In 2007, Mitt Romney "figuratively" watched his father march with Martin Luther King, but back in 1978 he was saying "My father and I marched with Martin Luther King Jr. through the streets of Detroit." In reality, Mitt Romney never marched with King, and he never saw his father march with King because his father never marched with King either.
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Figuratively Speaking
21 Dec 2007 12:56 pm
Comments (35)
If Romney ends up being the nominee, we can portray him as being both a flip-flopper and a fibber. It will be poetic justice to portray him as having both of the supposed character flaws that hurt Kerry and Gore.
It looks like Romney and Huckabee would both be chewed up in a general election. The only person to fear at this point is McCain, who seems to be rising from the dead.
Was he there when his father flew the plane at Kitty Hawk? Or was that just being literary?
I bought into Ezra's earlier post! DOH!
Hey, I carpooled with Pope John Paul II.
About twenty years ago, he came to Los Angeles. I was headed south on the 405 through Culver City. I looked over to the northbound lanes, and there was the Pope's motorcade coming up from the airport. Pretty cool, huh?
Oh, if you want to be all literal about it, I didn't really carpool with the Pope. But I seem to have come a lot closer to it than either Romney or his dad to marching with Dr. King.
Oddly, Al Gore really did take the initiative in creating the internet, and yet this didn't seem to matter.
But I agree with Jim W. Now is not the time to pick on Romney. The one we fear is Zombie McCain. The flip-flopping blowdried serial exaggerator is the one we want the Republican talking points army to spend the next 11 months defending. Cease fire! Cease fire! Bookmark and save!
I think you have to recognize that this sort of "empathetic lying" is a tradition in the GOP, especially evident in Ronald Reagan, who once told Menachim Begin that while serving in WWII he was among those who first liberated the Nazi prison camps and saw the horrors of the holocaust first hand. This was of course a lie, Reagan served his country during the Big One on Hollywood studio lots making propaganda films, but it felt right to him, and got the point across that he was sympathetic to Israel, so no one seemed to complain. Romney is just following in the Gipper's footsteps, and in the grand tradition of the GOP, which is to equate symapathy for some cause with actual sacrifices and courage. This is evident today in the number of war supporters touting their own "courage" in advocating that actual soldiers fight dubious overseas wars, rather than themselves actually doing any real fighting other than writing columns in the safety of their homes and offices.
"The one we fear is Zombie McCain. The flip-flopping blowdried serial exaggerator is the one we want the Republican talking points army to spend the next 11 months defending. Cease fire! Cease fire! Bookmark and save!"
This contains much wisdom.
"It looks like Romney and Huckabee would both be chewed up in a general election..."
When I pulled the lever (albeit with little enthusiasm) for Kerry in '04, I remember thinking there's no possible way he can lose to a proven dip$hit like BushCo....
You can count on this: if there's any possible way in hell for the democrats to lose, they'll find it like a rat sniffing for sewage.
I heard McCain claim he walked with Jesus and Jesus's dad.
Maybe Huckabee will say he's not anti Mormon because he marched with Brighman Young and dodged bullet with 'Ol Joe Smith back in the day
If Romney gets the nomination and so does Hillary - none of these lies will be used. The media will assign the title of "Liar" to Hillary and they won't let her get away with calling out Romney on his lies.
Media narrative only allows one person to be called a liar - Otherwise the Tweety types will have too much cognitive dissonance.
The media will give "retroactive immunity" to Mitt for all his old lies - In place, they will assign the older Gore label "wooden, stiff" to him to give the impression of balance.
I think that Mitt's mad as a March heir.
Wasn't 1978 around the time that the LDS church discovered Negroes? That must have caused the earth to move for young Willard, altering his view of reality.
Someone needs to hold a photoshop contest on this business. The possibilities are endless.
Romney is the latest example of a politician caught in lies while trying to come up with enough chips to stay in the sensitivity grandstanding game.
Anyone remember former Sen. Bob Torricelli (D-New Jersey)? He once wrote a letter to the WSJ describing the anguish he felt as a child from watching the televised Estes Kefauver public hearings on the Mafia, which he complained unfairly smeared Italian-Americans.
The Kefauver hearings ended when Torricelli was 5 days old.
The man misspoke 30 years ago? This is turning into RDS.
As I recall, Matthew was defending Obama against Obama's lie in the third grade that he aspired to be President.
So, what I gather is that, to Matthew, when a Republican lied in the 1970s, that's terrible, but when a Democrat lied in the 1970s, that is perfectly fine and anyone bringing it up ought to be made fun of. Seems quite hackish on Matthew's part.
Now that's the best parody Al yet!
So, Obama lied when he said that someday he wanted to be president when he was in 3rd grade? Of course. The proof that he lied is that he is now running for president.
Al, this is so trivial that I'm not sure why I'm arguing about it, but:
Obama was lying in 3rd grade about his goals? What are you talking about? That isn't what he was being accused of. He was being accused, in an absurd fashion, of having downplayed his past ambitions in the current campaign. As part of this, his 3rd grade essay was brought up. Romney is being accused of lying right now, in saying that he saw an event which never happened, and having lied in a similar way in the past, when he said he participated in the same event which never happened.
Wait. Obama said in the thrid grade that he wanted to be President. He said recently that he didn't start thinking about becomeing President until the last few years. So which is it - was Obama lying in the third grade, or was he lying now?
I think my head is about to explode. What kind of bizarre reasoning leads you to think he might have been lying in 3rd grade? Are you saying that he knew then what he was going to say decades later, and lied in advance?
Jim, you are now covered in tar. Do not hug that thing!
So, what I gather is that, to Matthew, when a Republican lied in the 1970s, that's terrible...
You can do better than that, Al. The Faith in America speech, containing this quote, wasn't even a full 30 days ago.
"I saw my father march with Martin Luther King. I saw my parents provide compassionate care to others, in personal ways to people nearby, and in just as consequential ways in leading national volunteer movements."
And yes, quoting a kindergartner or grade schooler in any context pretty much begs to be made fun of.
Oops. mea culpa. I didn't realize we were giving Mitt a mulligan on the latest speech by making it figurative. Why are we doing that, again?
Because IOKIYAR, silly!
"When I pulled the lever (albeit with little enthusiasm) for Kerry in '04, I remember thinking there's no possible way he can lose to a proven dip$hit like BushCo...."
Oh so horribly true. I felt the same way. I didn't particularly like Kerry, but if the debates proved anything it was: Kerry is a windbag, Bush is borderline retarded, and Americans are stupid.
Well, if you can't have fun arguing about whether an 11 year old or a 21 year old told a lie, what can you have fun about???
But nevertheless, it turns out that Matthew is the liar here.
George Romney in fact DID march with MLK, it appears:
Witnesses recall Romney-MLK march
By: Mike Allen Dec 21, 2007 05:45 PM ESTShirley Basore, 72, says she was sitting in the hairdresser’s chair in wealthy Grosse Pointe, Mich., back in 1963 when a rumpus started and she discovered that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and her governor, George Romney, were marching for civil rights — right past the window.
With the cape still around her neck, Basore went outside and joined the parade.
“They were hand in hand,” recalled Basore, a former high-school English teacher. “They led the march. We all swung our hands, and they held their hands up above everybody else’s.”
So will Matthew be posting a correction? Or does The Atlantic not care about the truth?
But the hilarious thing is, Mitt has already said it did NOT happen, he was speaking figuratively!
So Mitt Romney has called the two people the Politico talked to liars.
So will Matthew be posting a correction?
Al, whose word are you going to take on this issue? The Detroit Free Press quotes Gov. George Romney's press secretary and the then-head of the NAACP in Michigan, saying it didn't happen. On the other hand, you have Shirley Basore, 72,saying it did. Which is more likely to be true?
Not to mention, Al, that if Romney and King had marched together, it would have been headline news. After all, what would be the point of King and Romney marching together if no one noticed.. There were no contemporary news accounts of any such march.
King, moreover, didn't march in Grosse Pointe--he attended a meeting. King later marched down Woodward Ave. in Detroit. There are newspaper accounts of all this. Romney expressed sympathy, but declined to participate, because the march was on a Sunday--he did this in a press release, which is still in the records. Still later, Romney participated in a march in Grosse Pointe--but King wasn't there.
All this is available in articles a the the Detroit Free Press online, www.freep.com
But, of course, the Politico will do whatever it takes to protect a Republican. Even if they don't exactly think it through to a logical conclusion.
now, those two witnesses basically stated that they "saw" romney with MLK.
now, all official reports state that king was not at the march. in fact, the clear evidence is that he was in another city that day.
i grew up in detroit during that time period.
if MLK had shown up in grosse pointe, an exlusive, all-white, rich suburb, the news would have been all over it.
IT DIDN'T HAPPEN!!!!
now i'm sure the nice lady indeed saw romney holding hands with a short, stout, dark skinned brother.
but it's just another case where white folks think that all black folks look alike!
and, as has been noted, another example of the politico showing its true gop colors.
Comments closed January 04, 2008.
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Heads in the Sand
Mitt Romney = Captain Rex Kramer.
"Do you know what it's like to fall in the mud and get kicked, in the head, by an iron boot? Of course you don't--no one does--that never happens."
Posted by joejoejoe | December 21, 2007 1:03 PM