The FULL quote, in context, with that 47%

Looking over the net I found a story about Mitt Romney, to which, as a comment, the full exchange involving that 47% quote was posted:

Question: “For the past three years, all everybody’s been told is, “Don’t worry. We’ll take care of you.” How are you going to do it, in two months before the elections to convince everybody, you’ve got to take care of yourself?”

Romney reply: “Uh, well there are 47% of the people who will VOTE for the President no matter what. All right, there are 47% who are with him, who are dependent upon the government, who believe that, that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to healthcare, to food, to housing, to you name it. That that’s an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will VOTE for this President no matter what. And the, the President starts off with 48, 49, 4--, he starts off with a huge number. These are people who pay no income tax. 47 percent of Americans pay no income tax. So our MESSAGE of low taxes doesn’t connect. He’ll be out there talking about tax cuts for the rich. I mean, that’s what they sell every, every 4 years. And, uh, so my job is not to worry about those few. I’ll never CONVINCE them that they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives. What I have to do is to CONVINCE the 5 to 10 percent in the center that are independents, that are thoughtful, that look at VOTING one way or the other depending upon in some cases emotion, whether they like the guy or not…...”

Some comments I will repeat by Dan Maloy, who presented this material on that other blog recently:

FACT #1 - This was at a fundraiser for a Presidential election. To win an election requires votes. In this quote Romney used the words “vote” (twice), “message” (once), “convince” (twice) and “voting” (once). What are the odds that a guy running for President attending a fundraiser to help win that election might talk about votes and what he needs to do during the campaign to win those votes? I know, shocking, right?

LOGICAL DEDUCTION: It’s not that Romney doesn’t “care” about that 47% as human beings, he was talking about the likelihood of winning their votes.

FACT #2 – Despite not putting the 47% comment from Romney in any way, shape or form of the true context, liberals insist that Romney is simply a greedy, uncaring person. So let’s look at the kinds of things Romney has done with his life, shall we? Hard core liberals won’t believe it so you guys might as well just respond with hate right now. Independents and those who are not lemmings will look at this objectively and come to the irrefutable conclusion: Romney cares about people and has proven it through a life time of service to his fellow man.

ROMNEY’S ALTRUISM / CHARITY

- Gave away his inheritance in 1998 to start / help fund the “George W. Romney Institute of Public Management” at BYU (his father, George Romney, died in 1995).

- Donated his entire Olympics salary and severance package ($1.4M) to charity.

- While governor of Massachusetts, at HIS request, served the people of MA at the salary of $1/year (that’s right, ONE DOLLAR).

- Voluntarily served, without pay or re-compensation of funds, as a Mormon missionary for 30 months in his late teens/early twenties (you may not agree with what he taught but the fact is he did it on a volunteer basis with the belief that he was helping to bring people closer to Jesus).

- Volunteer service to community as a church head pastor for 13 years all with ZERO pay (that's right, none); 5 years as a “bishop” and 8 years as a “stake president”.

- Would give ALL his Presidential salary ($1.6 Million total) back to the American taxpayers if elected (yes, he's on record as committing to this).

- Based on a net worth of $200-250M and his constant activity/involvement in his church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the ‘Mormons’), has given at least $20-25 MILLION to his church. (LDS church members pay tithing; one-tenth of what a person earns. The LDS church uses tithing donations to build and maintain churches and temples, print literature about Jesus Christ, etc. Can anyone dispute this is not “charitable” giving?) BTW, that is NOT including other charitable contributions to the LDS church in the form of “fast offerings”. Go look it up.

- He also chose to NOT receive any Social Security payments upon turning 65 because, again, he knows he can take care of himself and therefore should not rely on our tax dollars to help fund his daily living. (BTW, that’s HIS money that he’s leaving in government accounts.)

- Shut down most of his company, Bain Capital, and, at Romney’s expense, moved most of his employees to New York City to help find an employee’s missing daughter; set up a base of operations in a hotel room, posted thousands of flyers, talked to hundreds of shop owners, talked to thousands of people on the street, coordinated efforts with the police, worked with the media to air their search on TV. And…..when they finally did find her, a doctor said she was in such poor condition from a drug overdose she may not have survived another day.

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/03/pressed-for-anecdote-romney-recounts-tale-of-missing-girl/

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2012/03/19/mitt_romneys_core_113526-2.html (see pg 2)

- Built a neighborhood playground & later did maintenance / upkeep on it for 5 years

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/313631/mitt-nobody-sees-katrina-trinko

- Loaned money for someone to buy a home

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/10/us/politics/in-real-estate-deal-romney-made-his-loss-a-couples-gain.html?pagewanted=all

- Helped write a will for a terminally ill teenager at the teenaged boy’s request

http://orleanscountyrecord.com/main.asp?SectionID=7&SubSectionID=39&ArticleID=28883

- Cares about his fellow man: gave $3,000,000 to charity in 2010 and $4,000,000 to charity in 2011; that’s $7 MILLION in just 2 years. Would you have done that? Romney did.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/romney_the_giver_7nLMOZGuIo2zq1LmrNInjN

FACT #3 – If you need a check from the government to survive from month to month, you ARE dependent upon the government. You might be old, you might be young, you might be smart, you may have been an All-State football player or homecoming queen in high school, but if you need a check from the government to survive, you are indeed dependent upon the government. The O-N-L-Y exception to this is if the check the government gives you is YOUR Social Security check. THAT money came from you and belongs to YOU.

Thanks, Mr. Maloy. I never thought I'd get the full context. I'm glad you found it somewhere and posted it.