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(Image source: Mother Jones)
BY ZACH TOOMBS AND CHRIS LONG
One
of the enduring mysteries of the 2012 presidential campaign has been answered. Wednesday on the
Ed Show, Scott Prouty was revealed as the man behind what’s known simply as the 47
percent video.
“I'm a regular guy. Middle class hard working guy. ... I'd like
to think I have a good moral compass. ... I was behind this, this whole thing.” (Via
NBC)
Prouty was working as a bartender at the event when he shot the video. Later,
Prouty passed it off to James Carter IV, the grandson of former President Jimmy Carter.
Carter
then passed the video along to journalist David Corn of Mother Jones — who finally
put the video up on the web September 17. (Via Mother Jones)
“There are 47 percent of the
people who will vote for the president no matter what. Alright, there are 47 percent
who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe
the government has a responsibility to care for them...”
The resulting headlines
were brutal for Romney.
A writer for Bloomberg declared: “You can mark my prediction now: A secret recording
from a closed-door Mitt Romney fundraiser, released today ... has killed Mitt Romney's
campaign for president.”
But there are some major questions as to whether the
video had any effect at all on the campaign, besides some bad press for the candidate.
Real
Clear Politics’ polling averages shows Romney’s big bump in the race actually came just a
couple weeks after the tape was released — when he performed well in the first presidential
debate.
Prouty says he didn’t want to become a public figure during the election,
he just wanted to let people know what Romney said during the private fundraiser. He told
The Huffington Post he made it his personal mission to spread the video.
“When
Prouty talked about the film's rollout, he sounded like any indie film director looking
for word-of-mouth magic. ‘I wanted to have a build up,’ he said. ‘I wanted to have
it viral as much as I could possibly get it viral.”’
Prouty also said he initially
brought the camera in an attempt to get a picture with Romney.