The rest of the comment makes me think he's pandering. The picture he paints is of people who simply take from the government and don't have any interest in ta

The rest of the comment makes me think he's pandering. The picture he paints is of people who simply take from the government and don't have any interest in taking care of themselves. By connecting that picture to the 47% number, he's trying to convince people that there's a huge entitlement problem and that we need to take back the country from the lazy. But of course the 47% of non-taxpayers includes retirees who've paid their fair share of taxes in the past, students who will enter the workforce and pay plenty of future taxes, and working families who don't earn enough to offset deductions and credits (a family of 4 can earn about $51,000 without owing taxes, due to the standard deduction, personal exemptions, child tax credit, and making work pay credit.) If Romney phrases his accusation carefully enough, people in these categories will think "he's not talking about me", and yet still may get riled up about "the huge number of lazy people who don't pay taxes".