Well…Conservatives (including this one) have been waiting for Mitt to shoot straight with the American people…And he did.

The question being asked today is: was this a good thing or a bad thing?

The New York Times has the story:

Mitt Romney described almost half of Americans as “dependent upon government” during a private reception with donors this year and said those voters were likely to support President Obama because they believe they are “entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it.”

The blunt political and cultural assessment by the Republican presidential candidate offers a rare glimpse into Mr. Romney’s personal views as the campaign enters its final 50 days. Liberals quickly condemned the remarks as insensitive, and Mr. Obama’s campaign accused him of having “disdainfully written off half the nation.”

The recordings surfaced even as Mr. Romney sought to retool his campaign message amid internal campaign sniping and calls from Republicans outside the campaign for him to be more specific about how his policies will fix the nation’s economy.

The video clips raised the possibility that his campaign would once again be sidetracked by Mr. Romney’s own words, a problem that has plagued the former Massachusetts governor since his hard-fought battle with Republican rivals during the nominating contests earlier this year.

The video of Mr. Romney making the comments was posted on the Internet Monday afternoon by Mother Jones, a liberal magazine, which said it had obtained the recording and had confirmed its authenticity. The magazine said it was concealing the identity of the person who took the video and the location and time of the recording.

The New York Times is unable to confirm where or when the clips were taken. The author of the article on the Mother Jones Web site, David Corn, said the video was taken after Mr. Romney won the Republican nominating contest, but he declined to comment further.

The video was apparently unearthed with help from James Carter, the grandson of former President Jimmy Carter. Mr. Carter, who lists “oppo researcher” on his Twitter bio, told New York Magazine that he helped find the videos and get them to Mr. Corn at Mother Jones. He is credited with “research assistance” on the Mother Jones Web site. Mr. Romney has repeatedly compared Mr. Obama to Jimmy Carter, suggesting both were failures.

In one video segment, Mr. Romney described how his campaign is writing off “47 percent of the people” who will vote for Mr. Obama “no matter what.” He adds that those people “are people who pay no income tax” and says “so our message of low taxes doesn’t connect.”

Mr. Romney said that “my job is not to worry about those people. I’ll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.”

Yes, what Romney said was the cold, hard truth. But, there were better ways he could have said it.

Romney communications director Gail Gitcho issued this statement in response to the release of the original speech: 

Mitt Romney wants to help all Americans struggling in the Obama economy. As the governor has made clear all year, he is concerned about the growing number of people who are dependent on the federal government, including the record number of people who are on food stamps, nearly one in six Americans in poverty, and the 23 million Americans who are struggling to find work. Mitt Romney’s plan creates 12 million new jobs in four years, grows the economy and moves Americans off of government dependency and into jobs.

Back on February 6, 2011, Fred Thompson wrote the following article for The New York Daily News:

Today, America remembers President Ronald Reagan on the 100th anniversary of his birth. It should come as no surprise that Reagan is a personal hero of mine and it should also come as no surprise why this is the case. I’m honored to share a similar story with our 40th President, one which saw two boys from small towns eventually find their way to Hollywood and Washington – although not quite in the same order and not quite with the same results.

But while our paths were different, having a taste for what he experienced has given me a more profound respect for Reagan’s ability to captivate and connect with the American people, an art that has been largely lost to the politically correct posturing and strategic doublespeak of today. Yes, some of his political success derived from his training as an actor. After all, all politicians are actors in some form or another.

But not all actors make good politicians and certainly the reverse is true as well. More than most Presidents, Reagan’s success was tied directly to his ability not just to speak to the American people, but to communicate with them. Entire books have been written on Reagan’s ability to communicate, but his reputation as The Great Communicator boils down to three basic traits: he was simple; he was clear; he was sincere.

Let’s not confuse “simple” with “simplistic.” Reagan was by no means simplistic. To the contrary, he communicated wide-reaching ideology and complex policies in terms people could understand. For instance, Reagan summed up his approach to the Cold War as, “we win, they lose.” His detractors called it naive, but that simple phrase communicated volumes about Reagan’s philosophy and strategy when it came to facing down the Soviet Union.

And Reagan’s message wasn’t meant only for American audiences but for international audiences as well. When Reagan called the Soviet Union the “evil empire,” the political establishment in Washington howled – but those trapped behind the Iron Curtain cheered. Reagan’s message was for all who hunger for freedom and as leader of the free world, Reagan understood that he spoke for them.

It was for that reason that Reagan insisted, despite the objections of his own State Department, to keep a line that will echo across the ages: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.” The State Department famously removed the phrase from drafts of Reagan’s speech – repeatedly. Each time, Reagan reinserted it, because he knew it would be heard by the whole world.

Allow me to preface my closing remarks by saying: I want Romney to be our next President.

If this speech was some sort of stealth campaign, designed to beclown the Obama Campaign and their sycophantic Media Lackeys, then , congratulations, Mitt…well done.

If it was a comment given under the illusion of privacy, then all I can say is he needs to learn from the 1980 Campaign of Ronald Reagan:

In order to achieve the landslide victory which we all hope that he will have, as Ronaldus Magnus achieved, Romney needs to be a UNITER, not a DIVIDER.

We have one of those living at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave already.