6/22/2012

Mitt Romney's Immigration Speech Sounded Like He Was Talking to Children:
Is the Rude Pundit the only one who noticed this? That, when Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney spoke to the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials yesterday, his tone and words were the same as if he had been lecturing grade school children? No, seriously, if you're Latino/a, you gotta think that Romney thought everyone there only understood basic English and couldn't get their bean-filled brains around complicated concepts. Because why would you talk like this to adults? Do you think this is what Romney sounds like when he's hijacking the fate of another corporation? For example:

1. "Today, I'm asking you the join me, because while we may not agree on everything, we share the same goal." So let's share the ball?

2. "Everybody likes free stuff, but there is no free stuff when government has to pay and it has to tax the American people or when it borrows from future generations." Seriously, is this shit from a Yo Gabba Gabba script? "Who likes free stuff? We like free stuff!"

3. "Our nation benefits when moms and dads and their kids are all living together under the same roof." Elmo likes when mommy and daddy are living together...

The infantilization of his Latino audience went on like that.

Between that and the insulting "If you're willing to die for a country that you're not a citizen of, you might just get a green card" approach to changes in immigration law, as well as his continued refusal to say whether or not he'd overturn Obama's directive on young undocumented people in the United States ("Some people have asked if I will let stand the president's executive order. The answer is that I will put in place my own long- term solution that will replace and supersede the president's temporary measure," which is dandy, but doesn't really answer the question - oh, and it wasn't an executive order), it was another bullshit pile of lies and half-statements that add up to what is becoming a uniquely Romney-esque approach to campaigning: give them nothing and they have nothing to use against you.

(Bonus points: He compared Obama's first term to Reagan's, leaving out that Reagan raised taxes in 1982 and 1983.)

(Bonuser points: He repeated the Republican talking point that Obama did nothing about immigration reform until his directive last week, leaving out the fact that the DREAM Act was passed by the House in 2010 and blocked by a Republican filibuster in the Senate, despite having the support of a majority of Senators.)