“But this isn’t some right-wing blogger. It’s the Republican candidate for President of the United States.” via Devastating | TPM Editors Blog.

Devastating. Shocking. Stunning. So many possible words for this, straight from Mr. Romney’s mouth:

“There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, 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…These are people who pay no income tax.” Romney went on: “[M]y job is is not to worry about those people. I’ll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.”

Mostly though, it’s the first time Mr. Romney has told the truth about what he believes. As Conor Friedersdorf of The Atlantic notes, it reminds one of candidate Barack Obama, during one of his own fundraisers:

“You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania, and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing’s replaced them.

“And they fell through the Clinton administration and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are going to regenerate and they have not,” he went on. “And it’s not surprising, then, they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”

Obama’s comments came at the end of a lengthy answer in which he rejected the notion that voters were passing him over simply for racial reasons, saying instead that his campaign of hope and change was having difficulty in “places where people feel most cynical about government.”

But Mr. Romney’s comments are not like Obama’s above. Obama attempts to explain the cynicism some voters have about government.

Mr. Romney simply illustrates his own cynicism about government. He demonstrates his cynicism about voters. About people.

Not to mention his self-love. As Andrew Sullivan notes:

here is his formula for economic growth: just electing him will be enough:

“My own view is that if we win on November 6th, there will be a great deal of optimism about the future of this country. We’ll see capital come back and we’ll see — without actually doing anything — we’ll actually get a boost in the economy.”

My italics. Under Obama, the value of stocks in the Dow has doubled.

So much truth in one day. Enough for many.