The original content of Democracy Now! Headlines appears under the Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 License (United States). For more, including their other shows and media, visit www.democracynow.org. November 15, 2012 Romney Blames Election Loss on Obama "Gifts" to People of Color, Youth ----------------------------------------------------------------------- The now former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is again under scrutiny for a leaked recording discussing President Obama's supporters. In a conference call with donors, Romney blamed his loss on Obama's "gifts" to various groups, including African Americans and Hispanics. Mitt Romney: "What the president — president's campaign did was focus on certain members of his base coalition, give them extraordinary financial gifts from the government, and then work very aggressively to turn them out to vote. What the president did is he gave them two — two things: One, he gave them a big gift on immigration with the DREAM Act amnesty program; number two, put in place 'Obamacare,' which is — which basically is $10,000 a family. I mean, it's a proven political strategy, which is, give a bunch of money from the government to a group and, guess what, they'll vote for you. The giving away free stuff is a hard thing to compete with." Romney went on to include young people and college students in his list, saying: "Forgiveness of college loan interest was a big gift. Free contraceptives were very big with young college-aged women. And then, finally, 'Obamacare' also made a difference for them because, as you know, anybody now 26 years of age and younger was now going to be part of their parents' plan, and that was a big gift to young people." Romney's comments come days after his running mate, Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, chalked up Obama's victory to the president's strength in "urban areas." But some top Republicans are already distancing themselves from Romney's remarks. Speaking to reporters Wednesday night, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal called Romney's statements "absolutely wrong," adding, "We have got to stop dividing American voters." .