It's a combination. Gotcha moments can be manipulated/reduced to pithy sound bites,often devoid of the broader discussion in which they were delivered. Yet,yet.....they can be very reflective of a candidate's views. The broader principle is whether the candidates will try to the best of their ability to represent all of their constituents,at least where possible. It is not possible on "for or against" issues such as a woman's right to make decisions about her health and reproductive situation. In those cases candidates must be able to firmly defend which side they are on.

These "gaffes" are meaningless to the process of selecting our next president; at least I hope that's the case. They probably have more to do with a voter's solidifying an already entrenched position with regards to his/her own candidate.

There are a lot of rich fools running for office. OTOH, imagine talking in public all the time for months on end without making a mistake. Candidates want to reach out and be personal with the audience, as a way of connecting. Not a good idea. I've been managing campaigns for years, and I've seen accomplished speakers shut down when they run into a physical problem or one they didn't expect.

FIRST OF ALL YOU CANNOT TRUST THE LEFT WING MEDIA. When you hear the FULL Romney video and NOT the little "snippets" the left wing sounding board posted, then you get a feel for what Romney is REALLY saying. At least from the other side we see the majority of the speech, which is more revealing on how amateuristic Obama is. Romney cares about the people (the 108Million, you know the 45% increase since Obama has taken office) that are on welfare, those on unemployment or those who don't have a job and have stopped looking. You can't believe what those democrat ads are saying, if you do, I feel sorry for you. At least Romney is realistic. He knows that many people like to be on government assistance and do NOT want to work and those are the ones he knows that will not vote for him.. Why do you think Obama lifted the mandate that you must look for work in order to be eligible for welfare? He knows he is buying votes. Romney does not like that because he believes in the middle class and he believes that EVERYONE should have the freedom to be all they can be. Obama on the other hand believes the government needs to watch over you. If you saw the 60minutes segment, you would have heard that. Romney may not be the best but he is BY FAR the best choice for President. I wonder what this woman is saying now about the handouts Obama was going to give her? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P36x8rTb3jI http://www.judicialwatch.org/blog/2012/04/welfare-at-all-time-high-under-obama/

Seems that when someone is caught off-guard, their more honest feelings are exposed. We've seen a lot of that with the POTUS over the past few years when he was having what he thought were private words - one on one. For example, on the campaign trail 4 years ago when he told Joe the Plumber he believed in redistributing wealth; the fundraiser during that same time when he criticized Pennsylvanians for 'clinging to their guns and bibles'; the conversation he had more recently when he told Vladimir Putin that after the election he would have more freedom to accommodate Russia…

At least Romney was speaking publicly about his belief that the folks who will be supporting the POTUS are most likely the ones who currently do not pay taxes. Obviously when you "have no skin in the game" you don't care much about higher taxes and the national debt.

"Why do you think Obama lifted the mandate that you must look for work in order to be eligible for welfare?"

Well, he didn't. Numerous fact checkers have debunked this.

As for the topic at hand, tfm sums it up pretty nicely.

"For example, on the campaign trail 4 years ago when he told Joe the Plumber he believed in redistributing wealth;"

Perhaps I'm nitpicking, Amy, but is this really an "honest" feeling? Don't we all believe in redistribution in one way or another?

"At least Romney was speaking publicly about his belief that the folks who will be supporting the POTUS are most likely the ones who currently do not pay taxes. Obviously when you "have no skin in the game" you don't care much about higher taxes and the national debt."

The 47% Romney was referring to do pay taxes though, they pay payroll tax, state tax, sales tax, etc. The irony in Romney's comments is that the GOP has passed the very large tax cuts that have made it possible for many people to pay no income tax simply because they don't meet the requirements necessary. As for who those 47% are voting for, they're likely to overwhelmingly vote for Romney.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/files/2012/09/nonpayers.jpg

Yeah, that guy that pays more taxes in a year than some people pay in their lifetime, and gives millions to charity.........yeah, he's probably lazy. All the lazy people I know are sooooo rich. How much more taxes would he have to pay to make you happy Frank? Bottom line is, someone who is running on lower taxes and smaller government is never going to appeal to people who pay no taxes and depend on the gov't. in one way or another. What's worse, making that blunt statement, or growing the gov't. to build an electoral base.

"Bottom line is, someone who is running on lower taxes and smaller government is never going to appeal to people who pay no taxes and depend on the gov't. in one way or another. What's worse, making that blunt statement, or growing the gov't. to build an electoral base."

Except this isn't true.

What's not true Brian?

Chuck, your premise is based on the 47% that Romney is talking about, correct? They usually vote Republican. Romney is
basically just making up the bit about them voting for Obama no matter what.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/files/2012/09/nonpayers.jpg

No, I think his "47%" was an oversimplification on his part, and I think he was using that number to make his point. That map is interesting, but useless unless you know who those exact individuals are voting for. My statement stands on it's own, no matter what the number is. Just like Obama will not appeal to people in the coal business, or pro-life folks, etc., etc.

Regarding the map, all of those southern states, with the exception of Florida, are solid GOP states. They're definitely going for Romney this year. So I guess the point I'm attempting to make is that those people who in your words pay no taxes and are on government handouts, are solid Republican voters.

Seems to me the Blue State wants to know if the gaffe by president Obama is going to hurt his chance for reelections. They way I see it, this wouldn’t be an issue at all if only Romney had been caught saying something that people don’t want to hear. 47% of the country is lazy and will only vote for someone who will continue to give them freebies without holding them accountable. All Romney said was the facts. These people will not for him because he will make the moochers accountable. He did not say he would take the entitlements away. On the other hand, Obama said he believes in redistribution, which is the backbone of Socialism. Socialism has failed in every country to follow it, or has led to a dictatorship environment to maintain the people’s dependency of the government. So, to go back to the original question, the real issue is since Obama has been caught out, can we just call the gaffes a wash and get back to where we were. Of course not. If you are not a selfish person and only care about what you think you should have now, but you are truly concerned for the welfare of this country, and the future of it for your children and grandchildren, you have to vote for Romney to fix the economic ruin that faces the United States of America.

Obama ran on Hope & change in 2008 with all kinds of promises. The last 3 1/2 years have been nothing but excuses and blaming everyone for his failures. Now he says he needs more time to move forward with the same promises as the last time. I don't think he gets it. Even Joe Biden has a lot better resume than him. Hell, I think everyone in here has a better resume than Obama.

No!

Frank, With all of your wisdumb, can you explain the reason Obama blew about a Trillion dollars on a couple solar companies? I know, it's Bush's fault. At least we knew where Bush's money went. I still haven't seen where all the recovery money went. I saw where they can only account for 6% being used to build something. Even the money paid back from the bailouts is a mystery. The middle east problems didn't start until Obama started bragging about killing Bin Laden as one of his talking points for re-election. See how things can get twisted. Democrats do it all the time.

Frank, You must play left field for the Democrat Dodgers. It's easier to blame Bush than deal with a neutered president.

Frank, So your saying Obama is responsible for everything after his first 9 months in office? Or did it go back to blaming Bush again? I didn't know you could pick and choose. I think the Democratic congress made Bush do it. They were the law makers at the time.

Obama has thrown money all around and nothing has worked. At least he should take the blame for his failure no matter what he started with. His resume didn't have any business experience in it. Maybe he wasn't the man for the job.

Frank, I know you like to talk about the bogeyman, I mean Bush, but if you believe in redistribution, why do you think we need that? What kind of help do people need out there? Who needs help? Who should pay? You criticized Romney's charity (what was it 4million last year), but isn't that what you want, people to be more charitable? Can you support your views without attacking others? Do you use all your "extra" money you don't need to help others? Do you buy flat screen tv's while inner city kids are hungry? Do you buy a sub-compact car so you can give the savings to pay down the debt? Do you do your "part", or do you just want to force others to do so?

So you believe in redistribution but can't defend it?

Popcorn

Obama can talk off the record and get away with his crapola, because the media will spin it as he "misspoke" and have to cover up obomas' true ideologies of "sharing the wealth", condeming those who have built the American Dream for themselves, try to keep groups of people down and on welfare or some sort of government payout system (just like the new one about paying women and hispanic farmers who think they were discriminated against and don't have to prove a damn thing in court, hell I could go on. But if Romney says anything, the first thing the media does is spin it into a lie by cutting out snipetes of what was said, build that lie into a story and then attack it and pass it on to the left wing nutjobs to attack. ALL BASED ON THE RULES FOR RADICALS because Obama was a student of that Socialist radical Saul Alinsky....THAT IS WHAT THE LEFT AND THE MEDIA ARE FOLLOWING, step by step.

B Allen, Frank doesn't want talk about the trillion dollar solar " experiment " Obama failed at and the 510 million he gave to Gevo Inc. to produce bio fuel. Obama bought the fuel they produced at $59.00 a gallon. I didn't hear either one of these mentioned during the convention. I can't wait, Frank will blame Bush again. And Frank, the stock market is rising because of a couple of companies, not because of the economy or unemployment.

Do you remember Solyndra and about 7 other companies he approved Government loans for? I guees not. And no, I never said anything about Apple.

Frank, I thought you were smart enough to look it up, but I was wrong.
Solyndra 500 million
Abound Solar 400 million
Beacon Power 43 million
A123 Solar 279 million + another 500 million after Solyndra went under.
Evergreen Solar 527 million
Ener 1 100 million
I'm sorry, I should have said " way over a trillion "

Frank, Do you have a Obama & O'Malley bobble heads?? I had to ask.

I was using Democratic math, You do it all the time.

Just to prove how conservatives post truth. Now you can see how really DUMB libs are. Especially the judge judy video which shows how stupid you people are. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=5nKZ-JqDh_A&NR=1

Do not be deceived. Both political parties are just as guilty of selling out the American people.