The 47%

A lot of left-wing commentators are complaining about Obama not bringing up Romney's comment about the 47% of Americans who do not pay taxes, are dependent on government, and will never support him. So why didn't he? Seems like an obvious talking point.

Iowahawk suggests it is because the Obama campaign has figured out that it does not work in his favour, and I suspect that may be true. Romney spoke of a 47 percent who did not pay taxes and were dependent on government. But polls show that 80% of the population of the US hold the opinion that they do indeed pay income tax. They will not see themselves in that 47%; and may well resent that 47%.

Even some who do not pay income taxes, and believe that they do not, will still not see themselves as in that 47%. The idea of getting ahead is the American Dream. A lot of people will see their dependent state--rightly--as temporary, and will still not consider themselves in the dependent 47%.

I really don't see why the line can't be a winner for Romney. He may have sacrificed the support of 12% of the electorate, a 12% he is probably quite right in thinking he will never get anyway, for the sake of boosting his support among the other 88%.

Reaction to Romney's Comments

... about the 47%. Looks like it may have helped him rather than hurt him.

As someone has pointed out, there is no reason to assume that dissing a theoretical 47% of the population will have alienated 47% of the population. It's probably a much smaller group than that who sees _themselves_ as freeloaders.