I think it’ll be a matter of historical debate as to what measure of damage 47% ultimately did to Romney’s campaign. By that point in the game, his ass wasn’t in the best position possible to begin with. He’d received a “dead cat bounce” in post-convention polls and was watching Obama pull ahead. The first of the debates was still weeks away, and the 47% comment never weighed into any of those. And he stuck in his mouth and roundly chewed it off days later with the Benghazi attacks.