Romney explains 'culture' remark, blames media for bad Press
Source: CNN
6 minutes ago
Romney explains 'culture' remark, blames media for bad press
(CNN) Mitt Romney said Tuesday he wasn't denigrating the culture of Palestinians when he suggested at a fund-raiser that Israel's culture played a role in its economic success.
Romney's comments, made Monday, drew sharp criticism from Palestinian leaders, who blasted them as "racist.
I'm not speaking about, did not speak about, the Palestinian culture, or the decisions made in their economy," Romney clarified in an interview with Fox News. "That's an interesting topic that deserves scholarly analysis, but I actually didn't address that. I certainly don't plan to address that during my campaign. Instead, I will point out, the choices a society makes have a profound impact on the economy and the vitality of that society."
On Monday, Romney made a comparison between the per capita GDPs of Israel and Palestinian-controlled areas at a high-dollar fund-raiser in central Jerusalem.
Read more: http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2012/07/31/romney-explains-culture-remark-blames-media-for-bad-press/
Mitt Romney's 2 Favorite Books That Explain Americaand the World
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/07/mitt-romneys-2-favorite-books-that-explain-america-and-the-world/260519/
liberal N proud
(60,344 posts)The media he is blaming allows him to continue to do this.
Who's the chump?
get the red out
(13,468 posts)He didn't come right out and SAY it or anything. LOL.
XemaSab
(60,212 posts)those Jews sure are good with money.
get the red out
(13,468 posts)It takes talent to even insult the "side" you're trying to support.
emulatorloo
(44,182 posts)ewagner
(18,964 posts)I think he just implied the same, exact thing......he said...what he said...e.g. Palestinians make bad choices....
the press is going to let him get away with it?
wordpix
(18,652 posts)freeplessinseattle
(3,508 posts)leftyohiolib
(5,917 posts)they dont care
uppityperson
(115,679 posts)think you are or that should be representing others?
tularetom
(23,664 posts)IOW, the Palestinians made their some stupid choices and they have nobody else to blame for the fact that those stupid choices have negatively affected their citizens.
That may go over well with Sheldon Adelson and some other fat cats, but it looks like hell to the rest of the world. And he doesn't have to impress Adelson since he's already gotten a bazillion bucks from him.
Botany
(70,581 posts)" I'm not speaking about, did not speak about, the Palestinian culture, or the decisions made
in their economy," Romney clarified in an interview with Fox News. "That's an interesting
topic that deserves scholarly analysis, but I actually didn't address that. I certainly don't
plan to address that during my campaign. Instead, I will point out, the choices a society
makes have a profound impact on the economy and the vitality of that society."
Tracer
(2,769 posts)"He just tossed some croutons on that word salad".
(slightly paraphrased)
indypaul
(949 posts)This writer does not equate the misery caused by the loss of jobs
and industry to communities of this nation, in any respect, to be
referred to as culture.
aquart
(69,014 posts)A vampire steals the vital force of the living. Romney destroyed the living.
Romney practices vampire capitalism.
KansDem
(28,498 posts)When they're not covering his ass, they're kissing it...
Caeser67
(156 posts)Continues to let this Man lie and retract, he never pays for his insults. Typical spoiled, rich Man behavior.
nolabear
(41,991 posts)OY.
lunatica
(53,410 posts)The Stranger
(11,297 posts)Even Romney now agrees that the remarks were racist.
matt819
(10,749 posts)blaming your shoes for stepping in shit?
SoapBox
(18,791 posts)Mittens you are a total moron.
It's ALWAYS someone else's fault, for your fast mouth...always.
And then you don't even have the balls to own it.
Flip-flopp'n...Etch-a-Sketch'n...liar...creep...wimp...loser........I need more words.
Third Doctor
(1,574 posts)is the media's fault? Typical repub.
starroute
(12,977 posts)He says that he's "not speaking about the Palestinian culture or the decisions made in their economy."
Instead, he's pointing out that "the choices a society makes ... have a profound effect on the economy."
In other words, he insists he's not talking about either culture or economics -- but just about "choices." And not the kinds of choices that individuals make about things like purchases or employment, which can have a cumulative economic effect, but the choices "a society" as a whole makes.
Whatever the hell that means.
So is he operating at some very high level of abstract hair-splitting here? Is "choices" one more of those Christianoid or Randist dog-whistles thus us innocent lefties can't decipher? Or is he just stupid beyond all recognition?
On edit: Another possibility just occurred to me. Maybe he's referring to the persistent claim that the Palestinians had any number of opportunities to have a state of their own but blew all of them. (See, for example http://www.mitchellbard.com/articles/palstate.html) And that if they had just played ball, foreign investment and prosperity would have followed.
Well, it's a theory. But then where does the Providence part fit in?
Igel
(35,356 posts)He's hairsplitting definitions. He's not so much backing down as muddying the waters.
For a lot of people it's the 4 Fs: food, fashion, folklore, festivals. To say somebody has a lousy culture is an insult because they're all equal. I don't like masakhan, but then again, I don't like pickled herring either. Islam and Buddhism and Xianity each has variants that allow cut-throat prosperity; both have variants that say we should all quit our jobs and hie to a monastery.
For me culture is inheritance laws, response to oppression, social trust, freedom of speech, family size, value of education, religious liberty, role of women, that kind of thing: The intifada was a choice, for example, as was valuing martyrdom.
Borders were open through Israel in the '90s. Economy was expanding rapidly. Intifada and suicide bombings happened; the borders closed. Economy was flushed. Choice, consequence. They didn't choose the consequence, but we don't usually get to do so.
People take issue with saying "culture." But few would say that how society treats women, how society provides (or doesn't provide) education, how society distributes opportunity or values freedom of speech have nothing at all to do with prosperity. Many are hogtied by their words.
"Providence" is another way of saying "luck." Your choice: Random events or God's working out his inscrutable plan. Natural gas deposits, for example. Water. Trifids.
JBoy
(8,021 posts)lunatica
(53,410 posts)tawadi
(2,110 posts)That always works out so well for candidates.
Evasporque
(2,133 posts)Javaman
(62,534 posts)what a jackass.
TomCADem
(17,390 posts)I guess we can't talk about foreign Aid and socialized health care, so what about cultural superiority?
yellowcanine
(35,701 posts)Now he makes the Palestinians sound like a wayward teenager.
Igel
(35,356 posts)And, for many, less clear.
President T Toilet
(8 posts)If there is one thing that Mitt and gang have mastered and that is "dog whistle" politics. He can't come right and say the Palenstinians are terrorists, but to those who think they are the "dog whistle" was loud and clear when he mentioned "culture". The Republicans are doing the same thing here with Obama. If you listen closely to much of the rhetoric they are definitaley pandering to the repooplican racist base.