Attack ad shows Mitt Romney speaking French
A close association with France has never been a plus for a politician, which explains why a liberal group is launching a new ad framing Mitt Romney as a Francophile.
The twist is that Romney, campaigning in a must-win primary state with a significant French population, is also talking about his personal ties with France, where he was sent on a Mormon mission in the 1960s.
The ad from American LP, a new Super PAC, shows Romney speaking French in a promotional video for the 2002 Winter Olympics, which he ran. As he speaks, the subtitles mistranslate his words. While he is actually introducing people to the Games, the subtitles have him saying "I believe that abortion should be safe and legal in this country" and "I was an independent during the time of Reagan/Bush."
American LP founder TJ Walker said the ad would start on cable TV Tuesday night and would target voters in Iowa and New Hampshire.
France has been something of a scapegoat in American politics, usually at the instigation of Republicans. They were the ones who renamed French fries "Freedom Fries" after the French public was reluctant to support the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq. Republicans also targeted the Democrats' 2004 presidential nominee, John Kerry, over his French ancestry, ability to speak French, and even his looks. Rush Limbaugh often mocked Kerry for being "French-looking" and nicknamed him "Jean Cheri" or "Jean F. Cheri."
Walker fully embraces using Romney's fluency in French against him, given that Republicans did the same thing against Kerry in 2004. "This is payback time for the Republicans and the conservatives who mocked Kerry and even produced ads mocking Kerry, showing Kerry speaking French," he said.
He said the goal of the ad is to influence conservatives in this cycle to turn against Romney, whom he called the "only sane, rational candidate." Walker also said that "The mere fact that we can show him speaking French fluently, we believe, is going to irritate primary voters."
Well, maybe not in New Hampshire, which borders Quebec and where one-quarter of the population is of French and French-Canadian descent. Talking about his French connection is unlikely to damage Romney in New Hampshire, and could help him.
On Monday, at Chez Vachon diner in Manchester, N.H., he found a Canadian man with a thick French accent sitting by himself in a back booth. Romney made his way over to the man -- Willie Bibeau, 67 -- and the two proceeded to speak affably in French. At one point in the middle of the French conversation, Romney switch to English, saying "Not as well as you do!" Then he moved back to French.
Romney speaks French fluently because he spent 30 months in France on his mission in the mid-1960s. He brought up the mission Sunday at a town hall in Hudson, N.H., when he was asked by a voter to describe "an event or experience that really changed your world view."
France is "not exactly a third world country," Romney said, but the missionaries had to live off of their own savings -- about $110 per month. That money would have to cover clothing, food, rent, and transportation, and any other costs of living.
"You're not living high on the hog at that kind of level," Romney said. He said they lived in apartments that didn't have bathrooms or refrigerators; they would use buckets and hoses to clean themselves in the kitchen and shop modestly before meals. "I said to myself, wow -- I sure am lucky to have been born in the United States of America .... It was a wake-up experience for me." He told the crowd that as soon as he touched down in the United States, he proposed to his girlfriend, Ann in the back seat of the car as they drove away from the airport. They have now been married for 42 years.
Reporters asked Romney on Monday if there was a reason that his time as a missionary was coming up more in recent days. He said, "I just respond to the questions as they come."
Bret Hovell contributed to this story.
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I am even more appalled by the audacity of the LP SuperPac to mistranslate Romney's remarks made in French. It is disgusting and the worst kind of dishonest politics. Luckily, if the ad runs in NH, more people than they think will understand the games being played.
...and I'm not even in Romney's camp.
I would really like to know why people support Gingrich who consulted for Freddie Mac which was one of the players in the mortgage meltdown. Gingrich was part of the problem. He consulted with Freddie Mac that is now in conservatorship.
Freddie Mac's executives just got huges bonuses.
Exactly why do people support Gingrich after all that?
Don't forget he was the only speaker of the house that was sanctioned by the ethics committee.
Romney would get my respect by countering with an explanation of why our kids should learn foreign languages from the earliest possible age (to ensure real fluency and better pronunciation, and because kids have more free time to learn). Here's a giant list of reasons he could give for language learning:
Some job openings will demand that applicants speak a foreign language - hopefully the language you studied. You might have few or no other applicants competing with you. The need for language skills often happens in a job dealing with, or working alongside, immigrants or visiting foreigners. You might also be interested in language teaching, translation work, or joining companies doing business internationally.
Employers are taking a risk if they hire you when you've just graduated and have no work experience. They'll be more willing to take that risk if they need, but can't find, qualified people speaking the foreign language you learned.
Being able to speak with natives in their country will make your travels much more interesting. In many countries, a high percentage of the people lack confidence in their English fluency and they might be reluctant to try talking with you, or they'll be willing but unable. Even if the locals are bilingual, the street signs and restaurant menus usually are not. You can overcome those obstacles if you have at least some knowledge of their native language. Otherwise, you might find it impractical to travel away from popular tourist areas.
Living and studying/working overseas for a while will benefit you much more than just visiting as a tourist. From living in a different culture, you get interesting experiences and a new way of thinking about life. In many countries, the only way to get those benefits is to speak the local language.
It's much easier to work, do business, or simply know what's going on in a foreign country if you speak their native language.
Native speakers usually appreciate when you try to communicate with them in their own language, especially when you are a foreigner in their country. By making communication easy for them, you show respect for them. They might want to switch to English so they can practice it or if you are having difficulty with their language, but they'll still be pleased that you started in their language.
Having real mastery of foreign languages, combined with foreign travel, makes people see you as an interesting and valuable person to know. You will seem freer than most people, less constrained to your own country.
Many people are convinced that learning multiple languages develops your mind, makes you smarter, and enables creative thinking.
You will learn the interesting alternative ways that other languages express things. From that, you'll learn what's good, bad, and absurd about the English language. Also, you might develop a sense of why foreigners have difficulty with certain parts of English; you'll choose your words so they have a better chance of understanding you. And the cliches and word choices will sometimes teach you how the native speakers think about life and the world; you might get a better sense of what they think is taboo, bad, good, etc.
If you are a male who speaks French or Italian, you might benefit from women seeing you as more romantic!
You should not entrust your fate entirely to interpreters, if possible. It's better if you can at least partly monitor the conversations and printed words around you. An interpreter will not always translate everything or do it correctly.
In your home country, sometimes you'll be able to talk to another speaker of the language without nearby people understanding. You can say out loud things you want to keep secret!
In some cases, you will be able to talk with immigrants in your area who haven't mastered the local language. You can do favors by translating when people need it.
If you have both fluency and cultural knowledge, you can truly understand foreign news, opinion, literature, film, and music in the original language. Translations are not always available. Even with a translation, you would not understand those concepts that do not translate easily.
While learning another language, you are forced to think about how your own language works, to understand the differences. This will allow you to explain your native language to people who are learning it. You also might discover that you have been using sloppy grammar without knowing it.
If you learn a non-native language that many other people also learn as a second language, then you will be able to talk with some people even if you don't know each other's native languages.
If your parents are immigrants, learning their native languages will allow you to communicate with relatives in the old country.
That is why, as a mormon, I cannot vote for someone that is not his own person, but will say and do whatever it takes to get what YOU want. Time to grow up Mitt.