Romney tries to stem damage from new controversy

“You hope for some degree of stability, but you recognize that this is going to remain an unsolved problem,” he said, “and we kick the ball down the field and hope that ultimately, somehow, something will happen and resolve it.”

Obama, who has yet to comment on Romney’s videotaped comments, had an appearance on the David Letterman show and a fundraiser with Beyonce and Jay-Z on his campaign schedule for the day.

Romney held a fundraiser in Salt Lake City, with a second one set for evening in Dallas. Obama’s campaign emailed a fundraising appeal to supporters referring to Romney’s remarks and posted a video online asking voters to watch his comments and respond.

“That’s not somebody who I’m thinking, ‘Oh, I want him as my president,’” says one woman shown in the video.

In Romney’s just-revealed video, he says 47 percent of Americans pay no income tax. According to the non-partisan Tax Policy Center, the total is between 46 million and 47 million, including more than 16 million elderly Americans.

Romney did not cite the center in his remarks. But he previously criticized it sharply when it issued an analysis that said his economic plan would cut taxes on millionaires and raise them on the middle class.

• Associated Press reporters Holly Ramer in Dover, N.H., and David Espo, Charles Babington, Julie Pace, Philip Elliott and Kasie Hunt in Washington contributed to this report. Kuhnhenn reported from Washington.

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