As Michael Kinsley, the political journalist and TV host, put it, a political gaffe is when a politician states an inconvenient truth that hurts him for precisely that reason — he is saying what he truly feels, without the veil of political correctness or the advice of his political handlers.

Under this definition, most of my writing for The State News could be called a gaffe. In politics, we have seen this many times in the past, such as when then-Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean called the Republican Party the “white party.”

However, neither of these comments are lies or are necessarily bad.

For example, though Dean might have been trying to imply the Republican Party was racist, he did not say that, nor could he, because that would have been a lie and he would have been rightly criticized for it.

Romney’s statement that 47 percent of the American population does not pay income tax is not a lie — it was and is confirmed by the Tax Policy Center. The reason his comment is harmful to his campaign is because the way he said it overgeneralized this statistic — although 47 percent of people are alike in that they do not pay income tax, they are very different in their reasons for not doing so. To lump all of the different groups together is just as ignorant as Dean implying the Republican Party is a whites-only club.

Romney, in a rare moment of honesty, claimed 47 percent of Americans would vote for Obama no matter what because they are dependent on government and think of themselves as victims. While I can see some truth to that, there is flawed logic in assuming 47 percent of Americans are mooches.

National Public Radio, or NPR, one of the few news sources I trust anymore, broke down that number in a clear graph. NPR cited the Tax Policy Center, the same source Romney likely got his statistic from, which also points out that many of those who don’t pay income tax do pay other taxes: federal payroll and excise taxes, as well as state and local income, sales and property taxes.

Including groups such as the elderly, veterans and people with tax credits (of which many among Romney’s base are beneficiaries) causes the message of “entitled people who see themselves as victims” to be distorted.

Surely Governor Romney does not believe veterans who are simply collecting on the promise they would be taken care of in their old age are seeing themselves as “victims.”

While also a generalization, which should be further broken down, from this graphic, one could argue Romney would have been more accurate simply in calling out 30 percent of Americans — those in low income and the working poor and children. Although, as I said, many in those two categories also should not be characterized as freeloaders.

Although I agree with a recent State News editorial claiming Romney’s comments were in poor taste and will hurt him, I also see this as a breath of fresh air. His comments are not completely accurate, but they give voters insight into what Romney really thinks — a viewpoint few politicians ever want to be made public because the fallback can be negative. Most will agree it is better to hide behind a mask that can be controlled to please the public — a tactic I believe Obama identifies with.

Political writer and adviser Pat Buchanan said good politics is about addition rather than subtraction. Unfortunately, we live in an age when government must start subtracting, and I believe Romney is the man for the job, which is precisely the reason so many people oppose him — no one wants his or her piece of the pie to be “subtracted.” But that is a reality everyone will have to face, no matter who is in office. And the fact that Romney actually is honest about this reality is a plus in my book.

While I wish he was more honest is his plan for a recovery, I do not doubt he can use his business experience to do it — I would just like to hear more specifics.

Romney is right that those who are leeches on the government will never vote for him, but using broad generalizations rarely helps anyone, especially politicians. Although he is half right, he also is half wrong, and as previous editorials have said, that half is the one that will cost him.

Jameson Joyce is a guest columnist at The State News and a James Madison sophomore. Reach him at joyceja1@msu.edu.