Two eyewitnesses: We saw Mitt’s father marching with MLK
posted at 7:30 pm on December 21, 2007 by Allahpundit
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And with this, a silly snafu turns officially stupid. There’s no question George Romney was sympathetic to King and the civil-rights movement; there’s also no question that Mitt never literally saw them marching together, or that he himself never marched alongside MLK notwithstanding what he said in 1978. So what does this prove either way except that the two men may once in fact have been at the same rally at the same time? Nothing. Welcome to Election ‘08.
Shirley Basore, 72, says she was sitting in the hairdresser’s chair in wealthy Grosse Pointe, Mich., back in 1963 when a rumpus started and she discovered that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and her governor, George Romney, were marching for civil rights — right past the window.
With the cape still around her neck, Basore went outside and joined the parade.
“They were hand in hand,” recalled Basore, a former high-school English teacher. “They led the march. We all swung our hands, and they held their hands up above everybody else’s.”…
Another witness, Ashby Richardson, 64, of Massachusetts gave the campaign a similar account.
“I’m just appalled that the news picks this stuff up and say it didn’t happen,” Richardson, now a data-collection consultant, said by phone. “The press is being disingenuous in terms of reporting what actually happened. I remember it vividly. I was only 15 or 20 feet from where both of them were.”
Note to Mitt: How about we forget all about this little mishap in exchange for you keeping those obscenity laws on ice if you’re elected, hm?
Update: Heh. Indeed.
Romney seems to have suffered from politicians’ disease, where it’s not enough to report that something happened, you have to report it in a way that puts you in the story. Trouble is, he wasn’t in the story. Is that a big deal? Not really, I guess. But it was an unforced error at a crucial time and it underscores the feeling a lot of people have that Romney’s just a bit too airbrushed to be true.
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I had no idea professional politicians who married up and half-rate sportscasters were the same as being the CEO of a company built around helping other companies get out of financial trouble and having the same wife you married to decades ago and five children who aren’t deadbeats, dropouts, or junkies. I now realize the error of my ways, Gregor.
Any more inanities you’d like to spout, Gregor?
BKennedy on December 22, 2007 at 6:20 PM
negro streets…
BWAHAHAHAHA!
Im addicted to this thread. It’s like crack without the enhanced sentencing.
The Race Card on December 22, 2007 at 6:20 PM
Has anyone questioned that? The answer is “no they haven’t.” The problem is that he never “physically” marched alongside Martin Luther King, while MITT ROMNEY claims that he did. Making matters worse, MITT ROMNEY claims that he himself also marched along side MLK. Has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that GEORGE ROMNEY “organized” marches to support civil rights. Nothing at all.
LOL! I get it. Martin Luther King was so fantastically wonderful, that anyone who loved him could honestly claim to have physically marched with him, even if they really didn’t. He was just that good, and so those who claimed to have marched with him weren’t really lying. They were telling the truth, in sort of a spiritual way? Is that it?
You’re getting more clownish each posting.
Gregor on December 22, 2007 at 6:27 PM
That’s funny. I could swear that Bill CLinton has been married to the same wife he married decades ago and his child is not a deadbeat, dropout, or junky, yet he’s still a compulsive manipulative liar. Are you comparing Romney to Bill Clinton now? Maybe you’re starting to get it.
Gregor on December 22, 2007 at 6:31 PM
Skeptical’s writing skills could use some improvement. Remind me again why should I care about his opinions on the use of figurative speech in poetry or prose?
The Race Card,
Glad to be of help broadening your literary horizons.
Buy Danish on December 22, 2007 at 6:31 PM
Bill Clinton was addressed in the “professional politician” part of my statement. He was a lawyer (the primordial form of a politician) before he was a politician, and he’s been a politician ever since.
Between not comprehending that or alternative common usages of see, I’m beginning to wonder why I bother with you at all. Do we even speak the same language?
BKennedy on December 22, 2007 at 6:39 PM
I recall seeing Ginsberg in 1985. He did a great read of “America” as he reconciled himself to the last line “America I’m putting my queer shoulder to the wheel”. He was an odd and wonderful guy.
dedalus on December 22, 2007 at 6:40 PM
If you watch a movie in which the character says … “I saw all the dolphins of the Earth fly off into space just before the alien space craft fired it’s weapons at the Earth and destroyed it” … do you actually believe this is the same thing as Mitt Romney claiming he “saw his father march with Martin Luther King.”
Mitt Romney is real. His life was real. He was making a claim about the real life events of his father. He wasn’t writing a poem or creating a screenplay.
Do you think a poet attempting to use words to create a fictional vision of a fictional situation is somehow related to a man running for President making a claim about his very real past while campaigning?
Yes, I get it. The words “I saw” or “I see” can be used in literature to create a more real or more visual sense of an event. Unfortunately, Mitt Romney was not writing poetry. He was attempting to win votes by altering history.
He did exactly the same thing Clinton did when he defended his lie to the American people that he had not had sexual relations with Monica. He claims he was telling the truth because in his mind oral sex is not “having sexual relations.”
In Mitt Romney’s mind … when he says he “saw something” it doesn’t really mean that he saw it.
Gregor on December 22, 2007 at 6:57 PM
And all we have is your magical claim that Mitt Romney is not a “professional politician?” What’s with the “lawyer” reasoning? Are you not aware that Mitt Romney graduated cum laude from Harvard LAW school?
Mitt Romney’s entire family was involved in politics. Both his mother and father were politicians. WTF are you talking about? In your mind, does one have to spend a specific number of years in Congress to be considered a “professional” politician?
Mitt Romney has been involved in politics one way or another since the the day he was born. He’s the very definition of a “professional politician.”
No. You’re speaking nonsensical gibberish. I’m speaking common sense English.
Gregor on December 22, 2007 at 7:11 PM
Gregor, Buy Danish and BKennedy,
Thanks for the entertainment.
baldilocks on December 22, 2007 at 7:14 PM
You’re welcome. On that note, I’m out of here. I’ll let BKennedy finish off the thread with his talking points which only Clintonian Romney supporters would be able to agree with.
Gregor on December 22, 2007 at 7:18 PM
I am no particular fan of Mitt’s but this whole thing is getting pretty stupid. It sounds like his father did march with MLK and that his other comment was allegorical. Why doesn’t everyone just “get a life”? I seem to always get in on the end of these threads. I just don’t live in them.
duff65 on December 22, 2007 at 8:45 PM
It sounds like you’ve supplanted facts for three wishes and an effeminate genie.
The Race Card on December 22, 2007 at 9:48 PM
If you measure a candidate by the intense stupidity of his enemies, based on the comments found at HotAir Romney comes off pretty well–call it Romney Derangement Syndrome.
WasatchMan on December 22, 2007 at 9:57 PM
You’re quite the mind reader, aren’t you?
Buy Danish on December 22, 2007 at 10:59 PM
Oh really? What world are you living in?
I’m sure your life would make us all extremely jealous.
Yeah. I’m sure you didn’t PLAN it that way. Sorry to burst your bubble.
Gregor on December 22, 2007 at 11:30 PM
LOL! How ironic. You and BKennedy are defending Romney on the basis that while he USED the word “saw”… he didn’t actually MEAN that he saw it with his own eyes. That IS your defense, is it not? If it’s NOT your defense, then please tell us what it is, because that’s the only defense I’ve seen made by ANYONE.
How ironic is it that you defend the man by saying that he didn’t mean that he “saw” it with his “eyes” … and then you mock my comment at the same time by claiming that I must be able to read minds if I am suggesting that in Romney’s mind … the word “saw” doesn’t mean that he saw it.
You’re both clowns.
Gregor on December 22, 2007 at 11:37 PM
Yes, MLK Jr. os that influential and iconic.
Would you say “I’m with Michelle Malkin on this one” even if you’ve never met her and aren’t standing next to her? Or “I’m with Fred!” even if you aren’t literraly adjacent to Fred?
I imagine you would, but I won’t let that get in the way of your Clintonian word parsing.
BKennedy on December 23, 2007 at 12:54 AM
. …
Just to stir the mix regarding the local Detroit papers. A few years before 1963 a family member was in the news for running away from grade school in Detroit. We were all involved in the search and there was a happy ending. However, entagor was surprised to read reports of the same event in the two major Detroit newspapers. The story was embellished to make it a better story down to a fake quote for effect
Back then Detroit papers were obsessed with the Ford family and had gossip columnists dedicated to every nuance of every charity event, what clothes, jewels etc. Henry Ford Sr had lived in Dearborn, but the next generations auto magnates lived the Grosse Pointe life. Hudson’s dept store had special parking in back for the limos, with a private elevator for important customers and the biggest lived in the Pointes
Grosse Pointe was a symbol of both charity and exclusiveness. It was a big deal, and a big statement to make a colored march there. It would also a big decision for the editors how to present that story about the source of half their news and most of their ad dollars
Give Romney Sr credit for making a major in your face in marching. He was a strict Mormon so the postponement would not be a fake. The Mitt-ster was 16 at the time. He had to realize his dad was stepping in it with both feet. He would have been 16 at the time. You could call it marching with King in spirit. This is dredging old memories how things have changed.
I trust not the local reporting of that era.
entagor on December 23, 2007 at 3:05 AM
LOL, Gregor, Blather, I can just see you typing furiously at your keyboard.
Oh, just so we’re clear. I don’t mean I can literally “see” you. You can stop looking around for the hidden cameras.
This kinda reminds me of 12 angry men. One of the jurists is so eager to convict that he’s unable to see any other interpretation. However given more evidence it becomes apparent that all is not as it seems to him. That’s what I think we need, more evidence. Given the record his father had and his own adherence to that record in policy, I think that one should give him the benefit of the doubt unless future evidence points in a more sinister direction.
kevind411 on December 23, 2007 at 4:43 AM
*keyboards, should have made that plural.
kevind411 on December 23, 2007 at 4:44 AM
YOU’RE SO CLINTONIAN! STOP USING LEGITIMATE DEFINITIONS OF WORDS THAT DON’T FIT THE NARRATIVE!
BKennedy on December 23, 2007 at 11:00 AM
So, the narrative is:
Romney said “saw” !!!
“He’s a LIAR !!!”
gedda life
franksalterego on December 23, 2007 at 12:00 PM
Three eyewitnesses: We saw the golden plates.
Mojave Mark on December 26, 2007 at 9:21 PM
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