Romney: Does honesty matter anymore?

[chessdev.livejournal.com]

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/1136834--mitt-romney-couldn-t-have-remembered-detroit-milestone-he-wasn-t-born

DETROIT—When Mitt Romney regaled a Michigan audience this week with childhood memories of a landmark moment in Detroit history, it was a rare instance of emotional candour.

And, perhaps, an even rarer example of time travel.

Romney recalled he was “probably 4 or something like that” the day of the Golden Jubilee, when three-quarters of a million people gathered to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the American automobile.

“My dad had a job being the grandmaster. They painted Woodward Ave. with gold paint,” Romney told a rapt Tea Party audience in the village of Milford Thursday night, reliving a moment of American industrial glory.

The Golden Jubilee described so vividly by Romney was indeed an epic moment in automotive lore. The parade included one of the last public appearances by an elderly Henry Ford.

And it took place June 1, 1946 — fully nine months before Romney was born.

[chessdev]  Over and over -- it seems like what Romney says isnt just a "little off" but is REALLY off..

*  His neighborhood degenerating due to the economy -- except it was a gated community
*  His campaigning against the auto industry -- and then claiming credit for it's success
*  His rememberance above of the Michigan parade -- that happened 9 months before he was born
*  His dad marching with MLK,  except he didnt and wasnt there at the time.
*  Etc....

Over and over it seems the things Romney is saying are beyond "fudged a little", but straight up wrong and/or revisionist history.

The question is:  Will the "moral majority" bring up an issue with a candidate who seems to be willing to say anything to score points?  Or will this be conveniently overlooked in the name of "politics"?    

In the U.S., many on the street people will say they want a candidate who they can trust...who is someone they can believe in -- how can you believe in someone when you cant even believe what they're saying to you?

Comments

[chessdev.livejournal.com]

False memoory though?? Some very basic fact checking by himself and the team of people he employs could have pointed that out pretty easily...

It seems more likely it's willfully constructed for political expediency

[rick-day.livejournal.com]

I have no defense for this man. He is a non-factor in my life.

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

That's no way to talk about your next President!

[dukexmachismo.livejournal.com]

His neighborhood degenerating due to the economy -- except it was a gated community

When people have to lay off their gardeners, standards tend to slip!

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

Isn't that why those guys from Mexico stand around on street corners as day laborers? It is sooo much less expensive to hire an obrero occasionally than to have a full time gardener.

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

A very vivid memory from my childhood is sitting on the hood of my father's T-Bird as he explained the car to me. It was black with a red bird on the hood, I must have been about 3 or so.

The problem? My father sold that T-Bird when my mother was pregnant with me. It would have been impossible.

The memory is very fickle, especially when it comes to youth. I don't have a doubt in this case that this is a real memory for him of an event that he was never actually part of. He may not have even known he wasn't part of it. This isn't a "57 states"-style gaffe.

As an aside, if this is where we're at in May, September and October are going to be terrible.

[chessdev.livejournal.com]

It seems Romney is having LOTS of memory troubles lately -- perhaps he should try ginseng?

[johnny9fingers.livejournal.com]

This isn't a "57 states"-style gaffe.

You're absolutely right. One is a slip of the tongue in a sentence. The other is rather more a slip of the mind in a few paragraphs.

Oh, my misremembered youth.

[malasadas.livejournal.com]

I have to agree with this. While it is a landmine field for Presidential candidates in the age of opposition research, memory from early childhood is a very tricky thing, and it is not difficult for an event that is in the media and in your family during your early years to get stuck as a memory you believe in.

So we're stuck with either Presidential candidates never feeling allowed to talk even a little bit off script with audiences or we don't make a big deal out of essentially meaningless gaffes.

I'd far rather push back on Governor Romney for claiming that the recovery should be generating 500,000 new jobs a month when that kind of a clip in monthly job growth has almost never happened. That's an example of cynically exploiting people's frustration and lack of knowledge of history. Perfectly legitimate to say we have not seen sustained job growth in the numbers necessary to decrease the unemployment numbers; not legitimate to hold the recovery to an ahistorical standard.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

That said, I agree with Jeff (odd that I do, but eh). Memory is about as unreliable as anything you could envision, and there's a lot of science that shows our memories are Big Lies we tell ourselves.

[notmrgarrison.livejournal.com]

A memory from when he was four?

What a liar.

Perhaps he got the story mixed up in his mind with actual parades he attended before he got to kindergarten age.

[chessdev.livejournal.com]

Yeah, kinda like when he lived in that building with no working toilets to show how hard he had it -- that turned out to be a manion...

I can see how he would get those confused.

And I'm sure it had **nothing** to do with winning points with the audience...nope, not at all...

[hardblue.livejournal.com]

I prefer how he takes credit for saving the auto industry.

[oslo.livejournal.com]

Personally, I'm trying to figure out how Romney would have produced 500,000 jobs/month.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Has Romney had an idea he had five years ago he still believes in now?

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

He probably still believes that Jesus will come down from Heaven and split the Mount of Olives in two.

[nahele-101.livejournal.com]

"The question is: Will the "moral majority" bring up an issue with a candidate who seems to be willing to say anything to score points? Or will this be conveniently overlooked in the name of "politics"? "

I'm gonna go with the second choice.

[acethepug.livejournal.com]

To be fair, are Mitt's lies any worse than President Obama's lies, both before and after he was elected President?

I understand the general idea behind your post, but it strongly implies, without coming out and saying it, that President Obama and Democrats in general are not just as guilty of this.

The debt ceiling comes to mind, where Senator Obama seems to have had a diametrically opposing view to President Obama.

I admit, this (my post) definitely comes off like "they do it too!" I'm just not sure you want to really hang your hat on this given President Obama's inaccuracies and/or lies. After all, if you want to say former Governor Romney's comments here are dishonest, should that logic not also apply to President Obama?

I agree that the 57 states comment was a gaffe (nevermind that, had President GW Bush made it, the media would have repeated it over and over), but the debt ceiling comment was not.

Take it and run,

[fornikate.livejournal.com]

no one's saying it shouldn't.

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

The "moral majority" will simply say that those are human errors. They pale in comparison to being a Muslim socialist with a forged birth certificate who failed to put his hand on his heart during the singing of the national anthem.

[fornikate.livejournal.com]

i care about the first two things on your list and the MLK incident. memories, those are fickle.

[fizzyland.livejournal.com]

How can Mitt Romney vividly recall an event taking place nine months before his birth?

Mitt was saving this for the actual fall campaign but this reveals the obvious truth - that he is the result of secret Mormon breeding programs culminating in a super-sentient zygote that had full reasoning power.

HE IS THE ERSATZ HADERACH!

[sandwichwarrior.livejournal.com]

If so I wish he'd wake up already.

[gunslnger.livejournal.com]

Yet another reason I vote for Ron Paul.

[oportet.livejournal.com]

If you're going to lie, at least make it interesting. No one gives a shit who who was at the Super Golden Jubilee Festival. Say you built the moon or had a threesome with Hepburn and Roosevelt (you decide which one).

Romney should fire his speech writer - out of a cannon.

[existentme.livejournal.com]

Lol, how can i have gotten to fifty years old and never heard that last line!

[kayjayuu.livejournal.com]

I'm beginning to think both parties are just tossing shit up and seeing what gets questioned. One lie bigger than the next. If the public buys it, they know they can go farther. If they don't, they know where the line is today, and can push legislation accordingly.

Mitt, you're a liar.

[anfalicious.livejournal.com]

As someone who has studied in a revisionist school of history I have to object with the idea that this is revisionist. Revisionist historians reanalyse evidence and come to new conclusions, not make shit up.

[vehemencet-t.livejournal.com]

I'll say it again.

Mitt Romney IS sleazy Nathan Petrelli for President.

[sandwichwarrior.livejournal.com]

...And only ambien remains.