Ebeneezer Mitt

Saw the bad news for Mitt Romney today.

Oh, yeah, he won the Florida Republican primary yesterday. That's Mitt's good news. But the euphoria must have gone to his head and erased his speaking sensibility.

Mitt surely knows what a reporter can do with a sound bite, so he should not have been surprised that the media went crazy when he said he was "not concerned about the very poor". You would have thought Mitt was the incarnation of Ebeneezer Scrooge and was sending the indigent to an untimely death to reduce the surplus population.

The truth was more bland and certainly less malevolent.

Most media sources have conceded that the phrase was taken out of context and repackaged to make headlines. But Mitt's initial quote had already made it around the globe two or three times before anyone questioned its veracity.

Plunder the Blunder: If you are concerned you may say something that doesn't make sense or could be misinterpreted, you probably would be better remaining silent.

WITTicism: If you think you'll trip, zip your lip.