A cuban-american blogger who attended the speech the next day mentions no gaffes.

If Hillary, Kerry, Obama or McCain make a gaffe we hear about it the same or next day. I’ve looked through the major cuban-american blogs and the MSM coverage of the event and there is no mention of gaffe. Why did it take 9 days for Beth Reinhard to find this gaffe with Romney?

How many times does Michelle complain about the MSM? Isn’t that the whole reason HOTAIR is here? Then she goes and falls for crap like this like a sucker?

I have no inside info but it is supereasy to see where this “controversy” came from. “Live Free or Die!” is the NH state motto, quite famous around these parts. If Cubans in Miami don’t relate to this that is a simple cultural misunderstaning which could be easily explained. Instead of explaining that, it took a week for the media to find a way to manufacture it into a controversy.

“I said at the outset that the threat in Latin America is unprecedented. I say that because the Castros have a second tyrant and he has great wealth, from oil. We must stand just as firm against caudillos like Hugo Chavez, tutored by Fidel Castro. Chavez and Castro are brothers in blood, intent on personal gratification at the expense of their people. Hugo Chavez has tried to steal an inspiring phrase – ‘Patria o muerte, venceremos.’ It does not belong to him. It belongs to a free Cuba.”

This seems to be closer to what the Miami Herald is quoting.

The same day coverage from CBS doesn’t hint at any controversy.

The next day coverage from the Miami Herald leads with “A little-known presidential candidate seeking a toehold in the nation’s biggest battleground state, Mitt Romney railed against Cuban leader Fidel Castro but did not repeat prior calls for a crackdown on illegal immigration in a speech Friday to the Miami-Dade Republican Party”

There seems to have been a video on youtube of his comments that has been taken down.

Googling around, I don’t see any negativity towards his speech until yesterday, 10 days after the event. Who exactly sparked the outrage at his remarks?

Sebastian on March 20, 2007 at 2:51 AM

Can you link where you got that quote from?

I don’t understand where all this anti-Romney sentiment is coming from. He has a brilliant track record.

Apparently some of it comes from Hot Air and Michelle Malkin. Michelle has a long piece at her site only directly quoting all the negative feedback from the MSM and bloggers. Plus she adds that Romeny used a Spanish accent. Does Michelle have some audio of the event that the rest of us don’t know about?

This was a speech given on March 9th. Yet the story doesn’t break till March 19th. So did the Miami Herald sit on the story, or did it take the MSM over a week to drum up some offense?

I expect better reporting from Hot Air and Malkin than just the knee jerk. Maybe it shows their own bias.

Thanks for setting the story straight on what Romney said. So that leaves us with him mispronouncing some names. And?

I don’t understand where all this anti-Romney sentiment is coming from. He has a brilliant track record.

Thompson is a big McCain supporter which lowers him a lot in my estimation, and while I love Newt, the reality is that he is unelectable.

“I said at the outset that the threat in Latin America is unprecedented. I say that because the Castros have a second tyrant and he has great wealth, from oil. We must stand just as firm against Caudillos like Hugo Chavez, tutored by Fidel Castro. Chavez and Castro are brothers in blood, intent on personal gratification at the expense of their people. Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro have stolen the phrase – ‘Patria o muerte, venceremos.’ This phrase should not be used by dictators, but by liberators.”

Seems like another MSM hit piece that’s suckering in the lazy conservatives too.

It’s always gratifying when political pandering on ethnic lines backfires.

I agree. Now if boilerplate would just backfire every time a pol starts to speak that way.

Florida is a swing state. Just ask the Goracle.

aengus on March 19, 2007 at 7:42 PM

Just what I was going to say. Every Republican vote you can get in Florida is important. I couldn’t believe this happened.

Over at Babalu Blog, this was headlined as Mitt Romney Loses 2008 Florida Vote, in 2007!

Exit question: Is it really possible for a man hovering around single digits to be “hurt” by a gaffe?

Only if someone puts him on the “ticket”….

prairie dog

Kid from Brooklyn at 6:19 PM

HAWWWW HAWWWWW HAWWWWWW

dyin’ over here. LOL!

I am not ready to give up on Romney, yet. But Thompson/Gingrich is sounding more and more pleasing to the ear.

He said that he would not rest until those infamous Mario Brothers were brought to justice.

right2bright on March 19, 2007 at 6:27 PM

Snicker

Cuban’s aren’t Mexicans, they take pandering as an insult from what I can tell.

- The Cat

So long Mr. Romney – say, where is that Thompson fellow right about now?