Do the Math!

To the Editor:

Mitt Romney made a very revealing statement when in a "secret" fundraising meeting with GOP high rollers, he held that 47 percent of the electorate "will vote for the President no matter what."

He identified the 47 percent as citizens who do not pay a federal income tax and concluded that because they are dependent on government support he could not get their vote. Governor Romney, do the Math.

By your reckoning the President would only have to attract another 3 percent of the voters plus 1 in order to win the popular vote and likely carry the electoral college. Are you "tossing in the towel?"

You went on to say that you "want to get the people in the middle." That would hardly offset the 47 percent of the voters. Do the Math!

Perhaps your math skills have been influenced by the peculiar, misleading and inaccurate math of your running mate, Paul Ryan. Have you forgotten your skills with numbers that you perfected at Bain, or were they limited to adding up profits. Do the Math.

OK, I will give you the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps you based your calculations on the effectiveness of wide spread efforts by Republican lawmakers from coast to coast to suppress voter turnout, an effort which targets students, minorities, the elderly and the poor - not your usual GOP supporters. On second thought - Do the Math.

You stated in your defense that perhaps you could have been more clear in your use of words. OK, what did you mean to say because there is no misunderstanding of what you did say. You spoke with clarity and precision, a rarity in your case.

It is time - past time - for you to take responsibility for your positions and stop chastising others less affluent than you for not being personably responsible citizens. Time to expose the authentic, real Mitt Romney - or have you already?

One last point: Do the Math!

Herbert J. Hoffman, Ph.D.

Ogunquit