The Willard Romney Gaffe Aggregator Thread

[TheCouga]

This one's great. Apparently, Romney's remembering things that happened before he was even born.

World News: Mitt Romney couldn

DETROIT—When Mitt Romney regaled a Michigan audience this week with childhood memories of a landmark moment in Detroit history, it was a rare instance of emotional candour.

And, perhaps, an even rarer example of time travel.

Romney recalled he was “probably 4 or something like that” the day of the Golden Jubilee, when three-quarters of a million people gathered to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the American automobile.

“My dad had a job being the grandmaster. They painted Woodward Ave. with gold paint,” Romney told a rapt Tea Party audience in the village of Milford Thursday night, reliving a moment of American industrial glory.

The Golden Jubilee described so vividly by Romney was indeed an epic moment in automotive lore. The parade included one of the last public appearances by an elderly Henry Ford.

And it took place June 1, 1946 — fully nine months before Romney was born.

The timelines suggest Romney could well have been conceived that day. But it is inconceivable he was actually there.

This isn't just a clumsy gaffe...it's an example of him just straight up making stuff up when talking to an audience.

I realize we're getting a late start on this, as we've already had:

• The $10,000 bet
• The speaking fees of $350,000 in one year "not being much money."
• The weird comments about Michigan having trees that are "just the right height."
• The "I have friends who are NASCAR team owners" statement.

There's likely more that I'm forgetting, but that's the purpose of this thread...to track the candidate who mixes the wishy-washyness and flip-floppery of John Kerry, the personality of Al Gore, and the aloofness of Michael Dukakis. Romney is a carbon-copy of a long list of cerebral elite Democratic centrists that think political triangulation is changing your position to match the issue-du-jour motivating independent voters is at the time -- rather than developing a compelling narrative that reflects a central core character who people can connect with.

But we're 12 years removed from any attempt at "compassionate conservatism," and the Republican narrative ever since has been mostly a conglomeration of people who simply hate Democrats for a variety of very different reasons, but can't be unified by a single positive message. Romney is probably the least likely guy to turn this around, though.

[Mr. DNA]

Romney would be out of this race if Rick Santorum were a bit more Francisco Franco and a bit less Dana Carvey's Church Lady. Spending hundreds of millions of dollars to get Willard to appeal to the ultra-right is sort of like spending hundreds of millions of dollars in an attempt to get Tori Amos to appeal to fans of the Insane Clown Posse. Yeah, I just compared the GOP base to juggalos. Actually, juggalos might be more tolerant of gays and respectful of women.

[DaYooperASBDT]

Yawn.

[ROMAD1]

cool, we'll start aggregating the apologies of Barack Hussein Obama to 7th century thugs

[Oblong]

That reminds me of Hillary claiming to be named after Sir Edmund Hillary. Don't they have fact checkers?

[ewsieg]

I'm only 35 and I was recalling something from my 'memory' with my mom this weekend only to find out that it never happened. Apparently it was a story within the family and I guess I heard it enough that I believed that I was apart of it. Could be similar. Don't know, don't really care. I'm not that upset with a guy that can't properly remember a memory that he thinks he had when he was four. Especially when the guy that has the job Romney wants has visited all 57 states.

[DaYooperASBDT]

Nothing tops this one:

[JayVee]

So what is the threshold between "gaffe" and "weird comment"?

[Corky]

Gore saying that he and Tipper were the couple Segal based the characters in Love Story on. One of many flat out lies he told.

[TheCouga]

Gore saying that he and Tipper were the couple Segal based the characters in Love Story on. One of many flat out lies he told.

He really said that?

Even if it was true, that sounds like a really douchey thing to say.

[TheCouga]

cool, we'll start aggregating the apologies of Barack Hussein Obama to 7th century thugs

You should just be happy he's killing people like bin Laden while he's at it. You'd think if he killed the guy it took Bush 6 years and a half trillion dollars only to end up empty-handed, and took out Qadafi with a tenth of the money it cost to get rid of Hussein, he'd be able to apologize all he wants.

And that goes without mentioning the eventual downfall of Syria.

[Mr. DNA]

cool, we'll start aggregating the apologies of Barack Hussein Obama to 7th century thugs

Has he apologized more than George Wahhabi-Lovin' Bush?

Bush Apologizes For Quran Desecration - CBS News

Here he is, caught in the act of Wahhabi-lovin':



Two can play this Islamophobia game!

[Mr. DNA]

Oh, so sorry-- I forgot that Bush isn't a REAL conservative, just like Trotsky betrayed the cause of true Communism.

[Mr. DNA]

You should just be happy he's killing people like bin Laden while he's at it. You'd think if he killed the guy it took Bush 6 years and a half trillion dollars only to end up empty-handed, and took out Qadafi with a tenth of the money it cost to get rid of Hussein, he'd be able to apologize all he wants.

And that goes without mentioning the eventual downfall of Syria.

Hey, don't talk sense or point out that the semi-liberal guy does a better job at dropping bombs and killing Muslims. He's CARTER! JIMMY FRICKIN' CARTER! Killing bin Laden went worse than Operation Eagle Claw in terms of a liberal dum-dum screwing everything up and making us look like a bunch of wimps. All those Seal Team 6 choppers just crashed in the desert while the Muslim thugs LAUGHED at our failure. Laughed! We need Mitt Romney to bring back America's pride, dignity and balls.

[Corky]

He really said that?

Even if it was true, that sounds like a really douchey thing to say.

Right up there with John Edwards lying about his dying son.

Gore did quite a few things like that when he was running for office. He had a propensity for saying whatever was convenient in a situation rather than what might have been true. During the 200 campaign he spoke about flying over an area of Texas that had been wiped out by weather and described it. He was never there.

Kind of like Hillary describing getting off the plane and getting fired at when it never happened.

[Oblong]

To be fair to Gore.... the author said the character was half Gore and half Tommy Lee Jones. He knew both at Harvard. But the woman wasn't based on Tipper. So while he didn't invent it outright, he more embelished it.

The Edwards thing pales in comparison to anything we've seen by a politician. It's sickening and he deserves anything bad that comes to him simply for that.

[ROMAD1]

Hey, don't talk sense or point out that the semi-liberal guy does a better job at dropping bombs and killing Muslims. He's CARTER! JIMMY FRICKIN' CARTER! Killing bin Laden went worse than Operation Eagle Claw in terms of a liberal dum-dum screwing everything up and making us look like a bunch of wimps. All those Seal Team 6 choppers just crashed in the desert while the Muslim thugs LAUGHED at our failure. Laughed! We need Mitt Romney to bring back America's pride, dignity and balls.

this is a little unhinged

[Melody]

The Edwards thing pales in comparison to anything we've seen by a politician. It's sickening and he deserves anything bad that comes to him simply for that.

Yes.

[TheCouga]

The Edwards thing pales in comparison to anything we've seen by a politician. It's sickening and he deserves anything bad that comes to him simply for that.

My brother lives in a suburb of Chapel Hill, NC, and supposedly Edwards has a condo there. His friends have seen him out at local hip bars trying to pick up young college women.

It's all hearsay, of course, but you can add that to your list of reasons to hate Edwards, if you wish.

My labor law professor co-edited a book with him and did a TON of work with him 5 years back. She was devastated when she found out about his philandering. She looked up to him a lot and had a lot of trust for him, it seemed.

I understand your disdain for him...he's just a huge sleazeball. The hair should have given it away.

[TheCouga]

Might as well place it in here for posterity's sake:

Romney: 'I Have Some Great Friends Who Are NASCAR Team Owners' | TPM Livewire

In an attempt to show he down with the common man, Willard Romney reaches out to NASCAR fans by telling them, "I know some people that own these teams."

Good ol' Mitt. I almost feel sorry for the guy. He seems nice enough. He might even be a decent President. He'd even probably be a decent campaigner if he didn't have to pretend he's somebody he's not in order to win the Republican primary. But the true Mitt is more like a carbon copy of Obama except for he'd cut the rich's taxes more.

[ROMAD1]

Has he apologized more than George Wahhabi-Lovin' Bush?

Bush Apologizes For Quran Desecration - CBS News

Here he is, caught in the act of Wahhabi-lovin':



Two can play this Islamophobia game!

Now show the current president with a practicing leader of the Catholic church.

[djhutch]

I remember Clinton saying he remembers the black churches burning when he was a kid. Politics has nothing to do with leadership ability.

[chasfh]

cool, we'll start aggregating the apologies of Barack Hussein Obama to 7th century thugs

That reminds me of Hillary claiming to be named after Sir Edmund Hillary. Don't they have fact checkers?

I'm not that upset with a guy that can't properly remember a memory that he thinks he had when he was four. Especially when the guy that has the job Romney wants has visited all 57 states.

Ooh ... touched a nerve, have we?

[sinister porpoise]

From Steve Benen's continuing weekly feature on Mitt Romney's pathological lying

Mitt Romney’s geography goof - In the Loop - The Washington Post

Then Romney, in highlighting the ties between the two countries, claimed that Syria “is also their route to the sea.”

Um... that seems unlikely, unless the Iranians are taking a pretty convoluted path. In fact, Iran has direct access to waterways, thank you very much, with some 1,520 miles of coastline along the Arabian Sea. It doesn’t even share a border with Syria, so this “route to the sea” that Romney spoke of would involve cutting through Iraq (rugged terrain!) before cutting through Syria to get to the sea. The journey from Tehran to Damascus is about 1,000 miles.

Not an easy jaunt. Or a terribly rewarding one--Syria has a measly 119 miles of coastline fronting the Mediterranean Sea.

[Mr.TaterSalad]

My favorite Romney moment (not a gaffe though) is his corporations are people line. How in the hell could you say that, you know it is going to be exploited in TV ad after TV ad.

[shabba4detroit]

To be fair to Gore.... the author said the character was half Gore and half Tommy Lee Jones. He knew both at Harvard. But the woman wasn't based on Tipper. So while he didn't invent it outright, he more embelished it.

The Edwards thing pales in comparison to anything we've seen by a politician. It's sickening and he deserves anything bad that comes to him simply for that.

Truth on both points. Edwards is a scumbag. Al Gore has a Shatneresque quality about him that makes me find him to be likeable, (wrongheaded but likeable). As such, I do note the truth when the Love Story story is told.

As for this particular Romney gaffe, I think it compares best to Clinton's Sir Edmond Hillary gaffe. Memories get muddled from early childhood, and we tend to believe things our parents tell us. I think we've all created "memories" based upon early childhood events we've been told about. And much of our very early memories that we have retained aren't based upon the original event, but a later memory of the original event. As such, I don't think there is any intent to deceive in these false stories, but their campaigns need a better fact checker before these tales get told publicly.

[chasfh]

I think Romney might have meant it in the sense of, corporations are made up of all its people, not so much that a corporation is itself a person. But that's how it's playing, regardless of whether he meant that the money a corporation makes ultimately ends up in the pockets of all its employees, including the admins and cleaning people.

Of course, even granting Romney that leeway, corporations really reflect the will of only a select few people anyway, and all the other people within are nothing more than tools of the corporation -- even if they do get money for their efforts.

[pfife]

I liked when Romney said he couldn't have illegals working on his property because he was running for office, for Pete's sake.

[MrDeeds]

Seems like February is a bit to early for theses threads. Gonna be a lot of tension now till election day.

[DaYooperASBDT]

Hey, don't talk sense or point out that the semi-liberal guy does a better job at dropping bombs and killing Muslims. He's CARTER! JIMMY FRICKIN' CARTER! Killing bin Laden went worse than Operation Eagle Claw in terms of a liberal dum-dum screwing everything up and making us look like a bunch of wimps. All those Seal Team 6 choppers just crashed in the desert while the Muslim thugs LAUGHED at our failure. Laughed! We need Mitt Romney to bring back America's pride, dignity and balls.

So, are you implying that a good President also should excel at helicopter repair?

[TheCouga]

Mitt Romney talks tough on China during Ohio visit - Election 2012 - The Washington Post

Quoth Willard:

Romney focused squarely on the economy as he addressed a small rally Wednesday morning in a Toledo factory that makes steel fence posts, assailing President Obama’s stewardship of the economy and accusing him of being “walked all over” by China.

Visiting a region that has seen thousands of manufacturing jobs go overseas, Romney tried to project strength in dealing with China, which he said was “cheating” by keeping its currency at artificially low levels to keep the prices of their products down. If elected, he said, he would declare China a “currency manipulator.”

...

Romney spoke at American Posts, a family-owned fence-post maker in Toledo, which Romney congratulated for having grown its market share in the face of Chinese competitors in recent years. During a brief tour of the company’s facility, Romney was invited to press the button that starts the machine that turns sheets of steel into U-shaped fence posts.

“I gotta press the button,” Romney said jokingly. “That will be my heavy lift in terms of manufacturing.”

lol...don't strain yourself there, Mitt.

I know it's kind of minor, but this is the kind of comment that makes him seem like an aloof elitist.

[Lousluggage]

So, are you implying that a good President also should excel at helicopter repair?

It would be interesting to know which, if any of the candidates would be good at fixing helicopters, come to think of it. I'm not sure it would prove anything though.

[smr-nj]

eh, to me that comment actually makes Mitt seem more human, less stiff. I think it's a funny, off the cuff comment.

You're reaching, Couga.....

[TheCouga]

In isolation, it would seem fine, but I think it's just another example of how he doesn't seem to realize that people are turned off when he flaunts his excessive wealth and privilege. Maybe in the elite circles of Massachusetts banking and finance, people think you're cool if you've never done any actual work in your life. And conservatives always talk about how they love the "free market." But subconsciously, they don't really trust guys like that, and they don't feel comfortable voting for them.

[Lousluggage]

Aw, c'mon now! Everybody knows that the "Massachusetts elite circles" are located in Boston and Cambridge universities. Banking and finance? They're the lowest of the low here. ;)

[TheCouga]

Romney disses local bakery that makes cookies.

Romney’s Cookie Comment Bites Back - Washington Wire - WSJ

In a campaign stop Tuesday outside Pittsburgh, Mitt Romney made what many locals considered a tasteless remark about cookies from a local landmark bakery.

Mr. Romney, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, met with four couples at the Bethel Park Community Center to talk about the deficit, health care and education. The meeting got off to a rocky start, however, when the governor sat down at a picnic table set with food and made an apparent attempt at humor.

“I’m not sure about these cookies,” Mr. Romney said. “They don’t look like you made them,” he said turning to one of the women at the table. “Did you make those cookies? You didn’t, did you? No. No. They came from the local 7-Eleven bakery or wherever.”

The cookies, in fact, were donated from the popular Bethel Bakery around the corner from the community center, and once Mr. Romney’s comment was broadcast on local airwaves offended residents took to Facebook and Twitter to complain. The episode was inevitably called “CookieGate.” The bakery is offering a CookieGate special Wednesday and Thursday: free half dozen cookies with every dozen purchased.

“Initially, we were incensed that he would think that Bethel Bakery is comparable to the 7-Eleven,” said bakery owner John Walsh, a Republican. Mr. Walsh, whose parents opened the bakery in 1955, said he thinks the comment was made in jest and would like Gov. Romney to try the bakery’s offerings in the future.

But some bitterness remained. “Let him eat cake next time,” Mr. Walsh said.

What a jerk. This guy has zero social skills.

[ROMAD1]

Maldives

[Scottish caveman]

He can always use the , " I was brain-washed", excuse ! For all history devotees !

[JayVee]

Mitt dissed some Snickerdoodles, Barack ate a Snicker Poodle!

[pfife]

Romney disses local bakery that makes cookies.

Romney’s Cookie Comment Bites Back - Washington Wire - WSJ



What a jerk. This guy has zero social skills.

Remember in 2008 when the right kept going on and on and on about how arrogant Obama was?

I guess they don't really have an issue with arrogance.....

Romney says a lot of things that just really make me think he's not a very good dude.