Posted on 03/19/2007 10:28:03 PM PDT by JohnSheppard
Cubans in Miami are steaming mad at former Gov. Mitt Romney for shooting his mouth off in stumbling Spanish, mispronouncing names and erroneously associating a notorious Fidel Castro-spewed Communist catch phrase with freedom fighters.
Politicians in South Florida have lashed out at the former Massachusetts governor and 2008 presidential hopeful for describing the socialist saying “Patria o muerte, venceremos” as “inspiring” and for claimingthe phrase was swiped from liberty-seeking Cubans by leftist admirers of Castro.
The phrase, which means “Fatherland or death, we shall overcome,” was bellowed as a political speech sign-off by the dictator for decades.
At another point in the speech to the Miami-Dade Republican Party, Romney bungled the names of prominent Cuban GOP politicians, referring to Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio as “Mario.”
Romney also garnered criticism for his hard-line stance on immigration and ending the talk with the phrase “Libertad, Libertad, Libertad,” a revolutionary saying made famous in the gangster movie “Scarface,” which many Cubans feel plays on cultural stereotypes.
But it was the former Bay State governor’s use of an infamous Fidel Castro line that sparked the most controversy.
“Hugo Chavez has tried to steal an inspiring phrase - Patria o muerte, venceremos,” Romney said. “It does not belong to him. It belongs to a free Cuba.”
But scholars and prominent Cubans contend the saying has always been a Communist rallying cry and that it represents the very essence of Fidel Castro’s oppressive regime.
“It means communism. It means Fidel Castro,” said Florida state Rep. Rene Garcia, a Republican who was at the March 9 speech. “It’s a Communist catch phrase.”
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bostonherald.com ...
Well, MA voted for this guy. That should say it all :)
And when JFK butchered the German language in Berlin, the people loved it. Of course every one loves a Berliner pastry.
I don't care about Romney one way or the other right now but the guy was reaching out to them. All politicians will always make fools of themselves when stepping out of their element and into unfamiliar territory. It's what they do, it's the nature of the beast. All politicians are phoney and we elect them to office because we don't want the job ourselves. Cubans can't relate to white America, white America can't relate to Cubans, ditto Mexicans, blacks, Asians, etc... Welcome to America. We are all different and nobody can walk in anybody else's shoes. Yeah, yeah, I get that.
The way I see it, if the Cubans are "offended", they can always get on their rafts and go back.
I'm tired of people being "offended". S*%# happens. Get over it.
Of course, as always, this is JMHO.
The Marco/Mario thing could have been a typographical error on his sheet. I'll have to watch the speech tonight, but maybe that was in the preliminary introductions -- the part where the candidate has to acknowledge all the elected officials that show up.
They don't get to practice that, because nobody knows who is showing up, so they get that written down at the last minute, and they have to read it or recite it from memory. It's easy to see how someone could scribble down "marco" in a way that looked like "mario".
As to the other phrase, Mitt didn't say it was a liberation phrase. He specifically said it was the Dictator's phrase, but he argued that it better represented freedom than communism. He might be right, he might be wrong, but it was a compelling suggestion, and I do like how he's willing to make statements like this without regard to whether others agree with him.
I wonder if Representative Rene Garcia is backing a different candidate, and therefore had a purpose in attacking Romney?
Was that picture in the Boson Herald? I can't believe they would have photo-shopped Romney into a Castro picture....
I'm sorry. He may have mispronounced things, I don't know. But this is the most ham-fisted hit piece I've ever read.
I'm sorry, I don't buy the characterization that's in this story at all. I have to do some recon on this author.
Thank you. I thought so. I'm not the biggest Mitt apologist, but I can't stand when our guys get trashed for no reason.
Okay. You win the day for the best remark! LOL
President Bush, as a candidate in 2000, called a radio talk show host in Pittsburgh whose name was Fred, "Frank" throughout an interview.
Fred didn't correct him at the time and, of course, made (relatively gentle) fun of him afterwards.
Flubbing a guy's name is typical for candidates, they get a list that they read from a sheet and they see so many. And you'll notice they aren't stupid enough to do any "my good friend" nonsense.
He's the Boston Herald Chief Enterprise Reporter, whatever the hell that means.
From Wikipedia: "In Mormonism, the United Order was one of several church programs established to manage and administer the Law of Consecration (a voluntary form of Christian communism/communalism). The United Order was an egalitarian community designed to achieve income equality, eliminate poverty, increase group self-sufficiency, and create an ideal utopian society Mormons referred to as Zion. It is not practiced within Mormonism. Members who chose to enter the United Order would deed (consecrate) all their property to the United Order, which would grant back an "inheritance" (or "stewardship") which allowed members to control the property according to their needs, but not own it. At the end of each year, any excess that the family produced from the stewardship was given back to the Order. The Order in each community was operated by the local Bishop."
The early Christian church had a failed attempt at a Communistic type community (see Acts) and the pilgrims on the Mayflower did so as well.
What's your point?
Point is that some folks are just not capable of understanding irony.
"But delivering a speech that was disrespectful and ignorant your audience, is beyond stupidity."Really? If I were a professional political consultant I would agree, but I'm just a plain ole guy from the Midwest. To learn that a Massachusetts Mormon doesn't understand Spanish, isn't up to date on Castro's lines over the past 50 years and hasn't seen the movie Scarface just doesn't strike me as being stupid.
If the Cubans believe that the politicians that appear to "get it" or better yet, the politicians that have a staff that simply feed them the correct line for the moment at hand are somehow going to do a better job as President... well that's beyond stupid IMHO.
Did Hillary in her best southern drawl saying "I don't feel no ways tired" convince you she was respectful and educated of her audience? Or did you see it as I did, simply pandering. It didn't sway me one iota as to her qualifications for president.
Indeed. You are not.
The article is a lie and I wouldn't believe a word in it without an independent source. Scarface? What, is he supposed to have seen every move ever, ever? And what about it? I bet Hitler once said "I would like some toast." Are we never allowed to heat our bread? This is so stupid.
I have to agree.
Did you read the article? His mistakes, although innocent, were a hell of a lot more than simply mispronunciation.
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