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I still hold that Romney’s “gaffe” was no more than a simple appeasement to rich Republican donors. I highly doubt that he intended to offend anyone.

But he made a mistake: he got caught on camera. And now real people are really hurt.

That matters.

Especially when you now have a flood of personal stories being published online like this one from the New York Times.

My country gave me the chance to rebuild my life — paying my tax tab is the only thing it’s asked of me in return.

I was not an exception in that little Section 8 neighborhood. Among those welfare moms were future teachers, nurses, scientists, business owners, health and safety advocates. We never believed we were “victims” or felt “entitled”; if anything, we felt determined. Wouldn’t any decent person throw a rope to a drowning person? Wouldn’t any drowning person take it?

The rest of that article is very moving and worth reading; you can see how good honest people have been given a real second chance at life.

But not everyone has the mental endowment to see the big picture surrounding misfortunes that can befall anyone—and seemingly more-so the closer you are to the poverty line—and Mitt Romney’s apparent lack of consideration and willingness to slap an “irresponsible citizen” sticker on anyone who has problems. Note I say “apparent.” Again, I don’t think this is Romney’s message—a Republican message? yes, Romney’s?.. well who knows what his message is anymore.

And in case you’re thinking that Republicans are trying to publicly water down Romney’s gaffe, here’s one prominent Republican who vehemently agrees. Ted Nugent:

Mitt Romney hit the bull’s-eye with his comments regarding the 47 percent of Americans…As I’ve written before, for at least the past 50 years the Democratic Party has intentionally engineered a class of political “victims” who have been bamboozled into being dependent on the federal government for their subsistence, including food, housing and now health care. They get this without paying any federal income taxes, and that’s wrong. Something for nothing is always a scam. This is how you buy votes, plain and simple.

So, while Romney may privately “get it,” others evidently don’t, and the Republicans have embraced a faux pas that is pissing a lot of people off.