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 ...
Now that the Boston Hearld has come down on Mitt, guess he`s toast.
I like Mitt, but he'd better get Jeb's help with South Florida.
Stoopid white people.
He butchered the language and his speech. This is SO disrespectful of your audience. His spin people are going to be spinning for WEEKS trying to clear this up. He is not that bright.
Mitt is jebs guy. I know it's hard to imagine surviving a massive blunder such as a misspeak , but this to shall pass. Although , it takes the heat off of bush for a few hours.
"A" mispeak? Did he even READ his speech before he tried to deliver it, badly?
Don't portray yourself as somebody your not...oopsie we are talking about politicians here.
Doofusio...
(((PING)))
It shows that the locals are ignorant also. I never get upset when someone botches English and English isn't their first language. Heck, I don't even get upset when President Bush blows it and it's his first language.When it comes to Presidential candidates, all I'm interested in is whether or not he can drive the big red, white and blue bus. I simply have fun watching the pandering. It's more fun than a George Carlin concert.
False indignation is for illiterates.
LOL! You guys are parroting the opinion of the reporter. The quotes from the Cubans are actually very kind. Putting this story in the news, helps Romney because it will sear in the Cubans mind that he is the only Republican who cares about addressing the issue.
LOL! The reporters fall for it again!
I wouldn't put ANY credence in anything the Boston Herald publishes. ... And I'm not a Romney fan!
These people are hardly ignorant. Mispronouncing words in a foreign language is forgiveable. But delivering a speech that was disrespectful and ignorant your audience, is beyond stupidity.
Well, at least he didn't say he was a donut.
Not that big of a story.
If it was so serious, then it would have been within a day of the speech. Not two weeks after the fact!!! LOL!
The reporters are just slow onto Romney's plan and this story only helps Mitt because he is the only to address them even if it was awkward.
This is NOT the way to endear himself to the Cubans in Florida, that's for sure.
See, that one worked for JFK, because it was endearing, not to mention hilarious ... to the audience, that is, as you can hear in a recording of the event. The huge outburst of laughter instantly transformed into cheers.
Now suppose he had stood up there and said, "Heil Hitler."
The story is found in other Florida paper articles, published earlier. This version is from the Boston Herald. I don't really care WHEN an article is published, because there are a myriad of sources on the net.
Every candidate is going to put his/her foot in it. The real test is how the candidate handles a blunder. This will be a good opportunity to see how Mitt does.
It is a non story. It is two weeks old. If you think it was a big deal like 'Heil Hitler', then it wouldn't have taken two weeks for it to show up in the papers!
Clearly it was unintentional, but it was very stupid.
Somobody in his staff did't do his/her homework.
Not really. The first complaint was this morning from an editorial in the Miami Herald.
Like I said, it was two weeks ago and NOW we are hearing this! LOL!
Maybe he should take Spanish pronunciation lessons from Senor Jorge Arbusto, El Presidente.
I found it covered on March 10th.
Well, at least he's not speaking with a fake Southern accent...
I think you mean the Boston Globe. The Herald is the conservative paper.
Mitt’s Commie phrase sparks rage
By Dave Wedge
Boston Herald Chief Enterprise Reporter
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
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.
etc...
I'm not convinced of that ... there is too much askew in Massatwoshits. re, Fwanks is so twisted, Kerry seems sane and Kennedy appears to be only a drunk.
The Boston Globe is moonbat left. The Herald is The Washington Times of Massachusetts.
I don't know about that. I think it shows that the Boston Herald has a political agenda, and the resources to manufacture news stories. The MSM destroyed Dan Quayle over a potato, they have been calling G W all sorts of stupid because he has a penchant for mispronouncing words, and now Romney. They are really building up our candidates, then pointing out their weaknesses to keep it even, and they will ignore Duncan Hunter completely. The MSM really sucks.
"Putting this story in the news, helps Romney because it will sear in the Cubans mind that he is the only Republican who cares about addressing the issue."
Now thats some serious spin!
You mean a potatoe !
It is true. The account by the Boston Herald is misleading. Watch the speech and you will see he was well recieved. LOL!
Case in point ...
Compared with whom???
Perhaps this next speech will be done in an Irish brogue!
Complaning about mispronunciation is SOOOOOO FRENCH ~ so when did the Florida Cuban community come to be populated entirely by cheese eating surrender monkeys.
It would not have been so bad if he was not in a class of fifth graders who caught him. That is why the story was so big!
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.
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