MARK KARLIN, EDITOR OF BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT



Talk about living in a bubble, Romney who ran his election with the primary goal of making the top .01 percent even richer says Obama bought off the 47 percent of the population that Mitt dismissed as unimportant to him.

According to the Los Angeles Times:

Mitt Romney said Wednesday that his loss to President Obama was due in large part to his rival's strategy of giving "gifts" during his first term to three groups that were pivotal in the results of last week's election: African Americans, Latinos and young voters.

"The Obama campaign was following the old playbook of giving a lot of stuff to groups that they hoped they could get to vote for them and be motivated to go out to the polls, specifically the African American community, the Hispanic community and young people," Romney told hundreds of donors during a telephone town hall Wednesday. "In each case they were very generous in what they gave to those groups."

Romney's frank analysis echoed his secretly taped comments at a May fundraiser, where he told a small group of donors that 47% of the electorate was unlikely to vote for him because they paid no income taxes and were dependent on government. It followed his running mate Paul D. Ryan's assertion that Obama's win stemmed from turnout among "urban" voters.

This, of course, is a meme that plays right into the phrase Romney derisively used in the campaign: "trickle down government." But it plays on the stereotype of black politicians paying "street money" for votes. The LA Times notes that Romney's assertion was ironically flawed:

Both were at odds with the election results — Obama won several key states without large cities or minority populations. And he did so in part by asserting that it was Romney who was planning to disburse gifts — by virtue of a budget plan that included tax breaks heavily skewed toward the wealthy.

That a man worth a quarter of a billion dollars – and earning more than $20 million a year in his retirement – who built his campaign on a platform of making the gluttonous rich even wealthier, pinning his loss on equating government aid as "gifts" is so self-pitying that it makes Scrooge look like a philanthropist.

Amy White observes on the ABC News blog:

If winning an election depends on appealing to and then turning out a base of old, white people you are going to lose every presidential election from here on out. That model may still be enough to help Republicans win midterm elections – older and white voters turn out at higher level than minorities and young people in off-year elections. But if I were running the RNC in 2016 I would work hard to try and embrace reality rather than trying to justify an alternate universe.

White adds: "I’m not a trained demographer but I can say with certainty that: 1) This country is not getting any whiter and 2) older people die."

Romney still apparently harbors a grudge that "Santa" Obama didn't include the Mittster on his Election Day Christmas list. According to ABC News, in an article describing the activities and mood of the Romneys in the days after the election:

When asked about the President's overture to Mitt Romney during his victory speech on election night, a source close to Romney was unsure if Romney would accept the President's invitation adding Romney is still 'tender,' and bruised by the Obama campaign's portrayal of him, particularly his tenure at Bain Capital.

But don't worry: Romney's Christmas stocking is not filled with lumps of coal. With nearly a quarter of a billion dollars in the bank (much of it offshore) and homes spread across both coasts and Canada, Mitt will be making money for many years in investments that profit from dismantling companies in the US and shipping them overseas. That's his gift to the American worker.

(Photo: Women Voters of California)