I heard that comment by Romney on FOX radio.
I'm a Michigander living in the Ozarks. My parents were raised in the days before television, which means I speak with a nasal West Michigan accent that is so pronounced that I sound like someone from a generation older than I really am, and since most Michiganders no longer have an accent, down here in the South, I sometimes get people asking what country I used to live in.
Romney's accent sounds much less like a Michigander than mine, but if I tried to make his asinine comments about learning to like grits and properly pronounce “y'all,” all I'd do is drive home the point that I'm “not from around these here parts.”
What idiot is running Romney's campaign to let him say such stupid things? I'm willing to bet there are lots more Southerners who care about carpetbagging Yankees than people who care about a candidate's view on contraception.
And yes, after a decade living down here in the Ozarks, I have picked up an occasional y'all in my speech. Can't seem to help it; I think it's something in the water.... ;-)
For some reason, I picked up the lesser known south MI country accent commonly heard outside of Adrian, Jackson, and Hillsdale. I didn't realize it until I did some work there and realized they talked like me. Grandpa's from Jackson, and dad worked the auto factories, so I picked a little of that up.