Friday, December 21, 2007

It Figures

Although many on the right have tried to declare Mitt's Mormonism as a out-of-bounds topic, there has been some light discussion of the issue of racism in the Mormon church.

Mitt has countered this charge by arguing that his family has always been a supporter of civil rights for blacks, specifically citing the fact that he saw his father march with Martin Luther King. You can see that here, at 18 seconds. Elsewhere he expanded on that to say that his father marched with MLK when he was governor of Michigan.

It has recently come to light that King did not march when he was in Michigan in the only time frame that would fit Romney's recollection and there is no evidence that Romney pere met with King. Moreover, young Mitt was off converting the French to Mormonism (and not fighting in Vietnam) at the time.

So what does Mitt have to say about all of this?

On Wednesday, Romney’s campaign said his recollections of watching his father, an ardent civil rights supporter, march with King were meant to be figurative.

“He was speaking figuratively, not literally,” Eric Fehrnstrom, spokesman for the Romney campaign, said of the candidate.

Ah yes, figuratively marched with King. There are so many directions to go with this, I don't know what to say. Let's go with this:

My father played with Hendrix at Woodstock and my mom rioted with the French students in '68.

What did your parents do?

4 comments:

wobblie said...

Well shit. Even with the generous leeway provided by Romney's standards, I still can't say that my parents did anything exciting back in the day.

ash said...

wait, isn't this the same guy whose sons "served their country" by working for his campaign? damn, romney certainly has an *interesting* relationship with the truth!

lex dexter said...

and he's still ahead of mccain, this fucking guy.

The Eclectic Cleric said...

Poor Mitt. Having lived in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts through most of his tenure as governor, I can't really say I've ever been that impressed with him...but apparently the fact is that Papa George did indeed march FOR King through Grosse Point in 1963...it's just that MLK himself happened to be a hundred miles away speaking to another group at the time. Even so, we all know how these stories can grow to folkloric status within families over time. How many of us actually saw Carlton Fisk hit that game winning home run in the 1975 World Series...even if only on live TV? So let's not crucify the guy over a figure of speech...after all, a certain facility for truthiness is de rigour in a Presidential candidate these days, and susceptibility to "brainwashing" is a well-documented Romney family trait. Besides, there are certainly plenty of much more tangible reasons not to like Mitt as a candidate for the White House. Maybe we should focus on those instead.