An Alternate Interpretation of Romney's '47 Percent' ASSISI, Italy - When Mitt Romney's closed-door remarks calling 47 percent of Americans "victims" emerged this week, it caused a protracted firestorm. What was he thinking? Was this a pivotal moment in the campaign? Was it even possibly the end? In much of the ensuing analysis, it was taken for granted that Mr. Romney's comments flowed from his own extraordinary wealth. But in this week's Currents column, I challenge that idea. The resentments that Mr. Romney was voicing are not the customary resentments of the one percent who live in Aspen, Colorado, and on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. They are, instead, the resentments you hear from a class of Americans less elite than Mr. Romney but more elite than the 47 percent, privileged but only just, feeling squeezed by a lousy economy and by a sense of falling behind in a fast-changing country. However ham-fistedly it came out, Mr. Romney may have been trying to channel a very real sense among many Americans that the tables of privilege are turning and that today's fortunate may be tomorrow's left-behind. Tell us: What do you think Mr. Romney was doing? Was he channeling the rage of the one percent? Or was it the bitterness of that other 47 percent above the bottom 47?