Mitt Romney's Top Ten Gaffes

[Adrienne]

Tongue Tied
By Ana Marie Cox




Mitt Romney may be leading the underwhelming Republican presidential field in fundraising, but he also has a less dubious distinction —he leads the pack in committing professional-grade gaffes. We speak here not of policy change of hearts or a sometimes inscrutable grasp of foreign policy, but of the pedestrian media misstatements that any politician racks up over a life time — and Romney has piled them up in just a few months. His campaign is sanguine over the flubs. (The Romney camp employs staffers with an above average sense of humor). Says national spokesman Kevin Madden, "Since I'm the one that gets the bulk of the phone calls and e-mails from snickering reporters on these moments of fallibility, I can say it hasn't been an entirely negative experience. I've learned that there are a lot of science-fiction fans among the press corps, I've learned more than I ever thought I would about French contract law, and I'm now an expert in the hunting permit process in the state of Idaho." Also, says Madden, Romney is under enormous scrutiny. He spends "23 hours, 59 minutes a day avoiding controversy...it's the one minute in the day where something is either lost in translation or he strays from conventional wisdom that reporters or opponents will pounce on."

For all his missteps, Romney usually excels in staged events; it's the unforced errors that puzzle campaign watchers. Whether these gaffes will alter his standing remains to be seen, but it's worth remembering that his father's presidential aspirations were dashed over just one gaffe: his ill-considered reference to having been "brainwashed." Mitt's made many more, and here are the top ten.

[Adrienne]

Lost in Translation
By Ana Marie Cox
"First, Not France" and "Hillary=France"
(February 27, 2007)



A "leaked" playbook for the Romney campaign gives insight into what staffers think his weaknesses are. Among them? Too perfect hair. But what critics pounced on aren't the perceived weakness so much as his oddly earnest appeal to make France the boogeyman of the campaign, going so far as to envision the weirdly non-referential "First, Not France" and "Hillary=France" bumper stickers. First in the world, not France in the world? Sure.

[Adrienne]

Memorable Misstatements3 of 11   Science Friction
By Ana Marie Cox
 "The one by L. Ron Hubbard...I'm not in favor of his religion by any means, but he wrote a book called 'Battlefield Earth' that was a very fun science fiction book."
(May 1, 2007)



It's remarkable enough for a serious Presidential contender to name a book of genre fiction as his — or her — favorite novel. (The primary season reading list tends toward the classics and more serious contemporary literary fare.) But naming Hubbard's "Battlefield Earth" on Fox News raised a host of questions Romney could have avoided if he'd named something by Ray Bradbury. First of all, many Americans already view Romney's own faith as suspiciously cultlike in some respects — so why draw personal attention to Hubbard's religion, Scientology, which has a more sinister reputation? Putting religion aside, "Battlefield Earth" is almost universally regarded as a terrible book, even by the standards of science fiction junkies. Turgid, repetitive and at times nonsensical, it became a bestseller largely through the efforts of Scientologists who bought bulk shipments. Romney managed to compound the error by later saying that the book wasn't even really his favorite, rather, that it was "one of" them and that he also enjoyed "Huck Finn." Yeah, I get those two confused all the time.

[Adrienne]

In the Hunt
By Ana Marie Cox
Article ToolsPrintEmail  "I purchased a gun when I was a young man. I've been a hunter pretty much all my life."
(April 3, 2007)



"I'm not a big-game hunter. I've made that very clear. I've always been a rodent and rabbit hunter. Small varmints, if you will. I began when I was 15 or so and I have hunted those kinds of varmints since then. More than two times."
(April 5, 2007)

Another instance of Romney's post-gaffe spin being more of a spiral upward than a tamping down. It was bad enough when Romney's staff had to step in and clarify his boast of being a "pretty much" life-long hunter to mean he had been hunting twice. Later in the same week, Romney sought to make light of the exaggeration with his reference to "varmints," a word that tripped off his Harvard-educated tongue about as gamely as John Kerry's proclamation of NASCAR appreciation. Perhaps most damaging, both remarks gave reporters a chance to look into Romney's history on gun rights, revealing a set of "evolutions" from moderate to conservative stances that matched his embrace of pro-life views.

[Adrienne]

How Green is Your Reich?
By Ana Marie Cox
"Liquefied coal, gosh. Hitler during the Second World War — I guess because he was concerned about losing his oil — liquefied coal. That technology is still there."
(April 19, 2007)




Romney ruminated on Hitler's scientific achievements unprompted, in a Q & A about energy policy. As the New York Sun's Ryan Sager said at the time, you wouldn't think that anyone running for president would have to be told, "Don't mention Hitler in a positive light."

[Adrienne]

Cuba Libre?
By Ana Marie Cox
 "Hugo Chavez has tried to steal an inspiring phrase — 'Patria o muerte, venceremos.' It does not belong to him. It belongs to a free Cuba."
(March 9, 2007)




Another case of campaign researchers apparently being off for the day: "Patria o muerte, venceremos" (which means in Spanish, "Fatherland or death, we shall overcome") does not belong to a free Cuba. The starkly fascistic phrase was, in fact, a tagline for Castro, who Romney had, earlier in the same speech, declared "a stain on Cuban soil." Romney might have gotten away with the misattribution had his audience been anywhere else than where — and what — it was: fiercely anti-Castro Latino Republicans gathered for the Miami-Dade Lincoln Day Dinner.

[Adrienne]

Memorable Misstatements7 of 11   Charles Krupa / APFamily Values
By Ana Marie Cox
"Her positions are not terribly relevant to my campaign."
(May 10, 2007)



Anne Romney's $150 donation to Planned Parenthood over a decade ago is, in itself, not that surprising or scandalous. After all, the Governor was pro-choice in 1994 — he's gone out of his way to say he isn't any more, but hasn't ever tried to say he never was. What is surprising is that the man who's tried to superglue himself to "family values" would throw his wife under the bus to reporters with nary a second thought.

[Adrienne]

Memorable Misstatements8 of 11   Dave G. Houser / CorbisThe Seven Year Itch
By Ana Marie Cox
"In France, for instance, I'm told that marriage is now frequently contracted in seven-year terms where either party may move on when their term is up. How shallow and how different from the Europe of the past."
(May 5, 2007)




In his most bizarre misstatement of the past three months — including the Battlefield Earth shout-out! — Romney used the occasion of a commencement address at Regents University to condemn a non-existent French marriage policy. The line was picked up, without comment, by the Washington Post; when reporters tried to suss out what the candidate could possibly be referring to, a spokesman referred them to France's civil union agreements...which have no set end date, either. One possible source for the impressively specific legalese ups the odd quotient even further: Seven-year marriage contracts are a plot point in the "Memories of Earth" science fiction series by Mormon author Orson Scott Card, itself a retelling of the Mormon theology in which the limited marriages stand in for the other non-traditional marriage practices of that faith. What's Romney really trying to say here? That the French are Mormons? That they're from outer space?

[Adrienne]

Memorable Misstatements9 of 11   Shane T. McCoy / U.S. Navy / GettyDouble Trouble
By Ana Marie Cox
"Some people have said we ought to close Guantanamo. My view is we ought to double Guantanamo."
(May 15, 2007)



Voicing support for Guantanamo's controversial (and legally dubious) "enemy combatant" program is a sure way to win over the hearts of the GOP base. That's the not the problem — Romney's strange locution at the South Carolina Republican Debate, "Double Guantanamo," sounds like an order at a Cuban coffee bar, not a policy proposal, and it leaves listeners in the dark as to what the Governor actually favors. A bigger prison? More prisoners? Extra-foam waterboarding?

[Adrienne]

Dodging the Surge
By Ana Marie Cox
"I'm not going to weigh in. I'm still a governor."
(December 28, 2006)



Romney's inartful dodge, in an interview with the conservative publication Human Events, was in response to a question about whether he was in favor of the troop surge in Iraq. He later came out in favor of the policy, once he took off his "governor" hat and traded it in for "management expert for President" cap.

Next: To Catch a Terrorist >>

[Adrienne]

Memorable Misstatements11 of 11  APTo Catch a Terrorist
By Ana Marie Cox
It's not worth moving heaven and earth spending billions of dollars just trying to catch one person."
(April 26, 2007)



Romney may have a logical point here, made during an interview with the Associated Press, about capturing Osama Bin Laden, of course: There probably should be a limit to how far Americans extend their resources to catch "one person," but such a cold cost/benefit analysis of the most hated man in America is not the typical one taken by Republican party front-runners.