Truly A Long Time Gone
I’ve been quite remiss in my posting duties due to real-world time constraints. Luckily, I have a few loyal readers who occasionally give me something that I think deserves posting. Such is the case today, an observation concerning the recent claims by Mitt Romney that his father George marched with Martin Luther King. This story has since been disproven, adding to the already numerous reasons (which do NOT specifically include his Mormon faith in my opinion) why Romney is wrong for this nation (standard non-martial law condition applies), but I will allow VS-) to have the floor. Just keep in mind that this was written prior to the story - as presented by the candidate- being shown to be false.
R
Detroit Free Press is not exactly most reliable source on anything, let alone on all things Romney. But the time is particularly intriguing–Romney now backtracks to say that he was speaking metaphorically when he said that he “saw” his father “march” with MLK. He neither saw them, nor did they march together. As MSNBC puts, “Romney says that it depends on what the definition of ’saw’ is.”
But the figurative expression is not that far fetched–George Romney was in the right camp on civil rights, so, in some sense, he was supportive of MLK. So if Mitt really was speaking “figuratively” than he might deserve a pass on this one. Of course, it is more likely that either he wanted to bend the truth or he wanted to have it both ways and see how much he could get away with. If no one noticed, he would keep on making the claim (and he did make it more than once). If he got pinched, he’d fall back on the metaphor. Either way, he’d try to sell his family heritage as that of civil rights pioneers.
Of course, this says nothing about Mitt’s own record on civil rights and is non-responsive as to the LDS record of racism and sexism (one in the past and the other at the forefront).
He may get away with some pandering on the former, but he cannot run away from the latter–prior to the current campaign, his wife’s appearances with him were straight out of Stepford. If people see Mitt as the Stepford Husband, they should take a look at some old campaign videos of his wife! She plays the sympathy card now because of her illness and she is more visible in the campaign because Mitt was running against Giuliani until now, so spousal visibility would have been a big plus. But once Giuliani is a goner, Mitt’s no longer competing against a serial philanderer, so the spouse may well disappear into the woodwork. If pressed, he’ll just cite her illness as an excuse–mark my word.
And, returning to the “figurative” explanation, John Gibson, of all people, calls Romney on his bluff.
Oops. This is not an explanation you want to get into. It is convoluted and it will never placate some people, especially your opponents.
Does Fox News have something against Romney? He does not seem to be their favorite Republican. This is not the first time FN zinged Romney on some nonsense that came out of his mouth. They let others, like Fred and Rudy pass. But Gibson is right–if Romney was hoping to get some mileage out that line, it backfired. Even if George Romney would have marched with MLK if the opportunity existed and even if he wholeheartedly supported MLK’s efforts, Mitt can no longer make that claim. An additional irony is that DFP fumbles even that connection by trying to help Mitt out.
The event was on a Sunday and the Free Press quoted Romney praising those in attendance, but said he did not attend because his Mormon faith prohibits public appearances on the Sabbath.
So his religion got in the way of his civil rights commitment. Nice! Just more ammo for the anti-Mormon liberals. Mitt’s a punchline to which he repeatedly supplies his own jokes.
VS-)
According to The Times of London, Mitt’s claims concerning his father’s Civil Rights props were kicked out from under by “a veteran Michigan civil rights activist” who asserted that Romney didn’t march until after King left Detroit. Hence, Romney has been caught embellishing the record.
Sadly for Romney, this isn’t the only thing he’s enhanced. The Times reports on Romney’s claims that the NRA endorsed him for governor when he ran despite the record showing that the NRA didn’t issue an endorsement for that race.
I don’t mean to be picking on Romney without mentioning that every candidate has said things which aren’t exactly correct, not the least of which is Hillary. Personally, and take this for what it’s worth to you, we’ve had enough of Oval Office liars over the last 27 years. We need someone who tells us the facts, and then tells us what s/he proposes to do to improve conditions. We’ve not had such a person since FDR - and even he had his moments when he wasn’t totally truthful.
Luckily for the nation, he usually relied on the truth instead of creating his own reality as he went along.