Liberal Super PAC Unveils "French Mitt Romney" Attack Ad
"The mere fact that we can show him speaking French fluently, we believe, is going to irritate primary voters."
| Posted Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2011, at 4:06 PM ET
Photograph by Win McNamee/Getty Images.
A liberal Super PAC is reminding voters in New Hampshire and Iowa about some of Mitt Romney’s more progressive views–and that the White House hopeful speaks French.
The new spot from American LP (embedded below) features Romney showing off his foreign language skills in a promotional video for the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, which he ran. As he welcomes viewers to the Games in French, the video’s subtitles (mis)translate his words into English. A few of the highlights: "I believe that abortion should be safe and legal in this country"; "I was an independent during the time of Regan/Bush"; and "I like mandates."
Conservatives, of course, have made it clear they aren’t exactly fans of the French or their culture. Republicans renamed French Fries "Freedom Fries" after the French public expressed reservations about the U.S. invasion of Iraq, and Rush Limbaugh led the charge against John Kerry in 2004, mocking the Democratic candidate's French ancestry by dubbing him “Jean Cheri.”
American LP founder T.J. Walker told CBS News that he hopes the ad–which began airing on cable TV this week–will turn GOP voters against Romney, whom he called the "only sane, rational candidate" in the Republican field. "The mere fact that we can show him speaking French fluently, we believe, is going to irritate primary voters," Walker said.
While that may be true of some conservatives, CBS points out that may not be the case in New Hampshire, one of the states where the ad was set to begin airing Tuesday. That’s because the Granite State shares a border with Quebec, the Canadian province where a large chunk of the population is of French and French-Canadian descent.
Here’s the ad:
