Was Romney lying?
When Al Gore said that he invented the internet he was called a liar, now, Romney clearly said last Sunday during Meet the Press, “But you can see what I believed and what my family believed by looking at, at our lives. My dad marched with Martin Luther King.” He went on to say, “You may recall that my dad walked out of the Republican convention in 1964 in San Francisco in part because Barry Goldwater, in his speech, gave my dad the impression that he was someone who was going to be weak on civil rights.”
People are searching now for evidence that George Romney, Mitt’s dad, marched with King. The Romney campaign pointed reporters to a book written in 1967 which mentions that George Romney marched with King through the Grosse Pointe, a suburb of Detroit. Here’s the problem, according to the Detroit Free Press, King never marched through the nice suburb of Grosse Pointe. King did march down Woodward Ave but there was no evidence that Michigan Governor George Romney was there.
Did Mitt invent this story? It would seem that you wouldn’t want to make things up on the campaign trail. If you would say something like my father was with Martin Luther King, shouldn’t you have some real evidence to back it up? The worse part is that it does appear that Romney’s father did support civil rights. He did set up a civil rights commission in 1965.
I think that this goes with the statement that he, Mitt Romney, strengthen the methamphetamine laws. He proposed a change but that didn’t happen. Again, over reaching. He stated that he was endorsed for governor by the NRA. Again, that wasn’t true. Sooner or later, these over reaching statements have to add up to lies.
there is no lie…I can’t believe how much of an issue this is. It’s clear if you look at the entire quote in context instead of that one sentence then you would undoubtedly determine that it was a figurative recolection. It did happen, Mitt’s father told Mitt and his brother about it. There is also a non fiction book that was written, that documented this happened. Also there are independent eye wittness accounts. See this link.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1207/7524.html
There are many eye witnesses here in Detroit who actually marched with MLK and George Romney, in the same event, and the fact is noted in several books. Just because Mitt didn’t actually “see” it doesn’t minimalize the importance of the event, not only with respect to the Civil Rights movement, but also to its reflection of George Romney’s position regarding the equality of blacks — contrary to the position of his church and political party. It is yet another example of the Romney family’s long-standing love and acceptance of ALL people. It’s the same reason Mitt said he would stand up for discrimination against gays. Most of us could only dream of being such sincere, loving people.
Holy Cow! Is he so clean that this is all you can dig up?! I would hardly call this lying, but to those who try to tear him down, I guess it is all they have to smear him with…..if this is the only dirt you can dig up, I AM ALL FOR GOV. ROMNEY!!
This didn’t sound right when I heard it. So… I Googled a search on Barry Goldwater and civil rights, and found his entry at Wikipedia, under Political Career:
“Goldwater supported the Arizona NAACP and was involved in desegregating the Arizona National Guard. Nationally, he supported the Civil Rights Acts of 1957 and 1960, and the Constutional amendment banning the poll tax.”
That hardly sounds like Goldwater was ‘anti civil-rights.’ The more I hear Romney speak about his positions (plural emphasis), the more I think this guy has little to no soul and is fake as a 3-dollar bill.
ecthompson you are so liberal it is scary. You say Al Gore was criticized when he said he invented the internet…he did not and he never backed down from his statement. You never heard him say well I didn’t mean I actually invented the internet…He seems to actually believe he invented it. I agree with Michelle, if that’s the best you can do to discredit Romney, he may become my candidate.
Yep, I’m liberal and proud of it. Gore didn’t have retract the statement because he never said it. I was using it as an example of the press misinterpreting a candidate. Gore’s exact quote was “During my service in the United States Congress I took the initiative in creating the Internet.” The article that gets credit for twisting Gore’s words was written by Wired’s Declan McCullagh. The full explanation which you probably won’t read is here.
I don’t have to discredit Romney, he has done that himself. Flip-flopping on abortion, gay rights and immigration is enough for the thoughtful Republican to believe that he has no principles.
Finally, I would ask you to explain his opening comments in a debate from several months ago. This was clearly a planned response to an obvious question. What does his answer mean? Hell, if you can explain that (and make sense) then I’ll vote for him.
The point is Mitt Romney is clearly deceptive and not just about this subject. Whether his father marched or not should not cost him the election, but he has demonstrated consistent deception, even out right lying.
He did it in MA to win the governorship and he has no problem doing it in a national election. Scruples? None what so ever.
His attempt to gain favor with the Evangelicals and sell his LDS church as “Christian, just like you” is disconcerting, not that there’s anything wrong with being a different religion. Heck, I’m Buddhist, but I’m certain that the LDS church’s doctrines are Christian nominally as evidenced that all major Christian denominations have issued statements that the LDS church is not in the Christian tradition (Site below contains these). These concerns are all outlined in the link below, which is a site that provides information useful to both secularists and traditional Christians.
http://www.ExposeRomney.com
Joshua -
I’m sorry, did you read my post? I left the others to argue over the definition of “saw.” This quote was clean cut. “My dad marched with Martin Luther King.” That’s not a figure of speech. He is stating a fact. Unfortunately, for Romney, the fact just isn’t true.
Thanks for you comments.
Michelle -
Who said that Romney was clean? How did he make his money, again? Doing missionary work? Don’t think so. I’m always suspicious of anyone making tons of money and funding his own campaign.
So, understanding that your premise is probably wrong, let’s look at the rest of your comment - I have no desire to tear down anyone. I do want all of the candidates to articulate their positions without throwing misleading facts at us. I didn’t ask Romney to throw his father at us. He volunteered him. I didn’t ask Romney if he was endorsed by the NRA. He tried to prove that he was a macho hunter and not a blow dried wimp. Since Romney deserves your support please explain what this opening comment means. He said it in one of the first debates. Maybe I’m stupid but it appears that he is not only misleading with that opening but he is wrong about the inspectors. That’s the double dip. Misleading and wrong (or lying) in the same answer.
Thanks for your comments.
Editor -
Thanks for your thoughtful comments.