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| Mitt Romney |
Of all the rash comments that Mitt Romney made the other night the one that most struck me has been almost ignored.
"Had [my father] been born of Mexican parents, I'd have a better shot of winning this."
"But he was unfortunately born to Americans living in Mexico," Romney joked. "He lived there for a number of years. I mean, I say that jokingly, but it would be helpful to be Latino."
There is really no benign interpretation of that. By magically becoming Latino Romney is saying he would get elected.
Who by?
Of course the 47 per cent he had already decided would never vote for him. And who are they?
“There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it. Now that's an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what…These are people who pay no income tax.”
In other words a lazy slovenly bunch (half of whom happen to be retirees) who would vote for a Mexican/Latino candidate who is probably lazy himself and ready for frequent siestas. (Change the century and he could easily be saying Irish).
The stereotype is obvious what is most surprising to me is that Romney really means it.
He is clearly very comfortable speaking at the fundraiser, much more so than he is in front of large crowds.
We are watching the real Mitt Romney and it is a crashing disappointment.
I actually had felt that Romney behind it all was a pretty decent guy, dragged to the right by the primary process and forced to assume a persona that did not reflect his private self.
After this speech I am no longer sure of that at all.
It is incredibly mean-spirited. He criticizes people for feeling entitled to food—under what circumstances would he deny them food? Do we want people dying of starvation in this country.”
Conservative columnist Peggy Noonan had it right when she wrote in the Wall Street Journal.
“This is not how big leaders talk, it’s how shallow campaign operatives talk: They slice and dice the electorate like that, they see everything as determined by this interest or that. They’re usually young enough and dumb enough that nobody holds it against them, but they don’t know anything.”
“They don’t know much about America.”
“We are a big, complicated nation. And we are human beings. We are people. We have souls. We are complex. We are not data points. Many things go into our decisions and our political affiliations.”
Noonan has hit the nail on the head. I think much of Romney’s message about unleashing private enterprise and the unique entrepreneurial spirit in America is right.
But he has got it all caught up in a maelstrom of bad right wing ideas about survival of the fittest and Tea Party orthodoxy and some magical thinking about what constitutes the electorate..
In the end it seems certain the short term loser will be Romney.
But the GOP may be the long-term beneficiary.
It is not enough to run with a mean-spirited, nasty anti poor people campaign. There is a social compact in this country that means we take care of the weakest too which has made it a beacon to the world.
Remember give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses?
Republicans need to get back to that. A pragmatic business outlook, allied with a compassionate conservatism is what might work. Not this “ourselves alone" tactic that Romney has adopted.
32 Comments
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.merefalow | Oct 08, 2012, 02:17 PM EDT
YOU ASKED FOR YOUR POOR YOUR HUDDLED MASSES,WELL YOU GOT THEM,THE COMPLEXION OF RIGHT WING WASP AMERICA IS LITERALLY CHANGED,THE WHITE POPULATION WILL BE ECLIPSED BY 2050,WHAT KIND OF AMERICA WILL EMERGE,ONE I HOPE THAT WILL NOT CIRCUMNAVIGATE ITS OWN CONSTITUTION,WHAT CAN ILLEGALLY BE DONE TO AN ENEMY CAN ALSO BE DONE TO ITS OWN CITIZENS,FREEDOM OF SPEECH ,JOURNALISTIC FREEDOM,FREEDOM OF REPORTERAGE IN WAR ZONES,EDITORS,JOUNALISTS JAILED,NEWSPAPERS SHUT DOWN,FREEDOM UNDER THREAT IN THE WESTERN WORLD AS NEVER BEFORE.
NYCsheridan | Sep 24, 2012, 12:29 PM EDT
Brilliant article, Patrick. Ignore the hate-filled spite below.
borefield | Sep 23, 2012, 07:49 PM EDT
Patrick, you write small, think small, your mind is mean and small. Get another job if you can.
MegK311 | Sep 22, 2012, 09:22 PM EDT
Patrick Roberts have you seen 2016? If not I DARE you and anyone else who has not seen it to go and sit through the whole documentary. BTW I got a cute e-mail, it shows a picture of George Bush and he is saying " If Obama is elected for a second term, just think of the mess he will inherit this time."
seanomelb | Sep 21, 2012, 07:39 PM EDT
Ephraim! He looked like a male version of Kim Kardashian,,the skin toning was more orange than tan.It's amazing what desperation can achieve. Poor old nittmitt
EphraimKibbey | Sep 20, 2012, 11:58 PM EDT
How did Romney's spray-on tan go over with the group of latinos in Florida? Fake tan to go along with his fake message. That's so Romney.
Seanmor | Sep 20, 2012, 07:29 PM EDT
Romney is probably write when he states that if he were Latino he would stand a better chance of winning the election, or at least the media would continue to demonize him at every hand's turn.
cillowen | Sep 20, 2012, 06:53 PM EDT
why waste energy on girlie-boy looker dizzily running for his oligarchical masters.
seanomelb | Sep 20, 2012, 06:34 PM EDT
Romney is obviously not proud to be first generation Mexican/American or does he judge Latinos on their skin colour like old bigoted woundedknee.
pilib04 | Sep 20, 2012, 05:45 PM EDT
Will you stop giving Romney such a hard time. For crying out loud, the election is over, yet he has six more weeks to limp through.
EphraimKibbey | Sep 20, 2012, 05:41 PM EDT
Right now Obama is a coxswain shouting "stroke" to race the country forward and only the Democrats are pulling the oars on their side of the boat. When you only row on one side of a boat, it goes in circles. The fiasco with the Veterans bill in the Senate was only the latest in the Republicans bid to hurt Obama by hurting America.
EphraimKibbey | Sep 20, 2012, 05:40 PM EDT
Great Article but your wishful thinking only describes the Republican Party of the past. The party today has been taken over by its reactionary wing. They believe exactly what they believed in the 60's and its not a pretty thing to behold. Back then when the Republican Party started surrendering its "Party of Lincoln" heritage to the Democrats, they began losing their soul. Now Romney and worse are all that are left. Those of us wishing to think of others before ourselves have either become independents or Democrats. It is kind of sad really.
WoundedKnee | Sep 20, 2012, 03:21 PM EDT
Roberts is pumping out more garbage. I served on the Admissions Committee of a certain Ivy League university. We were given CLEAR instructions to admit a Latino rather than a person of other ethnic background (other than black) whenever two candidates were even remotely equal. The system was full of corruption. No one defined what a "Latino" is, and no one checked whether someone claiming to be a "Latino" was telling the truth. If multi-millionaire Jennifer Lopez has children who apply for college scholarships, they will be given an advantage over white kids from Appalachia or rural Georgia. I would advise young people seeking scholarships, admissions etc. to tick the box for Latino or Hispanic on the application--it'll give you a big advantage, and you'll never have to prove you're a Latino (what is a Latino anyway?). I resigned in protest when a pseudo-Latino (daughter of a wealthy surgeon from Spain) was preferred over a working-class white kid from Mckeesport Pittsburgh.
Bocktherobber | Sep 20, 2012, 02:10 PM EDT
But he is the son of immigrants, isn't he?
SingleDonald | Sep 20, 2012, 01:57 PM EDT
I don't feel that Mitt Romney's comments should be taken as offensive. The "politically correct" crowd gravitates towards giving some people entitlements: Blacks, Hispanics, American Indians, Homosexuals, Transexuals. While these people should not be discriminated against, they should have no more rights than Italians, Irish, Germans, and Heterosexuals. Mitt Romney meant that, if he was half Hispanic, the "politically correct" crowd would support him more than they do now. I don't doubt that at all.
Sparklet | Sep 20, 2012, 01:50 PM EDT
Wasn't the US in a dire financial state when Obama took over? The perception on this side of the Atlantic is that the Bush administration ruined America's credibility abroad on top of banjaxing the economy. Romney doesn't seem to be hot on diplomacy either, and like it or not, American does need to win friends round the world.
Bocktherobber | Sep 20, 2012, 01:37 PM EDT
People entitled to food? What kind of Commie talk is this? We Irish didn't get where we are today by being entitled to food.
Skibberrean | Sep 20, 2012, 01:14 PM EDT
IT IS AMAZING HOW YOU MR. ROBERTS WILL CONTINUE TO STIR THE POT WITH YOUR TRIPE. ONLY A FEW PEOPLE ON THIS PAGE GET IT. WE ARE FIGHTING FOR "THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA"! FOR HER VERY SALVATION TO REMAIN A DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC, BUILT ON GOD AND COUNTRY, THE CONSTITUTION, THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE AND THE BILL OF RIGHTS. ANYONE ONE WITH ANY INTELLECT AT ALL CAN SEE THAT THE WORLD ACCORDING TO OBAMA AND HIS MARXIST AGENDA IS ABOUT TO IMPLODE OUR NATION. lIKE ROMNEY OR NOT, HE WILL NOT LET THIS COUNTRY GO DOWN THE PATH OF COMMUNISM! IF ANY OF YOU HAD TAKEN THE TIME TO EDUCATE YOUSELVES IN 2007 PRIOR TO THE ELECTION, WE WOULD NOT BE IN THE MESS WE ARE IN. BUSH WAS NO ANGEL, BUT WE WERE SAFE AND HE AND LAURA BUSH REALLY DO LOVE THEIR COUNTRY. THEY ARE CONSTANTLY GIVING BACK. THE ONLY THING THE OBAMA'S WILL GIVE BACK IS THE POOR DOG. OH AND BY THE WAY, THEY PAID SOMEONE $150,000 TO TRAIN THAT PORTUGUESE WATER DOG. THAT WAS ACCOMPLISHED WITH OUR TAXPAYER DOLLARS. THE DOG WAS THERE JUST FOR A PROP ANYWAY. GOD BLESS US ALL AND GOD BLESS OUR BELOVED AMERICA ON NOV. 6TH!
borefield | Sep 20, 2012, 01:05 PM EDT
Oh well Patrick, I guess in your world it's much better to run with a deceptive, dishonest and disruptive platform. He has done that for four years and done it quite well. I for one am tired of giving to the Occupiers, with their fancy I phones, IPods and free condoms, drugs and anything else free, to get votes to keep that way of life going. I really work too hard for my living. I guess it's hard to legislate honesty and dignity.
71regiment | Sep 20, 2012, 12:21 PM EDT
Do you want another four years of a president who is trying to downgrade the USA into a 2nd world country, by bankrupting it, redistributing wealth, once you take it there is no more new wealth. Down grading our military, during ever increasing dangerous times all around the globe. Read: Obama's America or see the film "2016".
hermitTalker | Sep 20, 2012, 12:21 PM EDT
Lighten up. Romney was obviously joking. On the other hand, going on the Letterman Show to discuss the debt and take it so lightly was what jokers do. Maureen Dowd could not write anything favourable about anything, anyone, or any institution that is to her Right.
hermitTalker | Sep 20, 2012, 12:04 PM EDT
Na bac le mac an bhacaigh, agus ní bhacaigh mac an bhacaigh leat. See you all on Nov 7th when you will all be singing an entirely different tune
BrianO | Sep 20, 2012, 12:04 PM EDT
Elizabeth warren committed fraud with her claim of American Indian heritage, all it got her was a 300,000 dollar a year professorship at Harvard to teach 1 class, oh and consideration as a senate candidate. If Mitt was born of Mexican parents it would be to his advantage in these hyphenated days, why was it historic that Barrsck Obama became president , because his father was a Kenyan.
Jerry Kelly | Sep 20, 2012, 11:57 AM EDT
Is léir nach bhfuil Romney uasal nó flaithiúil go leor a bheith inár n-uachtarán. Agus is léir nach dtuigeann sé nach bhfuil an post seo faoi airgead amháin. /// It's apparent that Romney isn't noble or generous enough to be our President. And it's apparent he doesn't understand that this job isn't just about money.
handsome68 | Sep 20, 2012, 11:13 AM EDT
ConnieCobe and Tom/Peggy have expressed some of my concerns. While youse liberal omadhauns are writing about things like Duchesses breasts and the oldest/latest Kennedy family (stuff), you neglect doing your part in the latest "hod carrying" work, which is really doing what JFK requested in his inaugural address: "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask rather what you can do for your country".
Eschetic | Sep 20, 2012, 11:10 AM EDT
Former Governor Romney's typically ill considered comments actually sent me running to the Constitution, since I was under the impression that anyone born outside the U.S. or (like most of the first presidents and Barry Goldwater in 1964) in a territory which had since BECOME one of the United States was not qualified to serve as President as a "natural born citizen." Mitt's OK though - since the Constitution and supporting law goes on to define a "natural born citizen" as anyone born to two parents who are citizens and at least one of whom HAS LIVED in the U.S.. I assume he can prove that - although if the Democrats wanted to push the idiotic "birther" agenda they might demand that he try and then refuse to accept all the documentary evidence. Mitt may not be qualified to get an intelligent voter's support based on the right wing agenda he's chosen to push this time, but he's at least legally qualified to run for the office.
fitzcarraldo | Sep 20, 2012, 10:53 AM EDT
Bravo! Could not agree more completely.
FastEddy | Sep 20, 2012, 10:50 AM EDT
"Its called riding the gravy train ..." BTW: any Irish wishing to come over here to "work" and collect should contact those Irish in Mexico who have the scams wired in ... I wish I had a Mexican driver's license.
jflanagan | Sep 20, 2012, 10:31 AM EDT
The President tells David Letterman that "debt in the short term doesn't matter" and that "I don't remember precisely" what the total national debt is (which is over 16 trillion and climbing at record rates) and you want to keep this incompetent person in office? My Great Granddaughter, who won't be able to vote for over 14 years) is now in debt for over $51,000 and no one cares about how this President doesn't think debt matters? When the hell will it matter, when he is out of office and doesn't need to address it? How convenient. We are in debt for more than our Gross National Product and growing. Wake up people if you care about your children, their children and their children's children. I'll be dead and won't feel the pain but I do care about my descendants.
ConnieCobe | Sep 20, 2012, 09:54 AM EDT
How does one even begin to respond to such moronic speech? Sadly, it is the real Mitt Romney and he is the Republican candidate for Presidency. I for one am scared of where our nation is headed. Praying to God for a good leader and a strong government.
tom/peggy | Sep 20, 2012, 09:51 AM EDT
Would you please discuss important issues instead of these distractions. How about jobs, and the national debt. I'd like a leader not a celebrity.
susan724 | Sep 20, 2012, 09:26 AM EDT
buh,bye, Mittens...