Why Mitt Romney 's "47 percent" comment was so bad .
Mitt Romney
In an interview with Fox News Sunday 's Chris Wallace , Mitt Romney acknowledged just how much his "47 percent" comments -- in which he all but wrote off the votes of half the country -- had negatively impacted his chances of being president : "That hurt . 
Romney 's admission of the damage done got us to thinking -LRB- again -RRB- about why exactly the remark hurt him so badly . 
Candidates need to adjust accordingly or face the prospect of adding their names to a list that Romney headlines at the moment . 
The conventional wisdom is that "47 percent" hurt so much because it played directly into the stereotype of Romney as an out-of-touch rich guy that President Obama and his campaign were playing up . 
The power of these "candid candidate" moments is that they present a jarringly different image of a politician than the one he or she is presenting to the public and raise questions among voters about who the real Mitt Romney or Tom Daschle or Bob Etheridge actually is . 
The truly terrible thing for Romney was that the remarks not only came directly out of Romney 's mouth but were also documented on video . 
Imagine for a second if Romney 's "47 percent" comments had never been captured on video and rather only been quoted by someone in attendance . 
Yes , it still would have been a story that Romney would have had to address but it 's hard to imagine that it would have been the definitive moment of the campaign -- as it turned out to be .
In an interview with Fox News Sunday 's Chris Wallace , [TGT] acknowledged just how much [TGT] "47 percent" comments -- in which [TGT] all but wrote off the votes of half the country -- had negatively impacted [TGT] chances of being president : "That hurt . 
[TGT] 's admission of the damage done got us to thinking -LRB- again -RRB- about why exactly the remark hurt [TGT] so badly . 
Candidates need to adjust accordingly or face the prospect of adding their names to a list that [TGT] headlines at the moment . 
The conventional wisdom is that "47 percent" hurt so much because it played directly into the stereotype of [TGT] as an out-of-touch rich guy that President Obama and [TGT] campaign were playing up . 
The power of these "candid candidate" moments is that they present a jarringly different image of a politician than the one he or she is presenting to the public and raise questions among voters about who the real [TGT] or Tom Daschle or Bob Etheridge actually is . 
The truly terrible thing for [TGT] was that the remarks not only came directly out of [TGT] 's mouth but were also documented on video . 
Imagine for a second if [TGT] 's "47 percent" comments had never been captured on video and rather only been quoted by someone in attendance . 
Yes , it still would have been a story that [TGT] would have had to address but it 's hard to imagine that it would have been the definitive moment of the campaign -- as it turned out to be .