Posted on 02/26/2007 7:31:07 PM PST by Extremely Extreme Extremist
Posted by Lynn Davidson on February 26, 2007 - 01:49.
What’s next, knitting? The AP has taken up genealogy and investigated the family tree of Republican presidential candidate, Mitt Romney. On Saturday, February 24th, Yahoo published an AP article detailing the polygamy in his family's past. The AP includes the obligatory phrase noting that Romney condemns the practice but for the rest of the article, goes into explicit detail about the Romneys' devotion to polygamy, even after the Mormon church and federal law banned it. The AP rattles off the family’s polygamists and gets into “how important polygamy was to them” (emphasis mine throughout):
Romney's great-great grandfather, Parley Pratt, an apostle in the church, had 12 wives. In an 1852 sermon, Parley Pratt's brother and fellow apostle, Orson Pratt, became the first church official to publicly proclaim and defend polygamy as a direct revelation from God.
Romney's father, former Michigan Gov. George Romney, was born in Chihuahua, Mexico, where Mormons fled in the 1800s to escape religious persecution and U.S. laws forbidding polygamy. He and his family did not return to the United States until 1912, more than two decades after the church issued "The Manifesto" banning polygamy.
"When you read the family's history, you realize how important polygamy was to them," said Todd Compton, a Mormon and independent historian who wrote a book about the polygamous life of the church's founder, Joseph Smith. "They left America and started again as pioneers, after they had done it over and over again previously."
B. Carmon Hardy, a polygamy expert and retired history professor at California State University-Fullerton, said polygamy was "a very important part of Miles Park Romney's family."
Hardy added: "Now, very gradually, as you moved farther away from it, it became less a part of it. But during the time of Miles Park Romney, it was an essential principle of the Romney family life."
Since Romney isn’t a polygamist himself, and he’s disavowed the practice, this information doesn’t seem like it would warrant an article. The article doesn’t explore the significance that Romney’s faith would have on the way he would handle Mormon-related issues or how his family history could influence his interaction with American polygamists, many of whom are self-proclaimed “Mormons”; it just gossips and raises doubt, tabloid-style, about his qualifications. That last paragraph is also a bit tricky. Notice that it says polygamy "became less a part" of the Romney family life, not that Romney's grandfather abruptly stopped the tradition, by marrying one woman, who distanced the Romneys even further from polygamy by not having plural marriage in her background.
The AP mentions how “polygamy remains a part of current events” and refers to a TV series about “Mormon” polygamy and Warren Jeffs, but they conspicuously chose to leave out Islamic polygamy, which, unlike “Mormon" polygamy, is still sanctioned by many of its faith’s leaders. In the US, although polygamy of any kind or faith is not widespread, some Muslims abroad are vocal in their support of American Muslims breaking US laws and engaging in polygamy, while some Islamic leaders in the US claim that in some situations, polygamy is"practical" and "compassionate."
If the AP believed investigating Romney’s family tree for polygamists was important, then I expect that we would soon see the results of a similar investigation of Democratic presidential candidate, Barak Obama. Obama has stated that his grandfather was Muslim, and his father was raised Muslim. It doesn’t matter whether Obama himself is or was ever Muslim; as in Romney's case, what only should matter is that a family member belonged to a religion that practiced polygamy. Somehow, I doubt we’ll see a similar article about Obama, though.
The AP links the issue of polygamy to Romney’s quest for the presidency:
Polygamy was not just a historical footnote, but a prominent element in the family tree of the former Massachusetts governor now seeking to become the first Mormon president.
I think we’ll see a documentary praising the internal combustion engine win an Oscar before we see a statement like the above about someone of Muslim heritage.
Other Mormons have run for the White House, including Romney's father in 1968 and Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, in 2000. But Mitt Romney's stature as a leading 2008 contender has renewed questions about his faith and its doctrines.
Hmm, when Virginia Representative Virgil Goode voiced his questions about the "faith and its doctrines" of Minnesota Representative Keith Ellison, who is the first Muslim elected to Congress, he was called a bigot, and there were calls for his resignation, but when the AP does it, it is newsworthy.
Joseph Smith Jr. ran for President too.
Didn't get very far.
I know I'm ultra paranoid, but I think these attacks are not aimed at Mitt. I think the purpose is to put religious background on the table. If it's out there and can be talked about, then Obama becomes more vulnerable. Hillary benefits.
So that's it? That's all the dirt they can dig on
Mitt? Sounds like good Presidential material to me.
If the drive by media are against it, them I'm for it.
I disagree. I think the libs see Romney as a real threat to them in a general election. They see him as taking middle voters in a tight election in a way that Giuliani can't and someone like Duncan Hunter or Gingrich will never be able to.
A Lewinsky in the Oval Office = Good!
And what about Senate Mormon Leader Harry Reid's family tree? How many Great Grandma's did Harry have?
Romney is clearly a multi-generational flip flopper. :~)
I remember reading that after Obama's father went back to Africa he had multiple wives.
Bingo! From the Senator's own website...
http://obama.senate.gov/news/060828-obama_visits_notorious_nairobi_slum/index.html
"His father died in a car crash in 1982, leaving three wives, six sons and a daughter."
Rush addressed this subject today. He noted that fat slob Ted Kennedy's FATHER was a Nazi sympathizer and that FDR had to recall him from his post as ambassador to the Court of St. James. Not much reaction from the DBM for this little gem.
You're right. Talking about past polygamy is an effort to hurt Mitt, and I overspoke when I said it was not. However, attacking a candidate for the actions of his great-great-grandfather is an exceptionally weak attack. But, since we're on the subject ... let's talk about the wisdom of voting for Barack Hussein Obama.
I continue to believe that the polygamy attack does double duty.
Dingy Harry, leader of the Demonrats and a pro-life Mormon, is never exposed to the the polygamy innuendo from the rabid Marxists in the so-called "corporate" media newsrooms.
Gee, I wonder why.
hehe so true. Well put.
ping
1982 huh. Let's see that means Obama was 20 when his polygamist father died. Didn't have to go very far back in that tree now did we.
Just Google obama father wives and Voila!
From Bookblog...
"It turns out that Obama's father had a wife and children in Africa before coming to Hawaii. Barack Senior met yet a third woman at Harvard, who moved to Africa and raised several more children in the extended Obama family. Barack senior is smart and ambitious, and initially successful. But he runs afoul of the Kenyan dictatorship in his arrogance and naivete, loses his job and is blacklisted. Unemployed and broke, he turns to alcohol and delusions of grandeur, while his children raise themselves. He is rehabilitated later by a new regime, but the damage he has done to his family leaves ongoing bitterness after his death."
Obama's dad was a bigamist was Romney's?
I have come to believe, based on what I know firsthand about where "news stories" come from, that the Romney campaign is trying to get all this stuff on the table now - long before it could have an impact. In other words, Mitt and his team are "leaking" this to the press now so it won't harm him later.
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