After Mother Jones released a clandestine video recording of Mitt Romney at a fundraiser, writing off 47 percent of the American people as “victims” and moochers who would never vote him, pundits right and left gleefully proclaimed that they had finally glimpsed “the real Mitt Romney.”  Peggy Noonan labeled the Romney campaign “incompetent”. David Brooks wrote, “Romney’s comment is a country-club fantasy. It’s what self-satisfied millionaires say to each other. It reinforces every negative view people have about Romney.”

The reaction to Romney’s comments wasn’t universally negative, however. Some right wing pundits argued that Romney was correct; others argued that he had been misunderstood, his comments misrepresented. Here, we present a survey of the most naive or willfully misleading defenses.

Click here to see the 5 most unabashed excuses for Mitt Romney’s “47 percent” speech