In the halcyon days of TV there was a game show, "To Tell The Truth," in which contestants bluffed – even lied – their way through their résumés, claiming experiences and expertise they did not have. The object of the game was to fool the panel into voting for the bogus contestants, instead of the one who really was who (s)he claimed to be.
This seems to be the strategy Mitt Romney (R-MA) is using to get to the White House. Romney has falsely claimed to have been a hunter "pretty much all my life"; to have been "endorsed" by the National Rifle Association; to have "made it tougher for people with meth labs" when he was governor of MA; and to have seen his father march with Martin Luther King, Jr. (in a 1978 interview with the Boston Herald, Romney had also claimed, "My father and I marched with Martin Luther King Jr. through the streets of Detroit.")
The New York Timesasks whether Romney has a "problem with blurring the truth":
Some of the instances when Mr. Romney has tripped up on his facts show that he is prone to exaggeration, taking what is essentially a kernel of truth and stretching it to bolster his case. ...
Indeed, with many of these instances, there has often been at least an element of his truth in his claims. But for a candidate who has featured his business background and made much of his propensity for careful analysis of data, he is not always precise.
Not always precise? The Times must mean that, um, figuratively. Here's how Romney explains why no contemporaneous news accounts place him or his father at any of King's civil rights marches:
Mitt Romney acknowledged yesterday that he never saw his father march with Martin Luther King Jr. as he asserted in a nationally televised speech this month, and historical evidence shows that Michigan's Governor George Romney and the civil rights leader never did march together.
Romney said his father had told him he had marched with King and that he had been using the word "saw" in a "figurative sense.""
If you look at the literature, if you look at the dictionary, the term 'saw' includes being aware of in the sense I've described," Romney told reporters in Iowa. "It's a figure of speech and very familiar, and it's very common. And I saw my dad march with Martin Luther King. I did not see it with my own eyes, but I saw him in the sense of being aware of his participation in that great effort."
As Michael Dobbs, who writes The Washington Post's Fact Checker blog points out:
Mitt Romney was 16 years old in 1963 at the time that Martin Luther King organized a series of "Freedom Marches" through American cities, including Detroit. At the time, the Mormon Church, of which the Romneys were prominent members, still maintained an official ban on the full participation of African-Americans in religious rites, a ban that was not lifted until 1978. Nevertheless, the senior Romney sympathized with the Civil Rights movement and issued a proclamation in support of a civil rights march through Detroit in June attended by King.
According to researchers at the Martin Luther King Jr. Papers Project at Stanford University, George Romney declined to attend the first march on June 23, a Sunday, on the grounds that he would not take part in political activity on the Sabbath. Susan Englander, who is associate editor of the King papers, said that Romney participated in a different march six days later through the suburb of Grosse Pointe. She believes that it is unlikely that King was present on that occasion, as contemporaneous newspaper reports fail to mention him.
Though the participation of the Romney père et fils at any of King's civil rights marches is a figment of the candidate's overactive imagination, he was nonetheless so moved by the thought of racism, that his eyes welled with tears (video) on NBC's "Meet the Press" as he recalled hearing a news report on this car radio in 1978 that the Mormon Church would no longer discriminate against blacks, telling Tim Russert that he "pulled over and literally wept."
That's not how Romney played this supposedly seminal moment during his unsuccessful 1994 race against Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, reportsBoston Globe columnist Joan Vennochi:
Joseph P. Kennedy II, Kennedy's nephew and a congressman at the time, criticized the Mormon Church for its policy of racial exclusion. The Romney campaign angrily noted that the policy changed in 1978. Romney said he was greatly relieved, but said nothing about weeping for joy when he learned about it. During a press conference, Romney also accused Kennedy of betraying his brother John's victory in 1960 when JFK faced voter skepticism about his Catholic religion.
Mission accomplished: Joe Kennedy apologized, and Senator Kennedy backed off, too. Romney's Mormon faith was off the table, where it belongs. Romney never delved any deeper into his feelings about his church's past policy, saving a Bill Clinton moment for national TV and his presidential quest.
"For the terrible one is brought to nought, and the scorner is consumed, and all that watch for iniquity are cut off: That make a man an offenderforaword, and lay a snare for him that reproveth in the gate, and turn aside the just fora thing of nought." (Isaiah 19:20-21 http://scriptures.lds.org/en/isa/29/20-21#21 )
Those who make the man Romney into an offender for a word throw out the entire truth of Romney's statement -- that he observed his father's active support of MLK. Why? Because he offended in ONE word: "I saw my Father MARCH with MLK" instead of saying "saw my Father SUPPORT MLK."
And so, for his poor choice of one word, Romney is a liar? When we watch for iniquity, instead of for truth, what do you think we will find?
As long as we're pondering scipture, let us consider another: "Judgenot, that ye be notjudged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again." (Matthew 7:1-2 http://scriptures.lds.org/en/matt/7/1-2 )
Those who profess to know the hearts and intentions of others need to remember that the Supreme Judge of the living and the dead knows each of our hearts and will judge us for our own hearts and intentions. Let us not lay snares for each other or judge one another for imperfect choice of words.
Tracy Hall Jr
hthalljr'gmai'com
by
Tracy Hall jr (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 10 comments)
on Friday, December 28, 2007 at 5:22:30 PM
Yeah you are right. We should stop being so judgmental. We shouldn't be so judgmental of George W. Bush or his choice of words either. We should just shut up and do as we're told and stop questioning their choice of words. Stop questioning their contradictions. I mean who do we think we are? We shouldn't learn from our past mistakes. We shouldn't question their motives. We must be a paranoid bunch thinking that these people could say one thing and actually mean another.
It may be a minor detail his mis-speak, but the DEVIL is in the details.
WE CAN'T AFFORD ANOTHER GEORGE W. BUSH ON OUR HANDS! GOD BLESS ALL THOSE FAMILIES WHO HAVE LOST A SON, A DAUGHTER, A MOTHER, A FATHER, AN UNCLE, AN AUNT, A HUSBAND, A WIFE, BECAUSE OF THE LACK OF CONSCIENCE OF THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION. NOTHING WILL BRING THOSE FAMILY MEMBERS BACK. WE DON'T NEED MITT ROMNEY CONTINUING THE UNNECESSARY MURDERS COMMITTED BY THIS ADMINISTRATION. WE NEED SOMEONE WITH A CONSCIENCE WHO IS CONSCIENCIOUS OF HIS SPEAK, WHO HAS EMPATHY FOR MANKIND. THEY ARE THE ONES ACTING AS IF THEY ARE GOD. OPEN YOUR EYES MY DEAR! OR GO TO IRAQ AND DEFEND YOUR ADMINISTRATION.
by
Viki (2 articles, 11 quicklinks, 3 diaries, 63 comments)
on Friday, December 28, 2007 at 6:13:42 PM
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