It turns out that the person who recorded Mitt Romney’s infamous “47 percent” comments at an exclusive Florida fundraiser was a bartender at the event.
So I was wrong when I assumed last September that the recording was done by a guest at the fundraiser– a “Rooseveltian traitor to his class.”
I found this account particularly telling:
The man, who tended bar for a company that catered to a high-end clientele, had previously worked at a fundraiser at a home where [former president Bill] Clinton spoke. After Clinton addressed guests, the man recalled, the former president came back to the kitchen and thanked the staff, the waiters, the bartenders, the busboys, and everyone else involved in putting the event together. He shook hands, took photos, signed autographs, and praised the meal — all characteristic of the former president.
Say what you want about Clinton, and I’ve probably said some of it too, but I think such behavior on his part is genuine and unfeigned.
So it seems the contrast between Clinton’s graciousness toward ordinary working people and Romney’s disdainful words about half the population helped persuade the bartender to release the video which probably did as much as anything to ensure Romney’s defeat.
The bartender will be interviewed on MSNBC tonight.