Let’s begin this series on the lies of Mitt Romney by looking at his lying about his own biography.
When was he born!
To win Michigan votes, Mr. Romney decided to change the date of his birth:
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.
…
And it took place June 1, 1946 — fully nine months before Romney was born.
Money from his parents
Mr. Romney likes to sound as if he is just like everyone else — only more successful. This is how he could tell this to a debate in January:
[W]e need to send to Washington someone who has not lived in Washington, but someone who’s lived in the real streets of America…. We need to have someone outside Washington go to Washington.
During the debate in Charleston, S.C., Mitt Romney asserted that he did not inherit any money from his parents none.
When George Romney passed away in 1995, Mr. Romney had already accumulated substantial wealth. So he was able to donate all the money, as he told a C-SPAN interviewer in 2006. He certainly did receive money from his father though.
Nonetheless, Politifact and the Times tell us:
- Romney’s allowance at Stanford enabled him to afford frequent plane tickets to Michigan to see his girlfriend.
- His parents gave him a car as a wedding gift.
- They loaned him $40k for his home in Belmont.
Life-long membership
During his 1994 Senate race, Mr Romney announced:
I don’t line up with the NRA.
That has changed recently as he has been telling people he is a lifelong member of NRA. That is because in 2006 he purchased a lifelong membership in the NRA. In other words, he has been a lifelong member only if you count the part of his life after 2006.
In 2008, he was mocked for claiming to be a lifelong hunter of “small varmints”.
The fear of pink slips
Sunday, January 8, Mr Romney told a crowd:
I know what it’s like to worry whether you’re going to get fired. There were a couple of times I wondered whether I was going to get a pink slip.
Mr. Perry provided a clever rejoinder:
“Now, I have no doubt Mitt Romney was worried about pink slips — whether he was going to have enough of them to hand out because his company, Bain Capital, of all the jobs that they killed,” Mr. Perry said. “I’m sure he was worried that he would run out of pink slips.”
As the New York Times noted, no one has found any evidence that Mr. Romney was ever in any danger.
what about when Elizabeth Warren said her grandmother saw her graduate from college, when in reality she died when she was in high school?
Candidates cannot be faulted for failing to get 100% of the things they say right.
Anyone remember Hillary Clinton under fire in Sarajevo?
The difference is that Romney’s mendacity is consistent and systematic.
Barack Obama: The Story. From what I read of it in Vanity Fair, our president is exactly what one would call transparently honest.
and remember that they were one of the things that made her “inevitable” nomination not happen.
That said, the first example for Romney likely won’t work – by saying he was probably 4, he was saying that he really had no clear personal memories. It is possible that that one was not a lie, but just false. However, there are endless examples where he has lied about himself or Obama – enough to make him the least honest candidate that I can remember. (He had a high bar here in having to beat GWB.)
Our guy’s lies are just because he misspeaks.
Your guy’s lies are because he is engaging in a consistent and systematic effort to mislead the public.
Unless of course our (your) person Elizabeth Warren engages in consistent and systematic lies in recapping how she came to be listed as a minority (claimed the first she heard of it was from the Herald, etc) then of course it’s just a minor issue not worthy of a truth test.