I know a gaffe when I see one, having made many myself, and Romney’s 47 percent remark was no gaffe. It was an expression of a belief so deeply held, and so thoroughly validated in the circles in which Romney travels, that it required no fact-checking. Add to that the tin ear that allowed the Republican party’s stalwart to be photographed at his vacation estate, and to claim that his support of the auto industry is demonstrated by the fact that his wife drives two Cadillacs, and you have a prescription for electoral disaster. Hence his claim, made to a group of supporters at a private meeting in affluent Boca Raton, that 47 percent of Americans pay no income taxes and are “dependent on the government.”

First, what the Obama-leaning media call the 47 percent gaffe: Romney is right that about half of Americans pay no income taxes (he put the figure at 47 percent, the precise figure is 46.4 percent), he was wrong to fail to mention that 28.3% are working and have highly regressive payroll taxes deducted from their pay checks, 10.3 percent pay no taxes because they are retired and living on social security benefits they paid for throughout their working lives, 6.9 percent earn less than $20,000 annually, and thousands of soldiers in combat zones are exempt from income taxes. That’s virtually all of Romney’s 47 percent. To say that these people refuse to “take personal responsibility” for their lives borders on calumny.