The GOP’s Clinton?
Mitt Romney has a ‘figure of speech’ problem. That’s how a Clintonista would spin it. Personally, I’d say that he just got caught lying. Here’s what I’m talking about:
Mitt Romney, who earlier this year had to backpedal on his hunting exploits, is explaining himself again after claiming an endorsement he did not receive and saying he witnessed his father in civil rights marches he could not have seen.
“It’s a figure of speech,” Romney said Thursday after media inquiries into the Republican presidential contender’s statement during his recent religion speech that he watched his father, the late Gov. George Romney of Michigan, march with Martin Luther King Jr.
Romney, who was in high school at the time, later said he only heard of his father marching, and some historians have questioned whether his father, in fact, did march with King. The Romney campaign provided books and news articles it said supported his statement. Romney said it was akin to him stating, “I saw my dad become president of American Motors.” He told reporters in Iowa, “I wasn’t there when he became president.”
When Mitt Romney says that his talking about his father marching with MLK was a figure of speech, it’s nothing more than a clumsy attempt to not get called a bald-faced liar. That’s the standard we used when we learned about Hillary being named after Sir Edmund Hillary even though she was born years before his climbing of Everest.
Based on that alone, I’d say that Gov. Romney has opened the floodgates on questions about his credibility. That’s on top of his troubles with flip-flopping, then getting hung up on his flip-flops. I’ve already documented Gov. Romney’s artificial pro life transformation here and here.
I’ll pose these questions to GOP activists: Should we even consider voting for a man whose credibility is next to nothing? Shouldn’t we demand that our candidates be straightforward and trustworthy? Shouldn’t we reject the GOP’s version of Hillary Clinton?
Let’s compare Gov. Romney’s answers with those of Sen. Thompson’s. To the best of anyone’s knowledge, has anyone questioned whether Sen. Thompson has answered their questions honestly? Isn’t the biggest criticism against Sen. Thompson that he might be lazy on the campaign trail? (BTW, isn’t he dispelling that myth with his two-week barnstorming blitz through Iowa?)
That isn’t the only thing that Gov. Romney’s getting questioned about:
Romney similarly backtracked after telling a national television audience Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that “I received the endorsement of the NRA” in 2002 while running for governor of Massachusetts.
The gun rights group did not endorse either candidate, and gave a higher issues rating to his Democratic opponent. Romney said Monday, “It was, if you will, a support phone bank, which is not an official endorsement.”
Gov. Romney’s been in politics long enough to know what an official endorsement is. Simply put, Gov. Romney has a serious ‘embellishment’ problem. I’d also be ashamed that a Massachusetts Democrat would rate higher on Second Amendment issues than a so-called conservative.
It’s worth noting that he got that rating in 2002. It’s worth asking when his Second Amendment ‘transformation’ happened. In fact, should we believe that Gov. Romney’s had a Second Amendment transformation? I wouldn’t buy into that, especially considering Gov. Romney’s troubled ‘embellishment’ history.
It’s time to reject Gov. Romney. We rightfully railed against the Clintons’ embellishments. If we’re intellectually honest, it’s imperative that we reject Gov. Romney’s embellishments, too. We can’t give a Republican a pass for embellishing if we want a shred of credibility.
Remember what happened last election? We got our heads handed to us because we didn’t have any credibility when we accused Democrats of being the party of tax and spend liberals. Remember what happened the immigration disaster? That went up in flames because we didn’t trust Ted Kennedy, John McCain and President Bush to enforce the borders.
Simply put, credibility doesn’t just matter. If Republicans want to win in 2008, then credibility is the name of the game.
Serial embellishers needn’t apply.
Technorati Tags: Mitt Romney, NRA, Endorsements, Credibility, MLK, Hillary, Fred Thompson, Election 2008
Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog