BOCA RATON, Fla. -- When Mitt Romney came to Boca Raton -- the site of tonight's debate -- last May, he regaled a private fundraiser with a tale from his time in China, when he and a Bain Capital colleague went to inspect a factory he was considering purchasing. The conditions he found there shocked him, but he turned it into an uplifting story, noting that the factory's barbed wire was -- according to their tour guide, at least -- in place not to keep the young women locked in, but to keep desperate job seekers locked out.
It was that portion of Romney's talk that so profoundly affected one man in the room, moving him to upload the comments on YouTube and ultimately release the video that is now known by just a number: 47 percent.
HuffPost met up with the clandestine filmmaker on Monday, and asked him what thoughts he had going into the foreign policy debate.
"Romney has been talking about getting tough on China lately. From what I heard at the dinner, he's more interested in getting tough on the young Chinese girls at his sweatshop," the man said, continuing to request anonymity. "Unless we stand up for those girls in China, our mothers, sisters and daughters here are doomed to the same fate. Just ask the Sensata workers. If he could get rid of the unions, he would have no problem paying U.S. workers a 'pittance,' stacking them three high, 12 to a room. Romney is dangerously out of touch with the struggles of hard-working Americans."
Sensata is a reference to a Bain Capital-owned factory in Illinois. Bain is closing the plant, laying off the workers, and shipping production to China. The factory is scheduled to close for good in early November, and the American workers were asked to train their Chinese replacements.
Romney himself has profited handsomely from Sensata Technologies through his ongoing investment with Bain. The workers have pleaded with Romney to intervene; he has so far declined to do so.
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