Mitt the Moron

While I was traveling back home, I listened to a Meet the Press podcast with Romney. After listening to Tim Russert grill Romney on his flip-flopping, I generally thought that Romney did a decent job explaining his change in beliefs. Not that I really believed him, but they were the best answers he could have given in his situation. Plus, he is not trying to prove himself to skeptics like me.

He also did a good job of defending his religion- particularly his religion's history of segregation. I was even impressed to learn that Romney's dad marched with Martin Luther King, Jr. Little did I know I would learn this was all a lie watching the news last night.

". . . Romney never did witness his father march with King, as the campaign now acknowledges.

Romney's presidential campaign says that the elder Romney marched with the civil rights leader, that he told his sons he had, and that written accounts from the time back up the claim.

But experts quoted in a Boston Globe investigation this week concluded that the event never happened."

So we're going from Mitt Romney saying he and his father marched with Martin Luther King, Jr. (he told that to the Boston Globe in 1978), to saying that he saw his father, to saying that he saw his father in a figurative sense, to the possibility that this never even happened? I love the Washington Post's Fact Checker: Marching with King.

I know all candidates stumble, but you would think that they would be more careful when there are people who fact check. And you would think that a candidate, whose biggest weakness is coming off as "slick" and dishonest, would not cover things up with another lie.

My favorite part about this Romney story is how he is trying to explain that his statement was figurative.

"The reference of seeing my father lead in civil rights, and seeing my father march with Martin Luther King, is in the sense of this figurative awareness of and recognition of his leadership," he said. "I've tried to be as accurate as I can be. If you look at the literature or look at the dictionary, the term 'saw' includes being aware of -- in the sense I've described."

"I'm an English literature major. When we say, 'I saw the Patriots win the World Series,' it doesn't necessarily mean you were there," he said.

For those non-sporting folks, the Red Sox (baseball) won the World Series last year, and the last time the Patriots (football) won the Super Bowl was in 2005.

I am not going to discount a candidate just for misspeaking, especially when talking about sports. But if I wanted to have a President who I disagree with on every nearly every issue and misspeaks, well . . . I have that now with President Bush.

I think being in the conservative pockets of California (Santa Clarita and Orange County) brings out my uber liberal side.

[Picture courtesy of The Grand View]