Mitt Romney aides criticize Obama for not singing British imperialist song -- In interview they claim Romney the one of 'true Anglo Saxon heritage'
Posted on Thursday, July 26, 2012 at 08:05 AM
RSS 
Recent Posts
- The Irish community returns to Hurricane Sandy hit Rockaways to aid ongoing recovery
- Young Irish woman turned in to U.S. authorities by Irish immigrant support group - Boston-based Irish International Immigrant Center does the unspeakable
- Profile in Irish fighting courage - Heffernan’s campaign for respite care for families dealing with fatal rare illnesses such as Batten’s disease
- Senator Schumer says Irish deserve a separate deal for visas because of 1965 shutout - Says “Schumer visas” set to give Ireland 10,500 visas a year for the future
- Prospects for immigration reform bill are 50-50 say the pols privately - House seen as major obstacle as Senate gets closer to a vote
Archives
![]() |
| Mitt Romney and Barack Obama (CREDIT : Daily News) |
Some anonymous advisors claimed their man a true blue Brit proud of his “Anglo Saxon heritage” in an interview with the London Daily Telegraph.
They sniffed that Obama would never sing “Land of Hope and Glory,” the ultimate British Empire glorification song, implying that Romney would.
Are they insane?
A foreign policy team member was quoted as saying, “We are part of an Anglo-Saxon heritage, and he [Romney] feels that the special relationship is special. The White House didn’t fully appreciate the shared history we have.”
It was clearly an ethnic slur aimed at Obama who does not have a drop of ethnic Anglo Saxon in him quite obviously. For “did not appreciate,” read, “Isn’t quite pro-Queen and Empire enough.” ABC news reported the comments as having “perceived racial undertones.”
The New York Times stated that it was an interview “in which an unnamed Romney adviser suggests that because Mr. Romney is white he has more in common with Britain than Mr. Obama does.”
It will also upset quite a few Irish Americans, especially in key states like Pennsylvania and Ohio, who will not be too pleased to see Mitt claim his British heritage quite so enthusiastically.
Rest assured that the Irish peace process would never have happened with Romney in the White House, he would have insisted as his advisors did that the “special relationship” with the British dominated all when that process began and American help was sought
If President Clinton had felt the same way and did not have the political courage to give Gerry Adams a visa back in 1994, they might still be fighting on the streets in Northern Ireland.
Romney’s advisors furiously backpedaled afterwards but it is too late. Vice President Joe Biden, a proud Irish American, was quick to the ramparts.
“Despite his promises that politics stops at the water’s edge, Governor Romney’s wheels hadn’t even touched down in London before his advisers were reportedly playing politics with international diplomacy, attempting to create daylight between the United States and the United Kingdom where none exists,” Biden said in a statement.
“The comments reported this morning are a disturbing start to a trip designed to demonstrate Governor Romney’s readiness to represent the United States on the world’s stage. Not surprisingly, this is just another feeble attempt by the Romney campaign to score political points at the expense of this critical partnership. This assertion is beneath a presidential campaign,” he said.
Another adviser unbelievably told the paper, “Obama is a left-winger. He doesn’t value the NATO alliance as much. He’s very comfortable with American decline and the traditional alliances don’t mean as much to him. He wouldn’t like singing ‘Land of Hope and Glory.’”
For those of you unfamiliar, “Land of Hope and Glory” is a song about the magnificence of the British Empire. No self-respecting American president would be caught dead even humming it.
Here’s the first stanza:
Dear Land of Hope, thy hope is crowned,
God make thee mightier yet !
On Sov'ran brows, beloved, renowned,
Once more thy crown is set.
Thine equal laws, by Freedom gained,
Have ruled thee well and long ;
By Freedom gained, by Truth maintained,
Thine Empire shall be strong.
Jaysus, as Paddy might say. It looks like Romney’s foreign policy boys will be setting their clocks to Whitehall time and stepping back a century or two.
“Bow, bow to the Lord High Executioner” as the British composers Gilbert and Sullivan once wrote.
Someone needs to tell Romney we have our own country now and we ditched the Brits a few centuries ago and we don’t want to sing British imperialist songs either.
96 comments
BrianO | Jul 27, 2012, 12:01 PM EDT
so unnamed adviser named yet?
Report abuse
BrianO | Jul 27, 2012, 11:51 AM EDT
Dingle999 Only the good die young, and great rockers on heroine, Most on this comment board have no idea who Thin Lizzy is or the great Phil Lynott, Instead of dancing in the moonlight, making a jailbreak or welcoming the boys back to town, they be listenin to swedish pop ABBA. And trying to re elect obama.
Report abuse
BigDaddy | Jul 27, 2012, 10:05 AM EDT
and have his Attorney General blatantly refuse to prosecute voter intimidation by blacks because they're 'his' people...and all this gets celebrated by the left wing
I wasn't aware that the name Limbaugh was either Irish or proud. btw...how much does the RNC pay you to go online and spout this idiocy?
Report abuse
dingle999 | Jul 27, 2012, 08:14 AM EDT
If you want to see what you call "black people" check out Dublin's O'Connell Street TODAY!
Inane comment ... What about Phil Lynott of Thin Lizzy ?
Report abuse
eiriamach | Jul 27, 2012, 08:05 AM EDT
"Anglo-Saxon"??? I'm surprised that the Romney camp thinks there are identifiable Anglo-Saxons today, or anytime since the Middle Ages. The Anglo-Saxon language (Old English) was a medieval Germanic language that quickly lost its grammatical structure and became Middle and Modern English. The Angles and Saxons were tribes of Germanic origin. They had a briefly magnificent culture in poetry and folklore, shipbuilding, tribal organization, religious rituals, metalwork and such, but what did they leave us in terms of political philosophy? Nothing! What heritage does America have from the Anglo-Saxons? A few thousand lines of great poetry and prose. "Beowulf," the greatest of these, was written in a difficult early German and includes no character or locale from places later known as British and NO shared politics. Are we living as warrior tribes, fighting dragons and swamp monsters named Grendel, and swearing undying loyalty to our local chieftains? That would be our "special relationship" with the Anglo-Saxons, as far as I can see. Unless "Anglo-Saxon" is just code for white-European-descended.
Report abuse
IrelandNorth | Jul 27, 2012, 06:47 AM EDT
Sounds to me like a kite flying exercise to woo the WASPish franchise. If Brittania had been truly "fortress of the free", how does one explain Ellis Island. Given that the concept of "faith" is generic, how 'strong' were Roman Catholics in the great and glorious British Empire. It's one thing to crucify Christ. Quite another to crucify Christinaity. There seemingly is no limit to the pius ejaculatory apologia for white indentured servants and black slaves to the Americas, for whom hope or glory were in very short supply. (See ex-Irish Army officer, Sean O Callaghan's (2001): "To Hell or Barbados: The Ethnic Cleansing of Ireland." Brandon Press). Sadly, the further the generation from the revolution the greater the risk of elective historical amnesia, particularly of upwardly mobile descendants of the great unwashed Patriots themselves. Presidential hopefuls reference to special [imperial?] relationship would infer return of the 13 north-eastern colonial states, as it would her keeping 6 north-eastern counties of Ireland. Political contenders like to be seen rehearsing their hoped for new role. It's called positive expectancy. Or wishful thinking?
Report abuse
Curitiba | Jul 27, 2012, 05:40 AM EDT
I, for one think that there should be no immigration restrictions between the UK and all English countries. What is the point of being economically joined to a continent where we can't speak the languages and there are no jobs for UK or Irish people anyway. It would be of enormous benefit to the UK,Ireland, USA, Aus, NZ, Canada, if they were a single economic and labour market. The cultures of all of these countries are virtually identical. But my dear American friends, leave your guns at home,please!
Report abuse
IrishAndProud | Jul 27, 2012, 03:42 AM EDT
I might add...why is it okay for Barack Obama to pander to black people based on their race alone by setting up whole political offices for them...and tout his own blackness (even though he's actually half-white and was raised by whites) and assume as his one big claim to fame in life being America's first 'black' President...and as one of his first official acts remove the Churchill bust from the Oval office, and even screw up the protocol for addressing the queen...and have his Attorney General blatantly refuse to prosecute voter intimidation by blacks because they're 'his' people...and all this gets celebrated by the left wing...and yet an aide to Mitt Romney merely indicates that he can relate better to British culture (indicating pride in his own heritage)...and these same kook-fringe leftists throw a hissy fit? What kind of hyper-sensitive hypocrisy is that? I'm Irish and Proud, myself -- but I have no problem whatsoever with English people or their descendants taking pride in THEIR lineage, either...or anyone else, anywhere else! And if anyone has a problem with that, they..are...hypocrites, of the worst kind. If the public even notices this matter (which I don't think they'll care about), it will only HELP Romney, not hurt him...for such hypocrisy by the left is one of many reasons they're in for a mighty fall, this November. And this, of course, is assuming this unnamed aide from an unnamed source even SAID this, to begin with. This is a LAUGHABLE story, from an obviously desperate left, sensing their guy going down the whirlpool...which he rather painfully is.
Report abuse
WoundedKnee | Jul 27, 2012, 02:55 AM EDT
Jacob: "How many black people were admitted to the Republic of Ireland back in the 1960s?" ---What a weird question. Who knows? You sure don't. And what's the relevance of 50 years ago? If you want to see what you call "black people" check out Dublin's O'Connell Street TODAY!
Report abuse
IrishAndProud | Jul 27, 2012, 01:33 AM EDT
Goog GRIEF, folks...with everything else the nation is facing, is something so utterly pathethic and irrelevant as this article's topic even worth a moment of anyone's time? Get real, here. Like it or not, Barack Obama is in deep political trouble...and wasting time byching about tripe like this only makes fools of those who do so. I know the kinds of hostile responses I'll probably get for reminding people of such obvious things, but that really is completely irrelevant. No one (other than those who hated Romney already) care about this. The country has much bigger fish to fry.
Report abuse
hollabackgurl | Jul 26, 2012, 11:44 PM EDT
Google 'Romneyshambles.' His British charm offensive was more offensive than charming.
Report abuse
curtisjohnson | Jul 26, 2012, 09:46 PM EDT
The wierdest thing is that his religion was invented by an Irishman.
Report abuse
BrianO | Jul 26, 2012, 09:32 PM EDT
anonymous adviser. Unnamed source. great reporting.
Report abuse
jamthecat | Jul 26, 2012, 09:32 PM EDT
After all the decades of subtle racism put forth by the GOP, I don't see why anyone's surprised they've finally decided it's okay to go mainstream with their attitudes. We've had 4 years of the Tea Party's more overt race mongering, and with those a-holes still being taken seriously by one and all it was inevitable some in the GOP would think no one would care about such a disgusting comment. And the fact of the matter is, no one on the right really does care. People like Niall will still vote for Romney.
Report abuse
- Young Irish woman turned in to U.S. authorities
- Irishman John Downey arrested for 1982 IRA...
- Michael Flatley, star of Lord of the Dance...
- Nigerian migrants send $653 million a year...
- One in seven people on social welfare in...
- Top bishops clash over excommunication of...
- The top ten things I dislike about Irish...
- Do the Irish speak a foreign language?
- U2’s Bono spills on American politicians...
- Calls for Irish Justice Minister to resign...
96 Comments

Report abuse