Quick point about the manufactured outrage from liberals here. Notice there was no outrage when the same philosophy Romney expressed was pushed by Barack Obama with his little "julia" experiment showing how he was specifically targeting people that believe in government dependency from birth until death.
These are the same liberals that see nothing wrong with Obama's continued class warfare rhetoric when he asserts that the people who already pay for everything be forced to pay more while the people that pay nothing, continue to pay nothing and receive public benefits from the money taken from that that do pay.
No, the manufactured outrage is at Mitt Romney for daring to point out the difference between Romney supporters and Obama supporters.
I am in total agreement with Michael Walsh:
What he ought to do is step up and embrace the basic division in our nation, including the fact that nearly half the country pays no income taxes. Acknowledge it — and then explain why, morally, this is not a good thing. Why having no skin in the game while at the same time demanding a say in the proceedings at the federal level is fundamentally undemocratic. One need not embrace the Starship Troopers ethos of Robert A. Heinlein to understand that in a democracy, everyone should pay something — and that to confuse the issue of the (Progressive-era) 16th-amendment-sanctioned federal income taxes with Social Security (“payroll”) levies and state and local taxes is intellectually dishonest.
And then put a tax plan on the table that blows everybody away — a top-to-bottom rethink that asks something of everybody, but rewards the labor of all, and eliminates the built-in bias toward class warfare that Democrats have long counted on and continue to exploit.
By deciding to make this a huge issue, liberals have just done Romney a huge favor. They have given him a very big platform and an extra huge micrphone and he should milk it for everything it's worth.
54 percent of Americans believe government does too much. 84 percent of Republicans and 62 percent of Independents feels that way. That is a very large platform indeed.
Those 62 percent of Independents are the people Romney needs to reach out to and liberals have just made sure they will be paying attention to Romney's message of personal responsibility vs Obama's message of dependence. Romney's idea of fairness, where everyone shares responsibility vs Obama's class warfare rhetoric where only a select group should be targeted to be responsible for the rest. Romney's goal of putting everyone to work vs Obama's record of putting the most people on food stamps. Romney's plan to pull people out of poverty and help them be productive vs Obama's record of the highest levels of poverty since the 1960's.
Run with it Mitt and then say thank you to liberals for giving you this opportunity to reach out to the 62 percent.
[Update] Yes, he is running with it.
[WATCH]
Now that is what I am talking about!
[Update] Headline of the day about this goes to Jim Treacher at The Daily Caller with "The Democrats think Romney just self-destructed by pointing out, um, THEIR ENTIRE STRATEGY
Exactly, and his P.P.P.P.S. Romney back in March: “If you’re looking for free stuff, vote for the other guy.”
Video over at The Daily Caller link.