Romney Campaign Adviser: President Obama Doesn’t Understand Depth of Anglo-Saxon Heritage
The UK Telegraph has an interesting conversation with two unnamed advisers to Mitt Romney, in which one explained President Obama’s so-called coolness to Great Britain by saying he doesn’t understand the Anglo-Saxon heritage like Romney does and that his father was from Africa. Um, newsflash to the Romney campaign, Kenya was colonized by the British. Of course, Mitt Romney doesn’t deal with facts. The advisers couldn’t say how Romney’s policy with the United Kingdom would differ from President Obama’s but they did cite the European economic crisis, though they couldn’t explain that either. Yeah, Romney is fond of Europe for different reasons — Swiss bank accounts and his stay in opulent digs in France.
As the Republican presidential challenger accused Barack Obama of appeasing America’s enemies in his first foreign policy speech of the US general election campaign, advisers told The Daily Telegraph that he would abandon Mr Obama’s “Left-wing” coolness towards London.
Romney’s campaign adviser told the Telegraph, “We are part of an Anglo-Saxon heritage, and he feels that the special relationship is special. The White House didn’t fully appreciate the shared history we have.” Source: UK Telegraph
There’s more patronizing:
As part of the sucking-up process, Romney, who gives the word patronizing new meaning, plans to reinstate the Churchill bust that was displayed in the Oval Office during George W. Bush’s tenure, but was returned to British diplomats by Obama when he took office in 2009. The Telegraph reports one adviser said Romney viewed it as symbolically important, while the other said Romney “is naturally more Atlanticist.”
The Anglo-Saxon angle is part of the Romney campaign’s obsession with trying to define President Obama as a “foreigner” and playing to the birthers. Just last week, Cuban-born John Sununu had to backtrack after saying the president needed to learn to be an American and comes after Romney said the president’s policies are extraordinarily foreign. Yeah, he should know.
This was cross-posted from The Hinterland Gazette
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Had to look up the return of the Churchill bust. Apparently it was on loan to President Bush following 9/11. President Obama returned it to the British embassy, where it now resides, and replaced it with a bust of his choice of leader, Abraham Lincoln.
It makes one wonder if these advisors have ever heard of the internet and realize how easy it is to check their assertions. If not, they’d better get up to speed – quickly!
OT – I’ve received two emails today about Obama’s Muslim connections – both new (I’ve received all the old ones). The right wing political machine must be in full battle mode.
I dont know why Janet, but that made me laugh out loud. I cant imagine Gov Romney knows actual facts about the Angles, or the Saxons, and that most of the United States Citizenry is NOT descended from either. The Angles occupied a small portion of Germany and the Saxons England except for the Jutes and other tribes of their times. Romney would prob have apoplexy if he realized that he as a Mormon is holding up old tribal groups who were Pagan to the bone and had Goddesses they worshipped. I think this clang of probably ignorance is somehow a disaster waiting to happen for Romney. ‘Yes! Let me, a good Mormon, hold up ancient Pagans as the greatest in America! and oh that Bad Obama, he is NOT Pagan enough like I am, er was, er no, I’m Mormon, not Pagan… wait wait’
Ay!
“…The White House didn’t fully appreciate the shared history we have.”
Honest to pete — those people aren’t even TRYING to hide their racism anymore! Calling Obama’s views ‘foreign’ – saying he doesn’t understand America’s connection to the UK. Good lord, the covert innuendo is becoming more and more overt.
In addition, are they forgetting the Prez is HALF white too, raised for the most part, by white anglo-saxon relatives? This is getting so …. incredibly bizarre. Wow.
WOW! How incredibly boorish,clumsy, offensive AND stupid!
Wink wink — you’re white, I’m white, I got your back, buddy — wink wink.
Lordy me.
Not to mention that “Dunham” is a pretty darn Anglo-Saxon name.
Not they have a point. I mean, Obama is black so there is no way he could have properly understood the subtext in his history classes about what England has meant to this country. Clearly that is something that occurs at the genetic level, so at best our President could only half understand it. It’s analysis like this that you just never really get to see in the lamestream media anymore. Thanks UK Telegraph!
Writes a Brit with the handle anibundel, who is quoted at another blog:
Do you think they’re stupid over there? No, they hear you, just the same as the rest of us. Do you have any idea how it was to be over their in 2005, and finding oneself in pubs having to explain why in gods name we re-elected Bush? The last thing in the world I want next summer is to find myself over there having to explain YOU.
In short, if you’re going to bait for the benefit of the racist old white people who are scared of the second decade of the 21st century they’ve woken up to, please do here at home, quietly, where the rest of the world can’t hear you. You’re EMBARRASSING me.
The UK Telegraph has an interesting conversation with two unnamed advisers to Mitt Romney, in which one explained President Obama’s so-called coolness to Great Britain by saying he doesn’t understand the Anglo-Saxon heritage like Romney does and that his father was from Africa.
The way I read the Telegraph article, the Africa comment is coming from the reporter and not the Romney team. I could be wrong though. The sentence is poorly constructed.
This makes it pretty clear — to me –as to who said what:
“As the Republican presidential challenger accused Barack Obama of appeasing America’s enemies in his first foreign policy speech of the US general election campaign, advisers told The Daily Telegraph that he would abandon Mr Obama’s “Left-wing” coolness towards London.
In remarks that may prompt accusations of racial insensitivity, one [adviser]suggested that Mr Romney was better placed to understand the depth of ties between the two countries than Mr Obama, whose father was from Africa.
“We are part of an Anglo-Saxon heritage, and he feels that the special relationship is special,” the adviser said of Mr Romney, adding: “The White House didn’t fully appreciate the shared history we have”.
Members of the former Massachusetts governor’s foreign policy advisory team claimed that as president, he would reverse Mr Obama’s priority of repairing strained overseas relationships while not spending so much time maintaining traditional alliances such as Britain and Israel.
“In contrast to President Obama, whose first instinct is to reach out to America’s adversaries, the Governor’s first impulse is to consult and co-ordinate and to move closer to our friends and allies overseas so they can rely on American constancy and strength,” one [member of the former Massachusetts governor's foreign policy advisory team] told the Telegraph.
“Obama is a Left-winger,” said another. “He doesn’t value the Nato alliance as much, he’s very comfortable with American decline and the traditional alliances don’t mean as much to him. He wouldn’t like singing ‘Land of Hope and Glory’.”
The two advisers said Mr Romney would seek to reinstate the Churchill bust displayed in the Oval Office by George W. Bush but returned to British diplomats by Mr Obama when he took office in 2009. One said Mr Romney viewed the move as “symbolically important” while the other said it was “just for starters”, adding: “He is naturally more Atlanticist”.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/mitt-romney/9424524/Mitt-Romney-would-restore-Anglo-Saxon-relations-between-Britain-and-America.html
I agree with DaGoat that it’s not clear that the advisor referenced Obama’s African father, based on how the sentence is written. If they did say that, it would be blatant racism. As it stands, the statements appear to be veiled racism: “We are part of an Anglo-Saxon heritage, and [Romney] feels that the special relationship is special. The White House didn’t fully appreciate the shared history we have.”
I’m sure they’ll try to defend the statement by looking at policy differences towards the UK, but they can’t be so ignorant to not know how it would be taken.
I won’t go to the mat to defend the difference between blatant and veiled racism, but I do think it is important to set the record straight on who said what, so that people can make up their own minds with accurate information.
Thanks DDW. Still not that clear to me. There are no direct quotes mentioning Africa, and the way the sentence is set up the reporter could be giving you the background that Obama’s father is from Africa. It looks to me from the quotes that the Romney camp is saying the problem is that Obama is left-wing, not that his father was from Africa.
I’m white and he’s black, of course we’ll get along better! (geeze, that code get’s less subtle every day)
AD and DG:
I agree. The “out of Africa” part is probably conjecture by the reporter. I am sure all the other quotes are definitely from Romney’s staff, as repeatedly attributed by The Telegraph.
So…our ‘traditional’ allies, you know, like Japan and Great Britain. The only ones to ever invade US soil (unless one wants to include Mexico in disputed territory that, after the fact, was settled to belong to the US).
Even if the reporter was the person to add that his father was from Africa, the mere fact that the unnamed Romney advisers had the nerve to say he has more in-depth understanding of the Anglo-Saxon heritage has obvious racial connotations.
The Romney campaign is now distancing itself for the comment, saying its advisers don’t speak for the candidate. That’s laughable because the candidate constantly reminds us that Obama’s policies are foreign.
Sorry, I meant to say the Romney adviser had the nerve to say….
@Janet Shan
the mere fact that the unnamed Romney advisers had the nerve to say he has more in-depth understanding of the Anglo-Saxon heritage has obvious racial connotations
That I agree with.
The Wapo:
“The Telegraph stands by the story and the quote. Al-Monitor Reporter Laura Rozen notes that conservative British commentator Nile Gardiner is the co-chair of Romney’s Europe Working Group, often writes on the Telegraph, and frequently uses the term “Anglo-Saxon.” But Gardiner denies being the source; he says he was contacted by the Telegraph and referred the paper to Romney’s communications team.”
Here is another story of Mitt Romney and wooing the masses with tribalism….
An honorable Edo tribal man invited his friends for his mother’s burial, after lowering the coffin, they put yam, rice, meat etc, into the grave.
An Hausa man asked why? The Edo man smiled & said, “According to our tradition, the dead go on a long journey & need all the food items they can get”. The Hausa man dropped 100,000 dollars inside and said, “When the food finish, buy more”.
A Yoruba man also dropped graciously dropped 50,000 more dollars and said, add this in case it is not enough.
Then Mitt Ramney, who was present at that time smiled, brought out his cheque book and wrote a cheque of 200,000 dollars. He dropped it in the coffin and took the 150,000 dollars notes as change, then said, “Nwanne, withdraw when you reach dia o…it is going to be a dangerous journey, we don’t know how many robbers are out there and no one will be there to save you so just manage the check”
@Dorian — I thought of Nile Gardiner because he has always been critical of Obama and is connected with the Romney campaign. Interesting. He has written some pretty scathing articles slamming Obama. It will be interesting to see if the Telegraph will release the names of the advisers. No matter how you look at this, there’s a dark cloud over Romney’s trip overseas.
All of those slurs from the Romney campaign about how Obama was turning the US into a European socialist country, and all of a sudden Romney is the more natural “Atlantacist”?? (if that is even a word))
Maybe he’s referring to the years he spent riding out the Vietnam War in that mansion in France!
@Janet:
“there’s a dark cloud over Romney’s trip overseas.”
I am pretty confident — from what I have seen from Romney and his comic-relief-team thus far — that the dark cloud will burst once Romney sets foot in the three countries and he and his team totally trample the “politics stop at the water’s edge” tradition. We’ll see.
@DDW
Israel will go OK – serious problems in England and Poland. I think that is really true in Poland. He’s going to bitch about Obama canceling a missile defense system the Poles never wanted and he’s going to bitch about Obama’s reset with Russia which is something the Poles did in 2007.
Haha. And Romney doesn’t even understand… or bother to find out the details of what’s happening in the country he wants to lead. (Referring to the CO shooting.)
StockBoyLA — Yet he has walked the real streets of America, but he can’t be bothered to follow the events surrounding the Colorado mass shootings.
Just so you know, the presidential debates are set for Oct. 3, 16 and 22nd, with the last focusing on foreign policy. Let’s see if the Atlanticist will dominate since he embodies the Anglo-Saxon heritage.
Bluebelle — I’m with you, I doubt Atlanticist is a word.
@Ron
You’re probably right, but even in Israel he has to watch himself. Israelis have a knack for seeing through pandering, hypocrisy and disingenuousness.
Janet and DaGoat,
I agree that there are racial connotations.
For the record, Romney has stated that he disagrees with the view that Obama doesn’t understand the “special” relationship.
I think we can be critical of Romney for his choice of advisers (although it would help to know who it was), but I don’t think it’s fair to project the racially charged view on Romney himself.
No big deal.
Just more of the drip-drip.
Obama does it, too.
After saying several months ago that Russia is the U.S.’s “number one geopolitical foe” (a statement that even Colin Powell mocked), back in April, a Romney adviser criticized President Obama’s “Czechoslovakia” policy.
Today during a foreign policy debate at the Brookings Institute, senior Romney adviser Richard Williamson, attacking Obama’s Syria policy, said the Middle East country is “strategically important to the Soviet Union.”
You can watch the clip here: http://thinkprogress.org/security/2012/07/25/585241/williamson-romney-syria-soviet-union/
No big deal.
Just more of the drip-drip.
Obama does it, too.
After saying several months ago that Russia is the U.S.’s “number one geopolitical foe” (a statement that even Colin Powell mocked), back in April, a Romney adviser criticized President Obama’s “Czechoslovakia” policy.
Today during a foreign policy debate at the Brookings Institute, senior Romney adviser Richard Williamson, attacking Obama’s Syria policy, said the Middle East country is “strategically important to the Soviet Union.”
You can watch the clip here:(left it out to hopefully evade the spam detector)
The quote might not even be true….
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0712/78960.html
“a Romney adviser criticized President Obama’s “Czechoslovakia” policy.”
Yiiikes…
The GOP are children when it comes to foreign policy. And fiscal policy. And matters of law. As far as I can tell, they make a case, float it past a few 3rd graders to see if it makes sense to them. If those 3rd graders can understand it, it becomes a GOP talking point and is then shipped out to FOX news and talk radio for disbursement to the public discourse.
Whoops! The drip-drip (the cloudburst) has started already:
It began yesterday,”as Romney, who ran the 2002 Salt Lake City games, said there were “disconcerting” signs in the days before this year’s games.
“The stories about the private security firm not having enough people, the supposed strike of the immigration and customs officials — that obviously is not something which is encouraging,” he told NBC News.
“Do they come together and celebrate the Olympic moment? And that’s something which we only find out once the games actually begin,” he said.
Cameron soon rebuked Romney. “We are holding an Olympic Games in one of the busiest, most active, bustling cities anywhere in the world. Of course, it’s easier if you hold an Olympic Games in the middle of nowhere,” he said.
“I think we will show the whole world not just that we come together as a United Kingdom, but also we’re extremely good at welcoming people from across the world,” Cameron added. “I will obviously make those points to Mitt Romney. I look forward to meeting him.”