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Mitt Romney On Fox & Friends: ‘I Wish I Could Claim I Was Hispanic’

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» 53 comments

On Monday morning’s Fox and Friends, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney let out another one of those “I’m running for office, for Pete’s sake!” bursts of honesty which, like a burlesque revue at a leper colony, are revealing, but not in a good way. Asked if his father’s Mexican birthplace is helping him with Florida’s Hispanic community, Romney replied “You know, I wish I could claim that I’m Hispanic…”

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Host Steve Doocy highlighted the fact that Gov. Romney hasn’t exactly bragged about his Mexican roots before. “The other night when I saw you at one of the debates in Florida,” Doocy said, “you mentioned for the first time in my memory, where you were talking about that anti-immigrant allegation by Newt Gingrich. You were talking about how your father was born in Mexico. It’s the first time I’d heard you say that. Is that helping you with the Latino community in Florida?”

Romney replied “You know, I wish I could claim that I’m Hispanic…”

That’s a bit of a weird thing to say, but let’s hear him out. Does he admire the rich cultural heritage, the strong current of faith, the diverse culinary tradition? Romney continued “…and it would help me with the Latino community here in Florida and around the country, but my dad was born of American parents living in Mexico.”

Oh, right, he didn’t say he wished he was Hispanic, just that he wishes he could claim it.

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Romney went on to say that his father “was Anglo at the time and yet, I’m very proud of the fact that he came to this country at a critical time, was helped to get on his feet by folks in this country, and he and his dad went around America, started a construction business, ultimately my dad went off and ran a car company. It’s an amazing land, of course, people coming from all over the world seeking opportunity.”

The sentiment alone is such a naked pander that even an eloquent unspooling of it would have done little to mask it, but when you’re pandering to a group, you don’t just come out and say you’re doing that. What if Newt Gingrich said “I wish I could claim to be a woman, because I am getting killed in the gyno-American vote!”

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Gov. Romney has a habit of this kind of Murphy’s Law-guided honesty, from his explanation that he fired undocumented landscapers because “I’m running for office, for Pete’s sake!” to his revealingly casual $10,000 proposition to Rick Perry at another debate, to his recent interview with conservative radio host Laura Ingraham. In that Obama Campaign ad-ready chat, Romney told Ingraham that “Of course (the economy is) getting better,” and when asked if “Obama is making the economy better, but vote for me” is a tough argument, Romney responded “Do you have a better one, Laura? It just happens to be the truth.”

While Gov. Romney’s honesty might not be all that refreshing to Republican primary voters, it’s like a York Peppermint Patty to the President’s reelection team.

Here’s the video, from Fox News:


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  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1190134026 Barry Dalton

    Pablo claims he’s Hispanic all the time!

    Maybe he can give Mitt some tips.

    (Pablo is a regular Mediate commenter — otherwise known as anonymous whiteguy–who regularly rides his high horse through the comment section, doling out weakly contrived insults at Liberals while rarely taking the time to dismount and add substance or have a reasonable conversation with anyone)

  • Anonymous

    Oh God! This is embarrassing. How low can these phonies go in pandering. Last week it was Newt wanting a base on the moon, now it’s Mr.1% who wished he is ‘Jose’, ‘Antonio’ or’Reyes’ (or all of the above).

  • Anonymous

    The same one that has Herman Cain’s picture? that one? 

  • BooBoo Bear

    Well..His father was born in Mexico. Does that count?

  • Anonymous

    I think the wish to be Hispanic is a leap to far for the wooden corporate puppet Romnochio, still I hope in time the blue fairy will come and give him a conscience so that some day he can become a real boy!

    Hopefully then he’ll empathise with actual people, rather than corporations and will develop some strength of conviction.

  • Anonymous

    I’d rather have a President who is honest than one who thinks he’s gods gift to the world – and that goes (partially anyway) for Obama as well as Gingrich.  Both are legends in their own minds.  Gingrich has had a lot of success on many different issues in his career (and spectacular failures), Obama’s success is he got elected to be President.

  • Anonymous

    He also wishes he could claim he was genuine, or had any real emotions or firm positions.

  • The Real Royal Emperor

    How do you really feel, Barry?

  • The Real Royal Emperor

    Willard would have been more effective in this heart-felt assertion if he’d worn a sombrero with fringe on the top and munching on a Taco Bell Taco Supreme. I’m sure he believes that to be authentically Hispanic. And, it would look every bit as natural as those jeans he wears.

  • :)

     
    Sorry Mitt,
     
    The unfortunate truth is, you are part of the most scorned class in the country, that being a White dude.  You will not get any excuses, you will be held accountable for infractions of past white dudes, you will not get any passes on ambiguous racial code rhetoric, you will not get the benefit of the doubt, you will not be congratulated for any success you achieved, and more importantly, you will feed into the DNC narrative that fuels their class and racial warfare rhetoric.
     
    That’s the way it is…

  • :)

    Genuine was not a requirement in 2008, why is it now?

  • Anonymous

    Romney is a person of integrity, so I suspect this will continue to confuse and confound the media at all levels.  

  • Anonymous

    I thought one of these guys was supposed to run against that idea.

  • Anonymous

    Bingo! (Or as Pablo’s people would say, “¡Bingo!”)

  • Jane

    “Tuesday is Red’s Tamale day” at the Romney home.    Right?    

  • Anonymous

    Romney can claim that he is Latino since his father was born in Mexico, it is not any different than the blacks claiming they are African-American because their fathers and grandparents were born in Africa many years ago and they claim they are Africans………

  • Anonymous

    The real absurdity in this is not that Romney wishes he could claim to be Hispanic, it’s the painfully obvious way that Doocy tries to set him up for his talking points. He practically feeds him the lines. Any claim of impartiality on the part of Fox and most of its idiot hosts is so patently absurd as to be laughable. Like him or not, Roger Ailes has settled on Romney as your nominee, GOP, and he’s going to shove him down your throats for the next ten months.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Ben-Pratt/713857896 Ben Pratt

    LOL .

    Go for a walk Barry . Get a little fresh air.

  • The Real Royal Emperor

    Yet, surely you’re not denying the balance. Ms. O’Van Karlsen clearly stated that Guy with the Dark Kurly Hair leans left whilst she herself is staunchly independent and objective.

  • http://gregingleright.weebly.com/ Greg

    He’s honest only by mistake.  Troublesome character.   

  • Anonymous

    When he gets to minnesota he can wish he was Scandinavian. Yaah! You betcha!

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_PSWW6DP23Z4GS2DGPDXIZFABHY Joy

    Newt or Ron Paul 2012. There is no other choice.

  • WiddleBabyDanielson

    Poor white dude

  • WiddleBabyDanielson
  • Anonymous

    Yes, because the media has as much personal integrity as Mittens Flipflopney.

    Even George Soros recognizes Romney for what He is, another Obama.

  • Anonymous

    What is he going to wish for when he campains in Harlem?

  • Anonymous

    At one time he must have had “firm positions.”  He has five sons!

  • Anonymous

    Romney is white?  Isn’t he the black dude with the 9-9-9 plan?

  • Charles Ulysses Feney

    Mitt is not a “Natural Born Citizen”

    Thanks fer playin!

  • Anonymous

    Well he is a robot after all. Calculating how to get maximum Hispanic vote.

  • Anonymous

    Ummmm …. does anyone here, especially Tommy (oh sorry, I’ve seen what Tommy thinks passes for humor! See yesterday’s column on Katty Kay. Just kidding Tommy,,,, or am I?  :)  )  have a sense of humor? Do any or you, especially Tommy watch the video and see the laughter from Romney as he makes the “facetious” (hopefully Tommy and the rest of the Tommy faction here know what facetious means but if Tommy doesn’t … it means “not meant to be taken seriously or literally” ) remark before settling into the serious discussion of his father’s upbringing and coming to the United States. No wonder the state of humor in this country levels out at the SNL and Bill Maher intelligence quotient. HELLOOOOO, Romney laughs at the beginning and the end of that comment before getting  into a more serious line of thought. One would see that if one’s political viewpoint didn’t make a writer view any comment by a someone with an opposing viewpoint as fodder for a political statement. Using Tommy’s logic, then Katty Kay on the Chris Matthews Show was obviously thinking about the male anatomy at the time of her comments thus showing either her naked pandering to the “size queen” viewers of the show … or perhaps it was “bursts of honesty which, like a burlesque revue at a leper colony, are revealing, but not in a good way” look into what was on Katty Kay’s mind at the time (perhaps she was lusting at Andrew Sullivan with the notion of what she could not have …)

    I am beginning more and more just to give up getting any real insightful reporting or opinion when reading anything Tommy writes concerning anything but liberal viewpoints. Congrats Tommy on yet another piece of flawed analysis.

  • Anonymous

    Oh, just to remark that not everything Tommy writes is bad, I just want to say congrats to Tommy on today’s Miss Piggy/Fox News column. It was great! I especially love the sizzling bacon line … priceless.

  • Anonymous

    Me too. Then you could pretend you’ve been to a nearby little island – and take whining lessons.

  • Tim Howe

    boo.hoo.

  • AliveStillKickin

    To finish Mitt’s sentence:
    Romney replied “You know, I wish I could claim that I’m Hispanic…some of my best friends are Hispanics….Many of them are gay….Not that there’s anything wrong with that”
    Newt…….2012

  • http://thefunemployed.blogspot.com/ rance

    Romney lives in reality.  He knows that if Barack Obama were a white man, he would have never made it to Iowa, let alone win Iowa.  he had accomplished nothing, NOTHING, prior to becoming president.  Never run anything, lead anything, accomplished anything.  But apparently, being a minority is all he needed.

  • 12voltman1

    Served buy his Mexican maid.

  • 12voltman1

    Joy. I love you. Please stay the way you are. Promise me you will never change.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Bart-Morgay/100001554351938 Bart Morgay

    Romney is a lying weasel ready to say anything to get ahead but this is even too much of a stretch for him.

  • Anonymous

    Another white guy whining about life under the boot-heel of the minority. Dude you would never make it in the third world if you feel like such a victim here.

  • Anonymous

    Is there another Romney running for pres that I don’t know about?

  • Anonymous

    Yes.

  • :)

    Really?  Please point me towards the scholarships, federal programs, advantagouse hiring practices, college testing and admission requirements and so on, that prove my statement false.

  • Anonymous

    This is a pretty cynical interpretation, and a bit forced if you ask me. Are you sure this is not ThinkProgress or some other hyperventilating PC-palooza?

    This is like saying “I wish I could claim I was Irish, but I was born in Queens”

    …As in “I wish my story was a little more interesting than it might first appear.”

    Because let’s face it, if Romney spent all day mentioning his Mexican-born father, none other than Tommy Christopher would be wetting the bed with anxiety over the idea that Romney was pretending to have Mexican roots.

  • AliveStillKickin

    The way Mitt flip-flops…I am amazed that he wasn’t an Hispanic at one time or another.
    Newt……2012

  • Anonymous

    Yeah, blacks have all the advantages.  That’s just the way it has always been.

    Makes you feel bad for white people.

  • Anonymous

    Maybe we should just point you toward the corner office.  There, you will find a white man.

  • :)

    Ahh, the 50 year old “the man” argument.  It never gets old, it never gets effective…
     
    Well, I agree, this hypothetical corner office white dude is certainly justification enough to implement preferential treatment in numerous institutions of society based solely on your skin tone. 

    After all, just ask a liberal, and they will tell you that minorities are simply incapable of achieving success when placed under the same standards..right?

  • Anonymous

     So was mine, but like Mitt’s to American Citizens.  My Dad, at 8 years old and his family had to leave Col Dublan, about 15 miles north of Col Juarez where Mitt’s cousins mostly all live now, and get out of Mexico because Pancho Villa was just raiding them too much for food and guns and ammo to continue his fight.   But no matter what you think of Mitt,  He is pure American and so was his Dad.  Many went back to Mexico, Col Juarez and Col Dublan after the Revolution but had to pretty much start over as most of their live stock was gone.  I visit there often and in fact  just returned 4 days ago.  All the kids there, hispanic and white all speak both English and Spanish, ALMOST ALL I should say, there are a few exceptions, but most of the whites if not all hold dual citizenships.

  • Anonymous

     Boy you got that all down pat.  I lived in Col Juarez for three years, never saw any one who looked like what you just described.  And by the way, Mitt has many many relatives living in Col Juarez and I think some in Col Dublan which is only about 15 miles or so north, but Mitt has never visited them in Mexico   EVER.

  • Anonymous

     AND YES<  THATS the way it is.  What are we allowing these fools to do with our country.

  • Anonymous

     Ahhhh we’re making it just fine.  AGAINST all the odds stacked against us, No thanks to people like you who embrace all the PC BS.

  • Anonymous

    Then stop acting like some victim with the odds stacked against you. If you can’t be a man at least act like one.

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