The moocher class

-- The Post’s Jonathan Capehart wrote: “What the Republican presidential nominee said is reprehensible and unbecoming a man who claims to want to be president of all Americans.”

-- New York Magazine’s Jonathan Chait wrote: “Presidential campaigns wallow so tediously in pseudo-events and manufactured outrage that our senses can be numbed to the appearance of something genuinely momentous. Mitt Romney’s secretly recorded comments at a fund-raiser are such an event — they reveal something vital about Romney, and they disqualify his claim to the presidency… The video exposes an authentic Romney as a far more sinister character than I had imagined. Here is the sneering plutocrat, fully in thrall to a series of pernicious myths that are at the heart of the mania that has seized his party. He believes that market incomes in the United States are a perfect reflection of merit.”

Romney has his defenders.

-- Jonah Goldberg, writing for the National Review, said: “Some on the left are trying to make it sound like Romney says he won’t concern himself with the ‘47 percent’ if he’s president. That’s not what he’s saying in the video. What he’s saying in the video is that as a strategic matter he can’t concern himself with the people locked into voting against him.”

-- Michael Walsh, also writing for the National Review, said: “This is Mitt’s time, this is his moment…. And that means going all in…. Sure, Mitt might have phrased things more elegantly — and certainly would have had he known there was a rat in the audience….. What he ought to do is step up and embrace the basic division in our nation, including the fact that nearly half the country pays no income taxes. Acknowledge it — and then explain why, morally, this is not a good thing.”

How about hearing from one of the folks Romney calls irresponsible who responded to my column.

“I am part of the working, worrying middle class,” John from Lothian, Md., wrote me. “ I am an early retired electrician. For 40-plus years I worked my tail off sometimes (too many times) at minimum wage. My wife and I managed to raise three kids without them becoming involved in all the nasty things that to frequently distract them growing into ‘responsible’ adults. Thank you for realizing and recognizing that there are those of us out here that have worked hard all their lives and have done the best they could and still find themselves behind.”

I want to hear from you. This week’s Color of Money Question: What do you think of Romney’s comments? Send your responses to colorofmoney@washpost.com. Put “The Mooching Class” in the subject line. Be sure to include your full name, city and state.

Celebrity Cash

Michael Winans, who is related to the famed Winans gospel singing family, has been charged in federal court with operating an $8 million Ponzi scheme that promised investors huge returns for investing in phony Saudi Arabian crude oil bonds, reports The Detroit Free Press.

Winans is accused of defrauding more than 1,000 investors of $1,000 to $7,000. An attorney representing Winans said his client plans to plead guilty.