[EnglishCon]

I am confused. Romney is terrible - he'd not get a look in here in the UK - yet an ad attacks him for speaking French? Can some kind FRiend explain this angle and how it will be or should be effective?

[magritte]

Just another stupid attack ad for the slight-of-mind.

[massgopguy]

The Olympics are conducted in three languages, English, French and the language of the host country.

[stuartcr]

Really grasping at straws with this one. I think Newt’s starting to melt down.

[cotton1706]

It’s a good ad. The french part is comparing Romney to Kerry. It’s on Hotair.com

[JRandomFreeper]

Have no idea. I'm as redneck a Texas boy as ever got whelped, and I get by in Spanish and French both. I can also speak authentic frontier gibberish.

Probably projection on the part of liberals that believe fly-over folks are unlettered hicks.

/johnny

[Daveinyork]

There is enough to criticize Romney about without inventing them. One word - Romneycare

[LowTaxesEqualsProsperity]

More evidence that Newt is not a good choice. Stupid.

[mmanager]

I don’t see anything wrong with the ad. If we can make Romney look like Dukakis and Kerry, so be it. I’ll take anything if it helps take Romney out.

[forgotten man]

I have never met a Mormon man who was not bi-lingual. If you ever meet a white guy who speaks Japanese fluently he probably is a Mormon. I used to work for a Japanese company with manufacturing operations in Baja California. There were lots of tri lingual Mormon guys there. They all served as missionaries in Japan. They told me that they preferred going to Japan than to some third world cess pool.

[vbmoneyspender]

Can some kind FRiend explain this angle and how it will be or should be effective?

Google 'cheese-eating surrender monkeys'

[Parley Baer]

Coming from the BBC I would think there is more to the story. The BBC is in the tank for Mitt.

[RoosterRedux]

Watch the ad at youtube...

The French Connection

[RichInOC]

“Tish! He spoke French! Where’s my checkbook?”

[VicVega]

I think it's great if our Leaders can speak a different language.

Ever hear Gingrich speak spanish?

Bad clip, but you'll get the point. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Og0HqSZVKqA

[RoosterRedux]

Did you watch the ad? It makes brilliant use of humor to deliver a devastating blow to Romney. And I loved the French music playing in the background.

[muir_redwoods]

In the big list of things I don’t like about Romney, being a francophone does not make it to page one. This is a stupid, stupid ad that puts conservatives in an awful light.

[houeto]

Can some kind FRiend explain this angle and how it will be or should be effective?

Not me. It was a really good ad until he threw that stupid part in.

[Question Liberal Authority]

I am confused. Romney is terrible - he'd not get a look in here in the UK - yet an ad attacks him for speaking French? Can some kind FRiend explain this angle and how it will be or should be effective?

If you hunt down a PJ O'Rourke book called "Holidays In Hell" and read the essay titled "Among The Euro-Weenies", you should get some sense of why this would be an effective tack. If it weren't taken by some Uber-Intellectual college professor who, under ordinary circumstances, considers himself to the the smartest human being in the room.

In general, there's a common perception that the USA has pulled France's butt out of the fire several times over the past 100 years or so, yet France is generally ungrateful for our help and somewhat snobbish in their attitude.

[BfloGuy]

Can some kind FRiend explain this angle and how it will be or should be effective?

There's a considerable amount of ill will towards the French over here -- much of it resulting from their attitude over the Iraq invasion. You might have heard that the Congressional cafeteria subsequently renamed french fries as Freedom fries.

The antipathy goes back even to WWII where they surrendered to the Germans without a fight and the English speaking world had to save their butts.

The feeling is not so deep that it will have a huge effect though it will cement Romney in the minds of money as an elitist -- which is the purpose.

[ArmyTeach]

Effroyable! Shocking that a President of the United States should be conversant in another international language!