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.