Here are the money quotes piercing dog whistles from the Romney campaign’s Failure Across the Pond (which anibundel flagged here):
“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 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‘.”
“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”.
Let’s break this down:
President Obama’s mother was white, Irish, and descended from English muckity-mucks, and his father was Kenyan and descended from African muckity-mucks. (It’s true– I looked it up in the internets and everything.)
Mitt Romney, on the other hand, is descended from Mexicans, Mormons, and some fucking microchips. (He may be descended from some other stuff, but The Internet didn’t really have much to say about it, and quite frankly, I didn’t really look because he’s a goddamn killer robot and you can’t convince me he’s not.)
Just so we’re clear: President Obama is descended from English royalty and tribal chiefs of a country that was a British colony. Mitt Romney, on the other hand, is descended from a microchip and its sister wives.
[full post at ABLC]
feebog
Come on ABL, Obama is black. Or half black. And we know that “those people” just can’t communicate the way us white Anglo Saxons can.
Tim F.
Dog whistles are meant to be kind of selective in the sense that only the right people can hear it. Does anyone have a hard time hearing that? The guy just shouts it into a fucking megaphone.
Warren Terra
It’s the Torygraph. O’bama’s Irish heritage on his mother’s side isn’t exactly going to endear him to their readers.
J.
How do I love this post? Let me count the ways.
Dave
You can always count on ABL to supply the outrage for the outrage du jour.
Calouste
I bet dollars to donuts that quote comes from a British Tory, not an American.
I wouldn’t be surprised if there is going to be some political fall out in Britain about Romney’s visit. There are quite a few rabid rightwingers in the Tory party who are not happy with Cameron, and the feeling is mutual. If one of these wingers were to elicit a statement from Romney about say Cameron’s plans to introduce gay marriage in the UK, Cameron would probably be forced to take action against that winger and take a stand against Romney.
Robin G.
I just spat very expensive tea on my computer screen. Dammit.
JPL
@Robin G.: As much as that statement made me laugh, it also made me cringe. I don’t want to climb into the septic with Mitt.
jl
TPM says Romney advisers on the tube warning, yet again, about Soviet Union.
Maybe they have a time warp problem?
After all, fate of Angle Saxon culture was a pretty important issue for while, oh, 1500 to 1000 years ago. Viking raids, Normans and all.
Maybe Romney and his spox should be required to state what year it is when they start to talk, so we can get a reference point.
Edit: Come to think of it, this is a good excuse to watch Time Bandits again, to help my follow Mitt’s campaign.
And, Battle of Maldon (sp?), good yarn, tragic and sad, but good.
Sad Dem
All the microchips I’ve known were good for something, like doing math or managing my car’s engine. Microchips don’t steal pensions from people–you need a cyborg for that. I guess the silicon is the good side of Romney’s family.
beltane
@Calouste: What is the “Land of Hope and Glory”? It doesn’t sound like a real American song to me. Do we have a shortage of wingnuts here at home that we have to listen to other people’s wingnuts?
suzanne
Oh, if only we could decline like the British have declined. Funny, when you stop shooting your wad on empire-building and -maintaining and spend it on a national health service and other social programs, it’s called “decline” by some.
JGabriel
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Imani Gandy @ Top:
That’s terribly unfair to microchips. It’s not the chip’s fault that Romney is like that — it’s the programmer’s.
Beauzeaux
@Calouste: And why the fuck would he want to sing “Land of Hope and Glory” — it’s a hymn to the greatness of the UK.
Many Britishers would like for it to be the national anthem. The President of the United States would not favor it.
The Moar You Know
ABL’s apparently descended from a copy machine.
Citizen_X
Oh, yes, because if there’s one thing I demand in a preznit, it’s that he sings other countries’ patriotic songs enthusiastically.
How about the “Horst Wessel Lied?” Does he belt that one out?
Mattminus
Ummm, Irish don’t typically identify as Anglo-Saxon. We’re Celtic. I have to correct my Spanish friends on this all the time, Anglo != white.
beltane
Now that we’ve established that Mitt Romney is qualified to lead the BNP who will be the nominee of the American version of this party?
Older_Wiser
How very Aryan of them.
Older_Wiser
How very Aryan of them.
Older_Wiser
How very Aryan of them.
CAfan
This will win The Internets for today, for its glorious humor. Humor has nothing to do with Romney septic tanks.
CAfan
This will win The Internets for today, for its glorious humor. Humor has nothing to do with Romney septic tanks.
CAfan
This will win The Internets for today, for its glorious humor. Humor has nothing to do with Romney septic tanks.
jwb
OT, Twitter tells me that the Dems moved the tax bill in the Senate 51-48.
JGabriel
I honestly think Romney’s barely coded race appeals will backfire on him — at this stage in our history, such appeals probably chase away more people than they excite. After all, Obama did get more than 50% of the vote in 2008.
LanceThruster
Sheesh! What a piece of Mitt that guy is.
gbear
What is it about ‘Afro-Saxon’ that makes the Romney people say such stupid stuff.
mdblanche
@Beauzeaux: Apparently they feel the wrong side not only won the Civil War, they feel the wrong side won the Revolutionary War as well.
beltane
Other than with the cranks of The Telegraphs commentariat, it seems that Mitt Romney isn’t going over very well in the land of the Anglo Saxons http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/07/25/1113573/-Brits-mock-the-hell-out-of-Mittens-over-Anglo-Saxon-remarks-Do-shut-the-hell-up-like-a-good-chap
I don’t recall John McCain being this much of an embarrassment. Mitt Romney is approaching Sarah Palin in his “can’t take this guy anywhere” qualities.
redshirt
I hate Mitt as much as anyone, but bad mouthing humble circuits like this is just wrong. I’d back up all your files ABL, Stat. Your computer knows what you think of it.
Redshift
@Citizen_X: And does Romney’s campaign really want to be bringing up his singing right now? They seem to have a compulsion to remind people of things with negative associations for him.
maya
Wait a minute! Didn’t the Normans, (rhymes with something or other), kick the shit out of those Saxons in 1066?
JGabriel
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I honestly think Romney’s barely coded race appeals will backfire on him — at this stage in our history, such appeals probably chase away more people than they excite. After all, Obama did get more than 50% of the vote in 2008.
Delia
I understand that the Romneybot has guffawed politely on occasion, for example, when telling the dog on the car roof story for the first time.
Origuy
The reference to “Land of Hope and Glory” may be due to the fact that it’s the official anthem of the Conservative Party.
The tune is familiar; it’s known here as “Pomp and Circumstance”. I’m assuming this is about the Elgar version and not the one done by the Ex Pistols.
Maude
Anyone have problems with commenting?
Violet
@JGabriel: I hope the dogwhistles keep getting louder and more obvious. Eventually they’ll go too far and even those people who pay little attention to politics will be horrified that the Republican candidate for president, or people who work for him, are saying such things. Teabaggers will cheer him on, of course. But I’m not talking about them.
Violet
@Maude: Yes, the whole site is messed up. Someone suggested it might be a problem with the Reply function. Who knows.
Hill Dweller
In other Willard news, he told Brian Williams(during an interview that will air tonight) the Colorado gunmen illegally obtained his weapons, which is obviously false.
If Williams was a competent journalist, he would correct Willard and follow up by asking if he thought that amount of weapons should be illegal.
Soonergrunt
@ Imani Gandy, top
I must join with other commenters here and ask that you refrain from stereotyping computer and electronic components. Yes, there are some bad ones, just like people. Many Compaq and Dell computers, and anything made by Apple comes to mind, but even they do not deserve to be held up alongside Mitt Romney.
But many, many hard working computer components spend their days quietly providing us with entertainment, work, and yes, even bringing your words to us across the internet.
Please, in the future do not denigrate an entire class of devices just because one collection of them, in this case the Rmoneybot, is stupid and evil.
I thank you in advance for your consideration and cooperation in this matter.
maya
@Maude: Yup. Page doesn’t load and then double comments. I’m taking my business elsewhere.
Older_Wiser
@Maude: Yes, I hit a triple!
But jeez, after all, it was “you people” from Ann Rmoney and now this, in a single week,
Maude
@Soonergrunt:
If this goes through. I get a server window that the connection is broken try again. There’s no way to tell if comment goes through.
redshirt
@Soonergrunt: Amen brother! Chips got rights too! And feelings.
Maude
@Older_Wiser:
Jealous of the triple. The last comment loaded.
I’ll just pretend everyone is deaf and keep repeating.
The Thin Black Duke
Think about it: if elected president of the United States, Mitt Romney would be worse than Dubya, so whoever votes for this dead-eyed, sneering personification of the 1% is committing treason.
Sweet Jesus, I thought such an abomination would only be possible in the savage universe where Spoke wore a beard.
Raven
Mountain Lion!
Older_Wiser
@Maude: Yes, I hit a triple!
But jeez, after all, it was “you people” from Ann Rmoney and now this, in a single week,
Violet
@Soonergrunt: I think the blog servers are fighting back because we are maligning their brother-in-circuitry, Mitt Romney.
kay
The writer says he got the quote from a “member of Romney’s foreign policy team”.
Hmmmm. Let’s guess who said it!
In other news, Obama is up 67/23 w/Latinos in Telemundo poll.
Ash Can
Actually, this Anglo-Saxon story got even better today. A Romney spokesperson — one who, this time, was named in the news story — denied that this quote came from the campaign, and whined about Biden using “an anonymous and false quote from a foreign newspaper” in a campaign appearance to lambast Romney. However, the Telegraph stands by the story, and says that it has not received any requests from the Romney campaign to issue any retractions or corrections.
Can you say “stinks to high heaven”? I knew you could.
My guess is that this won’t be the only time we hear the Romney campaign deny, with named sources, egregious quotes made by unnamed sources that the Obama campaign has already pounced on. The object evidently is to make the Obama campaign look foolish, but all it really does is to give the Romney campaign an “off” aroma, and the fact that it simply hangs journalists and news purveyors out to dry can’t bode well for the Romney campaign if they keep this up. Maybe they assume the press will kiss their asses no matter how badly they treat them, but I don’t see the overinflated egos among the newsies on the campaign trail taking too much of this kind of crap.
Maude
@Raven:
Trying to get that stock price up.
Maude
@Violet:
Are you saying that the servers have a chip on their shoulders?
Mike G
I’d say the RomneyTron3000 has a lot of VIC-20 and TRaSh-80 DNA.
scav
Will someone kindly remind the shrill Team Rombot hoards that his RomTeam is apparently repeatedly and completely unaware of and dissing the single-handed triumph of the Sainted Ronny over That Wall(tm) and The Evil Empire(tm)?
Culture of Truth
It’s still the same old story
This time it’s ‘Land of Hope and Glory’
The fundamental tactics still apply..
GOP smear and lie….
bemused
@Hill Dweller:
For pete’s sake, the man can’t say what color the sky is without lying.
It’s bad enough that this empty suit is making an ass of himself to all reality based Americans. Now he’s proving it to the rest of the world.
Raven
@Maude: $20 for all my mac’s, hell yes!
Nellcote
@Ash Can:
Considering how publicly they tried to get the WaPoo and the Boston Globe to retract, this new strategy is interesting.
The Thin Black Duke
I find it oddly reassuring that in spite of Romney’s gazillions of dollars, he can’t buy himself charisma, compassion or even a rumor of competence.
greenergood
The revolution will be energized when ‘Blazing Saddles’ becomes part of the 6,7,and 8th grade curriculum – srsly.
redshirt
@Nellcote: Just keep lying. It might work – reality is what you make it these days.
Water balloon
It’s just very weird to hear an aide to a Massachusetts politician be so emphatic about his Anglo-Saxon heritage. No wonder he didn’t dare run for reelection in the home of the Celtics.
A moocher
@beltane: we have today’s winner.
burnspbesq
I say we kidnap Romney, blindfold him, take away his cell phone, drive him around until he has no idea where he is, then drop him in the middle of Tottenham. The comedic possibilities are endless.
LanceThruster
“The Almighty tells me he can get me out of this mess, but he’s pretty sure you’re fucked.” ~ Stephen, the Irish fighter from “Braveheart”
gnomedad
@LanceThruster:
Mitt flows downhill.
burnspbesq
@gnomedad:
You can’t make this Mitt up.
And soon, the Mitt will hit the fan.
Anya
Not cool! Let’s just remember we’re supposed to be better than the winguts.
AA+ Bonds
I called this for the Yes Men yesterday and I remind everyone of that today
AA+ Bonds
@Ash Can:
Yup, called it yesterday, the giveaway was “the special relationship is special”
AA+ Bonds
I mean, usually Internet fad phrase construction does not come out of the mouths of campaign advisers, critical or no
LanceThruster
@burnspbesq: America, I Mitt you not (Please!).
AA+ Bonds
And I am sure the Obama campaign knows this wasn’t for real but hey, “questions remain”
LanceThruster
@burnspbesq:
Biker #2: [the whole gang holds Mittens hostage] I say we kill him!
Biker Gang: [shout] Yeah!
Biker #3: I say we hang him, *then* we kill him!
Biker Gang: [shout] Yeah!
Biker #4: I say we stomp him!
Biker Gang: [shout] Yeah!
Biker #4: Then we tattoo him!
Biker Gang: [shout] Yeah!
Biker #4: Then we hang him…!
Biker Gang: [shout] YEAH!
Biker #4: And then we kill him!
Biker Gang: [shout] YEAH!
Mittens: [tries to throw voice without moving lips] I say we let him go.
Biker Gang: [shout] NO!
Keith G
Look, the Romney campaign is so inept and clownish in almost everything they do that I’m wondering if they’re taking advice from Mark Penn and Bob Shrum. I find it amazing and truly scary that these guys could win this thing. Nonetheless, I do not think that Romney was talking in dog whistles or other code. I think he was just trying to communicate a cliched idea using an archaic construct. He may understand volture capitalism, but he’s a political have quit and even that maybe giving him too much credit.
I’m glad he’s taking his lumps because, well, I don’t like him, but as for the charges at the top of the page, there is no there there.
trollhattan
@The Thin Black Duke:
Wingnut logic dictates that his being rich as hell proves he has all that de facto. Similarly, I know a wingnut banker (shock, right?) who, in discussing Rick Perry, said, “You say he’s stupid but he’s the governor of Texas. You can’t become governor of Texas if you’re stupid.”
Took the ER docs five hours to separate my head from the desktop.
labman57
Anti-Obama sentiment is a matter of some complexion.
Ever since Obama became the Democratic nominee for POTUS in 2008, most of those who have issues with Obama’s ethnic heritage are too cowardly to openly state their bigotry, so they disguise it by using other loaded labels such as elitist (code for “he doesn’t know his place”), unpatriotic and/or has unAmerican values,undeserving of a Harvard education, foreign-born, Marxist, socialist, fascist, terrorist-sympathizer, Muslim, …anti-Christ — all of which are designed to convey the notion that Obama was not legitimately elected POTUS and that he is inherently different than the rest of us and therefore cannot be trusted.
Translation of Romney’s response: “I really don’t know what was said, but whatever was said, he/she didn’t really say it.”
— a variation of his previous classic quote: “I don’t know what I said, but I stand by it, whatever it was.”
AA+ Bonds
A lot of people here also seem to believe that Romney said this himself which is the perfect storm
1) Someone pranks the Telegraph
2) The Telegraph may not even half believe it, but they know it’ll up their views from the States by a sizable amount
3) The Telegraph carefully crafts a headline that leaves ambiguous the speaker of the unlikely quote
4) Liberals link to the story like iron filings to a magnet
5) Profit
trollhattan
@gnomedad:
A wastewater engineer will tell you mitt flows uphill, towards money.
AA+ Bonds
This is my kind of lie though, the truth-telling kind, and I remind everyone that no matter who ends up as the real source for this quote, Mitt Romney is still a white supremacist
Ash Can
@AA+ Bonds: And the tell for me is that they didn’t contact the Telegraph afterward — after, as Nellcote said, they very promptly and publicly ran screaming to the WaPo and Boston Globe editorial boards. Something here is stinking up a storm, and it’s not the Telegraph’s story.
Keith G
@Keith G:
Yay voice recognition!
I said, “he’s a political half wit”
SRW1
“President Obama’s mother was white, Irish, …”
Them gaelic folk might be counted as white now, but royalty they sure ain’t.
AA+ Bonds
@Ash Can:
I think they may be genuinely confused as to whether one of their people in the UK said this, and are shaking the bushes to find out, but I don’t think it’s the case
Obvious prank is obvious, you might say, if you were an asshole
Another possibility is that the Yes Men or Anonymous are actually in that deep in a fringe international section of the campaign
LanceThruster
The GOP press are about to wet their pants and we’ve heard even Gillespie’s going to say the campaign is now unwinnable. In other words, it’s a huge Mitt sandwich, and we’re all gonna have to take a bite.
Jay C
OK, G*d knows why, but to be fair to Mitt and his crew (bless their hearts), this flap has less, IMO, of the “racist dog-whistle” about it, than of it simply being the sort of tone-deaf gaffe typical of the Romney campaign so far: one that, had, say, VP Joe Biden said it, would have sent the (US) media into a frothing frenzy of pearl-clutching angst. But IOKIYAR….
I see it less as coded racism, and more as the Rombots trying to get whatever positive press they can abroad – in this case by anonymous “advisers” spouting what they think the intended audience (British righties, in this case)want to hear, BS or not. And as usual, end up looking ridiculous.
The NYT nailed it in an editorial yesterday: when it comes to foreign policy, Romney and the Republicans have something between bupkes and jack-squat to offer the American public. Other than re-hashed Bush-era bluster, that is; framing a “policy” long on critique and woefully short on alternatives.
Anya
@AA+ Bonds: The Romney campaign denied the story and they lashed out at Joe Biden but they’ve yet to ask for a retraction from the Telegraph. The Telegraph said that the “advisor” is a foreign policy advisor who’s name is in the public records as a Romney advisor.
Anya
Romney needs to fire his advisors. They’re not doing him any favors. Now they’re shitting on Cameron. Romney advisers: Cameron has failed to build links with GOP; anger over “unprecedented” election-year embrace of Obama.
Tehanu
What amazes, or at least bugs, me is the mind-reading act. “He wouldn’t like singing Land of Hope and Glory.” How the fuck would they know?
Cacti
The most ironic part about R-money’s incredibly clumsy dog whistle?
The strongest support for Republicans comes from the south…
A region settled primarily by Scots-Irish.
Cacti
@Anya:
Typical Republican. Remind your “special friend” that they’re the junior partner “and don’t you forget it”.
I’m sure he’ll also win scores of international plaudits if he just keeps repeating “America is the greatest force for good in the history of the world.”
Calouste
@Anya:
Sounds like an inter-Tory battle to me. I wouldn’t be surprised if one of the advisors quoted turns out to be disgraced former Defense Minister Dr. Liam Fox MP. He would like to get one back at Cameron.
kay
@Anya:
It’s fascinating, though. I didn’t know Cameron had decided he wasn’t going to make any efforts with Republicans. How long have US Republicans been sulking over this?
This trip is a disaster. Now we find out that not only does Cameron NOT need an Anglo-Saxon soulmate, he dislikes Republicans generally.
Utt Bugley
There may be a huge commission in selling the 13 colonies back.
Jay C
@kay:
Gee, d’ya think The Mittster’s embrace of characters like John Bolton as his foreign-policy guru might have something to do with it? After all, what could be the political downside for a British PM tying his fortunes to American belligerence and warmongering? (and generating lengthy casualty lists??).
Worked so well for Tony Blair!
Danack
It’s not so much a racist dog whistle but more of a Honkey Fog Horn, taken from fark.
kay
@Jay C:
I actually thought the trip to Ohio w/Obama was a little odd.
Now what do they do? They just got thru saying Obama doesn’t understand the “special relationship”
Now they’re going to say Cameron doesn’t understand it either?
Only Thatcher and Reagan understood it, I guess.
I hope they complain about “favoritism” a lot. That’s always appealing, in Republicans.
Anya
https://twitter.com/jonswaine –
Doesn’t sound like a denial to me.
Anya
@Calouste: I know. I actually thought the first “advisor” was Nell Ferguson. I know he’s Scottish but he believes in the Anglo-American supremacy and he pines for the old empire.
@kay: And it hasn’t even started yet. The only thing that would make it even better is an Ann Romney interview.
jl
@Anya:
thanks for that link, The Telegraph saw fit to put this in:
‘ While [Romney] now emphasises his admiration of Britain, [Romney] has previously held it up as a post-imperial warning to those who would allow the US to decline. “England is just a small island,” he wrote in his memoir ‘No Apology’. “Its roads and houses are small. With few exceptions, it doesn’t make things that people want to buy”. ‘
Impolite for Mitt to write that UK has a shortage of big big thingeedoodles like we do here in th US of A!
Lordy. The Telegraph seems like Mitt as much as the Guardian does. Trying to fob him off on the BNP?
Edit: Emphasis added.
Edit: Why not say “not the right height”? But, I guess the Great Lakes states deserve more consideration than the old decrepit sushulist UK.
kay
@Anya:
An Ann Romney interview is a great idea.
Remember way back a month ago, when pundits all said we would love Ann Romney, that she was this great asset?
What happened to that? I don’t love her. Yet.
Anya
@Cacti: They’re our ugly Americans. I just wish they don’t take their ignorance on a world tour.
@jl: I was shocked when I read that. The man was planning a presidential run for ages, so why would be insult an important ally with vicious news papers? No wonder Cameron hates his guts.
@ Kay – when they started the “Ann Romney is an asset” crap I was shocked because I thought she lacked warmth but also she seemed so entitled.
contessakitty (AKA Karen)
@Tim F.: He isn’t tone deaf. He’s arrogant enough to shout into the megaphone and know that the media will do nothing about it except say that if someone calls Obama the N word (and I guarantee you, it will be done before the end of August) that it’s not racism.
Tell me I’m wrong.
contessakitty (AKA Karen)
@Jay C: I guess when they start talking about how Obama’s thinking goes back the way of the Mau Mau (Dinesh D’Souza) you won’t think that’s racist either.
contessakitty (AKA Karen)
Let’s play a game.
How close do you think the Romney campaign and its sycophants can come to meaning the N word without actually saying it…
I see lots of Jesse Helms type ads making a comeback.
lacp
Fuck all of you. Don’t hate the cyborg – hate the software.
Emma
Maybe Mitt should remember this: http://www.thespec.com/print/article/90192. Of course that particular lady is of Scots- German descent…
replicnt6
I did not have Anglo-Saxon relations with that nation, that England.
fuckwit
IIRC, Kenya was still a British colony at the time Obama’s father was born. Something about the Mau-Mau’s. I’m pretty sure they got their independence relatively late in the unrolling-of-the-British-Empire game.
If so, Obama has a LOT more Anglo-Saxon heritage than RMoney does.
FAILZ0R.
Rafer Janders
@fuckwit:
As I’ve mentioned before, Obama is of English descent on his mother’s side (the two immediate families on his mother’s side are Paynes and Dunhams). He’s a direct 13th generation descendant of a member of the original Plymouth colony who arrived in the Americas in 1620. Basically, he’s half Anglo-Saxon, which makes him more English than the vast majority of white people in this country, most of whom are of German, Irish, Italian, Polish, Scandinavian, and various other European descent.