Good ol' Joe-Six-Pack-Mitt is now deciding who really understands America. Right. Because we all know how well integrated Mormons are with the rest of America. One would think that a leading Mormon might shy away from what sure sounds like a racial slur against Obama considering the infamous problems Mormons have had accepting non-white people.
NOTE FROM JOHN: In addition, Romney is outright lying, below. The quote he attributes to the President, supposedly calling Americans "lazy" -- President Obama never said it. What the President said, and it's clear from the transcript, is that past administrations have been lazy in promoting America as a home for business investment. So Romney is outright lying (the Mormons call it "Lying for the Lord" - it's a religious tenet used to justify lying). And shame on MSNBC, below, for not even bothering to call Romney on the lie - they think if they just quote Obama too, people will get that it's a lie. Why be so subtle about it? If the man is lying, explain that to your readers, don't just do a he said/she said.
"Sometimes, I just don't think that President Obama understands America," Romney said. "I say that because this week -- Or was it last week? -- he said that Americans are lazy. I don't think that describes America. Before that I think it was in October, he was saying we have lost our inventiveness, and our ambition. Before that he was saying other disparaging things about Americans. I just don't think he understands -- he was saying we just weren't working hard enough. I don't think he gets what's happening in this country."It hasn't helped that Congress - both sides - have been keen to collect campaign money, which means helping the richest and the largest businesses. Helping those least in need does little to help the broader economy expand.
Romney was referencing remarks made by the president at Saturday's APEC summit in Hawaii, where he was asked about government policies that serve as impediments to foreign investment in the United States, not about Americans generally.
"I think it’s important to remember that the United States is still the largest recipient of foreign investment in the world. And there are a lot of things that make foreign investors see the U.S. as a great opportunity -- our stability, our openness, our innovative free market culture," Obama said. "But we’ve been a little bit lazy, I think, over the last couple of decades. We’ve kind of taken for granted -- well, people will want to come here and we aren’t out there hungry, selling America and trying to attract new business into America."
PS This is also Romney nodding to the birthers, which is interesting since his own family history is a bit grey in terms of exactly what country the Romneys hail from (hint: they call it America, but it's pronounced "Mexico").
