Election 2012

There is a partisan side to the video that is giving Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney headaches. The man who found the video online and then negotiated its full release was James Carter IV, President Jimmy Carter's grandson.

If you haven't heard by now, the video was released by Mother Jones and it shows Romney talking bluntly about 47 percent of the country, whom he says pay no taxes and think themselves "victims."

The question of whether Mitt Romney's presidential campaign will be hurt by his characterization of 47 percent of Americans as people who believe they are victims, entitled to health care, food, housing, "you name it," is fairly settled.

Yes, it will — at least in the short run. Romney's problem? There's not much more campaign left than a short run.

Mitt Romney has gotten into political hot water for asserting that "47 percent of the people" favor President Obama because they are "dependent upon government."

The emergence of video secretly recorded in May, in which Mitt Romney speaks scornfully of President Obama's supporters, has sparked the inevitable comparisons to controversial comments President Obama made in 2008.

Watching the first 20 minutes of Saturday Night Live's season premiere in Denver, I counted at least four ads by the Obama campaign and liberal groups backing the president. Just one ad countering their message was aired in the same span by the Romney campaign.

Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney told supporters that "there are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what" because they are "dependent upon government ... believe that they are victims ... believe the government has a responsibility to care for them ... these are people who pay no income tax."

Who was he talking about?

The liberal news outlet Mother Jones has followed Monday's leaked video of Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney saying that 47 percent of Americans will vote for President Obama because they are "dependent upon government" and "believe that they are victims," with another clip in which he says Palestinians have "no interest whatsoever

Mitt Romney's effort to refocus his GOP presidential campaign on substance hit a rough patch Monday night. A secretly filmed video, released by Mother Jones magazine, shows Romney saying nearly half of Americans think they are "victims." Romney says his remarks were not elegantly stated.