TAMPA, Fl. - Despite an impressive 14-point victory in Florida, GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney felt he couldn't vacate the state without sticking it to those Floridians--and Americans--who were least like the candidate: the very poor.
In an interview with CNN's Soledad O'Brien, Romney said, "I'm not concerned about the very poor."
When O'Brien pressed him on what sounds like an extremely cold view of America's impoverished population which has reached a level of almost one of every six people, Romney snapped back.
"Well, you had to finish the sentence, Soledad."
This led to confusion, even among leading linguists. Harfold State College instructor of remedial reading skills, Walter Powers, said, "Mr. Romney uttered the seven-word sentence, 'I'm not concerned about the very poor,' and then he, obviously annoyed, tells Ms. O'Brien that she had to finish his sentence. Okay, so when I finish his sentence, I get the idea that he is not concerned about the very poor."
When another reporter asked Romney again what he meant by the quote, the candidate's syntax, in typical Republican fashion, seemed to come unglued.
"No no no no. I - no, no. You've got to take the whole sentence, all right, as opposed to saying, and then change it just a little bit, because then it sounds very different," said Romney.
Asked what part of his seven-word sentence wasn't being taken into consideration, Romney replied, "The part where I say that the very poor bore the bejesus out of me."
