The Ask for Money: Part XV: Romney Secret 47% Video
I have long thought somebody should go through and annotate the 2012 Mitt Romney: Full Transcript of the 47% Secret Video. So I will now do it.
Part XV: The Ask for Money:
And now, having denied that the Republicans have a gender gap problem and admitted Republicans have a Hispanic gap problem, Romney pivots. Rather than outline policies for dealing with the Hispanic gap problem, he decides it is time for the ask: he needs their money.
He needs their money to fight off Obama's campaign of character assassination--plus the fact that unemployment is down, that Osama bin Laden was brought to justice, and there have been none of the visible policy disasters that characterized the presidency of he-who-Romney-must-not-name--even though Fox News had by then listed perhaps 25 of "Obama's Katrinas". (Of course, there are the nasty Iranians and Palestinians out there who would have been brought to heel if Obama had not been "VEAK!!"; and there is the forthcoming "national bankruptcy... failed Treasury auction... interest rates... going... up... borrowed-money fantasy world [of]... made up money... hurtling toward a cliff... severity of the fiscal situation... Greece".)
Romney: What I think, frankly, what I need you to do is to raise millions of dollars, because the president's going to have about $800 to $900 million. And that's—that's by far the most important thing you could do.
Audience Member: [Unintelligible.]
Romney: Because, well, because you don't have the capacity to speak to hundreds of thousands of people. I will be in those debates. It will be, I don't know, 150 million Americans watching. If I do well, it'll help. If I don't, it won't help…
Audience Member: You will do so well. Your debates are incredible. [Audience laughs, claps.]
Romney: Thank you, thanks, thank you. But advertising makes a difference, and the president will engage in a personal character assassination campaign. And so we'll have to fire back one, in defense, and No. 2, in offense. And that's [unintelligible]… Florida will be one of those states that is the key state. And so all the money will get spent in 10 states, and this is one of them. So, I—the best thing I could ask you to do—I mean, yeah, sure, talk to people and tell them how you know me and word of mouth makes a big difference. But you know, I'm not terribly well known by the general American public, because…
Audience Member: You're known as a rich boy. I mean, they say, "He's a rich man."
Romney: They don't. But don't worry—given all those negative things, given all those negative things, the fact that I'm either tied or close to the president, and the fact that, you know, he's out there talking about the one-year anniversary of Osama bin Laden being captured, unemployment coming down, unleashing his campaign, new campaign, and we're still sort of tied? That's very interesting. And it's, it's encouraging. Please...
