Mitt Romney appeared on Cavuto this afternoon to personally respond to today’s fallout over whether his remarks about 47 percent of the electorate at a private fundraiser awhile back were right on the money or hopelessly callous. Although he already admitted that his remarks probably weren’t very “elegant” in a statement last night, he didn’t come any closer to apologizing for the meat of his message this afternoon. Via Mediaite:

Frankly, we have two different views about America. The president’s view is one of a larger government. There is a tape that came out today where is the president is saying he likes redistribution. I disagree. I think a society based upon a government-centered nation, where government plays a larger and larger role, redistributes money, that’s the wrong course for America. That will not build a strong America or help people out of poverty. … No, I’m talking about a perspective of individuals who I’m not likely to get to support me. I recognize that those people who are not paying income tax are going to say, ‘Gosh, this provision that Mitt keeps talking about lowering income taxes,’ that’s not going to be attractive to them. And those that are dependent on government and those that think government’s job is redistribute — I’m not going to get them.

Yes, it’s probably true that those private comments weren’t tailor-made for mass production, but as Romney already explained, he wasn’t saying that he “doesn’t care” about the welfare of the 47-ish percent of people who are squarely in President Obama’s camp — he was merely saying that the nature of this presidential election means the crucial thing is to convince the independents/swing voters, and then subsequently use the wealth-creating, economy-growing, jobs-producing, and independence-encouraging policies of his own presidency as testimony to convince the remainder that his is the right course for the country, for goodness’ sake. I wonder if the rest of the mainstream media have managed to get up off of their fainting couches yet.