May 7, 2007 4:43
The Seven Year Which???
Romney this weekend:
"It seems that Europe leads Americans in this way of thinking," Romney told the crowd of more than 5,000. "In France, for instance, I'm told that marriage is now frequently contracted in seven-year terms where either party may move on when their term is up. How shallow and how different from the Europe of the past."
And how gullible and provincial from presidential candidates of the past. But didn't Romney go to France for his mission? Think some sweet gamine [fixed the spelling error. I took Spanish, ok?] spun this whole "seven year hitch" fable as an elaborate practical joke? Getting us back for, I dunno, Jerry Lewis? And they say the French have no sense of humor...
Via The Plank, where they note that the whole seven-year-contract with option to renew is, in fact, a plot point in a novel by fellow Mormon Orson Scott Card.*
UPDATE: I have spoken to an actual former citizen of France, who tells me that he has no idea what Mitt is referring to here. "It's the former length of the presidential term," he guessed, "and there's a thing like a civil union..." That lasts seven years? "No."
I'd also like to note how truly bizarre it is that the WP printed this quote completely uncritically and without comment, as if seven-year marriages in France were something we all had heard of and accepted as true.
*UPDATE: Card's book with the seven-year marriage contracts? It's called "The Memory of Earth," and it is a fictionalization of the Book of Mormon set in outer space. Of course, Romney could believe the French are aliens. And, yes, Romney laid down this thunderous helping of nuttitude at Regent's University, Monica Goodling's alma mater.
Reader Comments (312)
I wonder if the loon libs realize that the recent election results in Germany and France IS a trend.
They'll know by January 2009, no doubt.
Posted by Air Hillary | May 7, 2007 5:01 PM
And yet nowhere does the Post article mention that Romney is mistaken in his comment about 7-year marriage contracts in France. This is a perfect illustration of why the MSM are subject to increasing criticism. Stenography is not journalism. Journalism requires fact-checking and context.
Posted by Bemused | May 7, 2007 5:07 PM
Ms. Cox,
You're becoming a shrill lefty media critic! Actually I enjoy your writing and especially the time that you took to point Gov. Romney's "misstatement." That said, it's not all that remarkable that the WaPo printed a quote that it knew to be false without criticism or context;I believe Time did the same thing back with the Lewis Libby/Matthew Cooper reporting . . . Not that it is right in either case.
Posted by anonymous coward | May 7, 2007 5:26 PM
"I wonder if the loon libs realize that the recent election results in Germany and France IS a trend.
They'll know by January 2009, no doubt."
The "Right-wing" candidates in France and Germany are lefties by American political standards. But you keep thinking what you like...
Posted by bmz | May 7, 2007 5:28 PM
"I'd also like to note how truly bizarre it is that the WP printed this quote completely uncritically and without comment..."
You say this as if you're surprised.
Posted by Franco | May 7, 2007 5:34 PM
And this is the guy who my conservative friends tell me is the intellectual giant of the bunch.
Mitt and Rudy are the pandering flip-floppers the MSM told us John Kerry was.
Have all republicans realized their party is a joke?
Posted by tomboy | May 7, 2007 5:35 PM
Posted by Bemused
May 7, 2007
Stenography is not journalism. Journalism requires fact-checking and context.
If I were Media Matters, I'd hire a staff person just for the WaPo. Actions like Romney quoting a Scifi novel as a French marriage plan gets missed, Sally Quinn's ode to Obama is published, and Broder refuses to retract a statement comparing Harry Reid to Gonzales then refuses to admit that a letter from all the Democratic Party Senators negates his statement that they want Reid out as Senate leader, the WaPo is going to be a full time job.
The lack of standards in politica reporting at the WaPo is abyssal. A quantum leap downward from abysmal.
Posted by rmrd0000 | May 7, 2007 5:40 PM
Bravo on pointing out how this story was uncritically repeated by the WP. I don't expect reporters to double check every bit of information they receive, but after getting duped as many times as they have by the same guys, you'd think they'd discover a certain level of skepticism when they get something like this. I think a lot of them purposely print this stuff knowing it's BS because demonstrating your loyalty is how you ingratiate yourself with conservatives. Pushing a real controversy about Dems doesn't cut it -- that's your job. You have to sacrifice your reputation for the cause to enter the inner circle and get the next juicy turd they want to feed you.
Posted by Memekiller | May 7, 2007 5:45 PM
Here's an actual true fact:
Mormons believe that for a woman to get into heaven, a man has to get there first and invite her.
The are also required to wear special underwear, consisting of a unitary garment of short pants and short sleeved shirt.
Not that there's anything wrong with that.
Posted by cervantes | May 7, 2007 6:00 PM
Mitt can't help himself. His ideas on French marriage were implanted in him by aliens using an anal probe.
The magic underwear he wears is to prevent leakage.
Posted by Joesph Smith, Perv | May 7, 2007 6:03 PM
Oy. And this a week after he quotes Battlefield Earth as his favorite novel. Next he'll be telling us how we need to beam more troops to Iraq.
Posted by Ezedawg | May 7, 2007 6:04 PM
rmrd0000 -- "The lack of standards in politica reporting at the WaPo is abyssal. A quantum leap downward from abysmal." LOL!!! Made it worth going through the QH comments in the prior two posts. And, sadly true.
And, thank you Ana -- "I'd also like to note how truly bizarre it is that the WP printed this quote completely uncritically and without comment, as if seven-year marriages in France were something we all had heard of and accepted as true." Yes, we shouldn't be surprised, but this really should have stood out in the most minimal fact review. It is not something we have all heard of and gave me a What? the first time I read it. Thanks for your fact check. <snark Look forward to a front page correction in the WaPo </snark
Posted by MIS, Philadelphia | May 7, 2007 6:05 PM
This is actually a pretty disturbing fact about Mr. Romney, who recently was the Governor of my state. He should know better than to make such a ridiculously odd statement (who has 7 year marriages?) without asking his staff and speechwriters for proof.
But the WaPo cares nothing about facts, only about sales, so who cares. News is the just news side of entertainment, after all.
We are in the Dark Ages.
Posted by Douglas Watts | May 7, 2007 6:05 PM
Ana,
Mitt is an empty suit...
Posted by gar2458 | May 7, 2007 6:05 PM
Hillary = France!
Romney '08: First, not France!
Posted by Alex Castellanos | May 7, 2007 6:06 PM
Ana, although I appreciate this evidence of Mr. Romney's stupidity, I really wish that you or one of your colleagues would bring up his recent statement that it was not worth moving heaven and earth and spending billions of dollars to capture Osama Bin Laden. Is this not a more important statement of Mr. Romney's to discuss his competence to be President?
Posted by squid696 | May 7, 2007 6:06 PM
Here's a fun suggestion for a journalist: Attend the Hill Cumorah pageant with Romney (or without, doesn't really matter) and discuss what you see there. The pageant script is by Orson Scott Card and pretty much every production features Mormon luminaries and politicians. Perhaps ask Romney a few questions about the Nephites and Lamanites. Or, just ask him about the lost tribe of Israel.
Posted by anon | May 7, 2007 6:07 PM
Pat Robertson has very delicious milkshakes though.
There is that.
Posted by trifecta | May 7, 2007 6:09 PM
Practically the first thing the 'conservative' Sarkozy did, upon learning of his election, was to implore the USer/Bushevik regime to JOIN the international coalition to reduce greenhouse gasses and combat human-created global climate change.
Conservotards in the USofA (e.g., AirHillary) wouldn't be regarded as the figures of low humor and patent clownishness they are now held to be, if they had but a glimmer of the political acumen possessed by their putative fellow-travelers overseas.
Posted by WGG, rogue scholar | May 7, 2007 6:11 PM
Hillary = France!
Romney '08: First, not France!
hooray for bumper stickers!
Posted by joe cantwell | May 7, 2007 6:13 PM
"I'd also like to note how truly bizarre it is that the WP printed this quote completely uncritically and without comment, as if seven-year marriages in France were something we all had heard of and accepted as true."
Sounds like Weisman&Murray, Ace Cub Reporters, are on the job!!
I'm sure they called Leon Panetta or Joe Lieberman for confirmatoin.
Posted by Jim | May 7, 2007 6:16 PM
"He could believe the French are aliens."
The Coneheads are from France. Maybe Mitt hangs with them and they told him.
...Mmmm... Regent's University:
http://www.harpers.org/archive/2007/04/horton-nomenklotura
Posted by JJ | May 7, 2007 6:17 PM
This is weird.
This is the same newspaper that was so desperate to call "false" on Edwards' poverty program that they mis-characterized it.
And yet a Republican candidate says something totally false and they can't bring themselves to point it out.
Weird, weird newspaper.
Posted by anonymiss | May 7, 2007 6:19 PM
The relevent quote:
****A premium is given for being educated at private, religious institutions, particularly those associated with the Religious Right—such as Regent University or Liberty University. The recent disclosure of the placement of 150 Regent University law graduates in the ranks of the Bush Administration is but a small indicator of this phenomenon. Having a degree from an elite academic institution is not necessarily a show-stopper, but in such cases there will be far tighter scrutiny to show ideological fidelity.***
http://www.harpers.org/archive/2007/04/horton-nomenklotura
Posted by JJ | May 7, 2007 6:20 PM
Well... Hmm... Yeah... And yet -- first thing!! -- a right-winger walks on past this and trashes liberals.
I can't wait for January, 2009.
Posted by Pneumatikon | May 7, 2007 6:23 PM
This idea does have a history in France.
The proposal for "term marriages" from which partners could move on if they chose to *was* in fact bandied around as a kind of libertine fantasy in France during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when divorce was all but impossible.
So maybe Mr. Romney's understanding of French society is based on reading Old Regime libertine fiction, such as the Marquise de Sade. If so, perhaps Mr. Romney is more interesting than he seems.
It would also explain "un certain embarras" when asked about his favorite novel.
But I doubt it. He's probably just stupid.
Posted by LRT | May 7, 2007 6:24 PM
Congrats, you now know why the blogs have exploded and people are so harsh in the comments to people like Joe Klein:
"I'd also like to note how truly bizarre it is that the WP printed this quote completely uncritically and without comment, as if seven-year marriages in France were something we all had heard of and accepted as true."
You are now experiencing what thousands upon thousands of ordinary regular folks have experienced so often that they invented their own form of grassroots mass media in response. The "so-called liberal media" does this all the time, Ana.
Then, when some blogger points this out... they get roasted by dinosaurs like David Brooks and Richard Cohen for being 'shrill', and dismissed by people like Dan Okrent (formerly the NYTimes People's Representative) and Deborah Howell when they serve as Ombudspersons of their major newspapers.
Posted by Cynical Bostonian | May 7, 2007 6:24 PM
cervantes wrote, "Not that there's anything wrong with that."
LOL!
Posted by liberal | May 7, 2007 6:38 PM
At least he's moving up in his wacky references. I'd say Card is definitely a step up from Hubbard.
Perhaps he's throwing all the scifi references to be more like Reagan..
Posted by Hillrod | May 7, 2007 6:40 PM
Well, it is different from the Europe of the past.
Also the Europe of the present.
Posted by John Lott | May 7, 2007 6:42 PM
Has anyone actually asked Mitt's handlers what the hell he was talking about?
Posted by cal | May 7, 2007 6:52 PM
"...the recent election results in Germany and France IS a trend."
My guess is all the talk in the U.S. about 'old Europe' might have them a little worried about what the fat, stupid, 6 year olds with a finger on a nuk-u-lur button might do next.
Posted by JackNYC | May 7, 2007 6:52 PM
Yeah but John Edwards got a $400 haircut and that requires a LOT more attention from the WaPo than the incessant nuttitude of the current pathetic, sad crop of GOP presidential candidates.
They also paid no attention to Mitt saying that it wasn't worth the time and money to catch Osama.
Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you Your Liberal Media™.
Posted by r€nato | May 7, 2007 6:54 PM
Just a little pre-emptive anti-nuttitude:
it's also not true that Europeans ritually sacrifice Christians and feast on the flesh of aborted fetii.
Posted by r€nato | May 7, 2007 6:55 PM
A fictionalisation of the Book of Mormon? Isn't that a tautology?
Posted by Ginger Yellow | May 7, 2007 6:57 PM
Maybe Romney is neither a Mormon nor a Scientologist, but a member of the Church of the SubGenius. They invented the Short Duration Marriage Contract, whereby a husband & wife can test drive their matrimony to see if it works. Of course, the SubGeniuses are a bunch of smart assed art nerds and not French, but still, if he declared his affilliation to the SubGenius, he'd have my vote.
Posted by picaresque | May 7, 2007 7:01 PM
Look, the whole thing was probably just some test. The Mitt-ster threw out this outrageous bit of ridiculousness to verify that major media outlets will really, no kidding, uncritically print any damn thing a candidate/politician says.
I'd say his test positively confirmed his hypothesis.
Posted by Robert Dsquared | May 7, 2007 7:04 PM
Romney likes space aliens. Isn't his favorite book "Battlefield Earth", by Scientology cult creator L Ron Hubbard?
Science fiction, space aliens and cults...hmmmm.
Posted by oxyCon | May 7, 2007 7:05 PM
And this a week after he quotes Battlefield Earth as his favorite novel.
Hey, you got Scientology in my Mormonism! No, you got Mormonism in my Scientology! Hey, they're two great tastes that taste great together!!
Mmmmm, Thetan temple garments.
Posted by Ender Wiggin | May 7, 2007 7:06 PM
Why would anybody question the reliability of a statement by a candidate who has been anointed in the hallowed halls of Halliburton speaking at the center of the rapturepedia headed by Pat Robertson printed by WaPo?
Anything new from Sparky Magoo about 'no gaffes'?
Posted by linda | May 7, 2007 7:09 PM
"...the recent election results in Germany and France IS a trend."
Yeah, governments with National Health Care who don't send their young men and women off to fight grudge matches because of their President's Oedipal complex.
That's a trend I can handle, not to mention to the fires and the beer!
Posted by Cy Guy | May 7, 2007 7:15 PM
If we're lucky, we can give Bush the seven-year ditch sometime before now and January 2009.
Posted by TomT | May 7, 2007 7:19 PM
Posted by Air Hillary
May 7, 2007
I wonder if the loon libs realize that the recent election results in Germany and France IS a trend.
They'll know by January 2009, no doubt.
Results are...
Is our children learning?
Posted by Mr.Murder | May 7, 2007 7:24 PM
Rudy Giuliani has his drag queen photos.
Now Mitt Romney has Battlefield Earth.
This is going to be one fun election.
Posted by pbg | May 7, 2007 7:25 PM
The limited marriage contract thing also happens in Arthur C. Clarke's book "Childhood's End"...
Posted by look | May 7, 2007 7:27 PM
I know there's a Greasemonkey script to filter out XeniJardin. Could someone write something similar for Wonkette At Time?
Posted by TLB | May 7, 2007 7:30 PM
Did anyone ever bother to check whether that alternate to stem cells he spoke of at the debate was a real procedure that works?
And what are Romney's chances of getting anointed by Dobson and Robertson, etc?
Posted by amberglow | May 7, 2007 7:36 PM
You express surprise that the Washington Post publishes gibberish without any critical comment. Isn't that what they have been doing for the last decade. What a poor imitation of a news organization.
Posted by della Rovere | May 7, 2007 7:37 PM
Yes, it is bizarre that the Post writes things like this uncritically and without comment.
Then again, these are the same people who beat the drum incessantly for the Iraq War. So I'm not surprised.
Posted by Ferruge | May 7, 2007 7:40 PM
Actually, people, the Washington Post is probably the best newspaper in the country, at least in terms of their newsroom. They don't have the breadth of international coverage that the Times has, but I think that their overall product (excepting the crazy op-ed page) is the best.
Posted by TomT | May 7, 2007 7:41 PM
Actually, there was a Bush-like candidate in the first round in France, Philippe de Villiers. I think he finished behind the Worker's Party candidate and two of the Trostkyites, but ahead of the Fisherman's party candidate.
Posted by Jim | May 7, 2007 7:41 PM
"I know there's a Greasemonkey script to filter out XeniJardin. Could someone write something similar for Wonkette At Time?"
Excuse me, your misogyny's showing.
Posted by speedbird | May 7, 2007 7:42 PM
"Think some sweet gamin spun this whole 'seven year hitch' fable as an elaborate practical joke?"
If it was a "gamin," Mitt has bigger problems than ignorance. Or did we mean "gamine"?
Posted by David in NY | May 7, 2007 7:47 PM
"it's also not true that Europeans ritually sacrifice Christians and feast on the flesh of aborted fetii"
Well, maybe not. But they DO offer universal health care to all their citizens, so that people don't die because they can't afford to see a doctor.
How nutty is that? Weirdos, I tell ya. What will those nutty Yurpeans think of next?
Posted by Lolly | May 7, 2007 7:55 PM
Good theory with regards to the SF story. There's also been speculation the idea came from a 2003 Franch comedy:
http://liberalvaluesblog.com/?p=1491
Posted by Ron Chusid | May 7, 2007 7:59 PM
Trifecta said:
"Pat Robertson has very delicious milkshakes though."
It's true! They bring all the boys to the yard.
Posted by danielk | May 7, 2007 8:02 PM
Maybe he is confusing France with Iraq?
"Pleasure marriages were outlawed under Saddam Hussein but have begun to flourish again. The contracts, lasting anywhere from one hour to 10 years, generally stipulate that the man will pay the woman in exchange for sexual intimacy. Now some Iraqi clerics and women's rights activists are complaining that the contracts have become less a mechanism for taking care of widows than an outlet for male sexual desires."
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2005-05-04-pleasure-marriage_x.htm
Posted by Susan | May 7, 2007 8:07 PM
"Actually, people, the Washington Post is probably the best newspaper in the country, at least in terms of their newsroom. They don't have the breadth of international coverage that the Times has, but I think that their overall product (excepting the crazy op-ed page) is the best."
If that's the best, i shudder at the thought of the worst. They've had biased and pro-GOP news articles for years and years, and they are still putting on the front page nonsense like haircut and Clinton sexlife stories.
Washington Post items at Media Matters (and they're not just about the editorials and columnists) -- http://mediamatters.org/issues_topics/search_results?qstring=washington+post&start_month=&start_day=&start_year=&end_month=&end_day=&end_year=&issue=&subissue=&topic=&person=&show=&outlet=The+Washington+Post&x=30&y=15
Posted by amberglow | May 7, 2007 9:04 PM
Actually, right-wing SF writer Robert Heinlein had term marriages in his novels thirty years before Card did.
Posted by Dr, K | May 7, 2007 9:29 PM
I guess the French Freedom Wing's victory was made possible by all those lefty Americans that promised to move to Old Europe when Bush was elected, eh?
Or did iGore block their ballots Over There too?
Posted by MoveOn2France | May 7, 2007 9:44 PM
"Yeah, governments with National Health Care who don't send their young men and women off to fight grudge matches because of their President's Oedipal complex."
But enough about the Vichy French.
Posted by Bows and Flows of Leftist Crap | May 7, 2007 9:49 PM
I guess if you consider that the Post's reporters are only about two years behind the curve (following the lead of their hairless leader, Broder), I guess they are one of the better Establishment news organizations
Posted by Jim | May 7, 2007 9:55 PM
"I guess the French Freedom Wing's victory was made possible by all those lefty Americans that promised to move to Old Europe when Bush was elected, eh?"
Name three, Jugghead.
Posted by Anonymous | May 7, 2007 9:56 PM
Everyone thought Reagan was kinda cuckoo before he got elected.
That's Mitt's plan: crazy - like a fox.
He still has no chance in hell.
Posted by lampwick | May 7, 2007 10:46 PM
"Could someone write something similar for Wonkette At Time?"
How about an script that reveals 'TLB' as Chris Kelly, ladder-pulling Mexican-hating Irish-American?
Posted by ahem | May 7, 2007 11:17 PM
and lots of us thought Reagan was kind of cuckoo AFTER he was elected.
Posted by Dennis | May 7, 2007 11:21 PM
Today it's the French marriage fable. Tomorrow it's about victory in Iraq. Willard "Mitt" Romney is just following the GOP script of not letting facts get in the way of a fake story.
Posted by Kraut | May 7, 2007 11:26 PM
Well Ana I wondered about you for a while but I have to say you show an increasing bias towards reality. That's a good thing, BTW.
Orson Scott Card, BTW, is a good sci-fi author, within limits. His oeuvre is one long cry of "Wolverines!" and in the end he's a kook. So it's even weirder that Romney would reference kooky Mormon sci-fi as reality - and the WaPo would let that slide.
Amazing that some poster worked in Hilary - she and Bill have shown more committment to marriage than any Republican candidate. Must be running scared, I guess.
Still... are you sure there wasn't a way to work an anal sex joke into this one? Cause I could give it the old college try, IFYWIM.
Posted by Arthur Frain | May 7, 2007 11:34 PM
Orson Scott Card is a favorite of wingnut gasbags. Rusty Humphries has often had him as a guest on his radio show.
Posted by Steve J. | May 7, 2007 11:38 PM
Romney blamed the VT shooting on video games in that same speech. That was enough for us to know he is a shallow politician who cares more about getting elected than solving real problems. As absurd as Romney is other Republicans have out done him. Sen. Brownback in last weeks debate tried blame the rash of republican corruption over the last few years on bad "family values".
Posted by Daivd | May 7, 2007 11:59 PM
All Mormons have outstanding 'family values'.
Two, three, five, even ten for the price of one..
Posted by lampwick | May 8, 2007 12:46 AM
What is the time span of a Mormon "Casual Encounter" in space? Do they use a "stardate" in Mormon space, or is it based on an earth calendar?
Do Mormons ride space bicycles to your personal Space Condo to talk about the book of Mormon?
Just a few questions for Mitt at the next debate.
Oh yeah, do they have special Mormon/Nasa diapers for space travel?
Posted by busdrivermike | May 8, 2007 12:56 AM
These people are out of the minds.They show you they are out of minds and we still listen to them.Who cares if the French or the English play sex games with their horses.What relevance would that have as to what is going on here.What ever those foreigners are doing maybe we should copy it .They are not killing their young in a useless war that Mitt supports.Boy he sounds like the perfect foreign policy President .Really seems to have a grasp on the mores of other cultures.
I guess the game is the Ameican public elected one moron maybe they will elect another.
Posted by THOMAS BILLIS | May 8, 2007 1:24 AM
"a bunch of smart assed art nerds and not French"
Yeah, same thing innit?
Posted by Auntie Occident | May 8, 2007 1:32 AM
Romney has to learn the proper format to use when asserting nuttiness. Namely :
"British intelligence has learned that in France ...."
Posted by pyts | May 8, 2007 2:14 AM
I just want to add one element to the absurdity: in the Book of Mormon, from which is loosely taken the Orson Scott Card novel from which Mitt seems to have gotten the loony idea about 7-year marriages, THERE'S STILL NOTHING ABOUT SEVEN-YEAR MARRIAGES.
Posted by Otto | May 8, 2007 2:18 AM
I wonder if the dumbass 28%er knows that the Germans and the French don't vote in the US.
Probably not.
Posted by merlallen | May 8, 2007 3:19 AM
What must it be like to live in a world ruled by drooling thooleramawns like Governor Mitt Forehead? Damn, practically answers itself and I don't even need Google.
Posted by SqueakyRat | May 8, 2007 4:44 AM
Orson Scott Card "good"?? Only if your taste runs to closeted self-hatred.
Posted by Ender Wiggin | May 8, 2007 7:23 AM
He likes Battlefield earth and a Memory of earth? I wonder if I'll run into him campaigning at the Sci-fi conventions? It's about damn time we had a nerd in office, we already had the football player (ford), the drama club kid (reagan), the guy sleeps with the cheerleaders (clinton) and a special ed kid (Bush Jr.)
WE SEEK A GEEK!
Although I share his fear of our increasing divorce rate he needs to use real facts :P
Posted by Myahon | May 8, 2007 7:25 AM
The German CDU (Christian Democratic Union), Merkel's party, sits around the middle of the American political spectrum; Hillary Clinton's views are pretty close to CDU mainstream, minus her level of willingness to use military force abroad.
The CDU lost a couple of percentage points (and the chance to have the somewhat-libertarian Free Democratic Party as their coalition party, instead of the Social Democratic Party) because Merkel had supported German involvement in Iraq - a lot of Germans who couldn't otherwise stand Schroeder still give him a lot of credit for keeping Germany out of it.
Bush is too right-wing for most Bavarians' taste, and it is a notoriously reactionary region.
Oh, and they all find American-style "creationism" to be hilarious.
Posted by A Texan in Bavaria | May 8, 2007 7:26 AM
Ana, is this story going to make the front page of Time.com?
If a Democrat said something this stupid, I'm sure it would have already been posted.
Posted by Bluelady | May 8, 2007 9:05 AM
Bush has a 28% approval, identification as a Republican is down under 30% and identification as a Liberal is above 35%, and there are still people who think that there's going to be a GOP president in 2009? Wow, some people are in for a very bad November 08 . . .
Posted by lieinveigleobfuscate | May 8, 2007 9:07 AM
Compared to the things Romney is required to believe in order to be a Moemon, anything he might think about the ladies of France and their underpants won't even be a stretch.
Posted by Mooser | May 8, 2007 10:46 AM
"...would bring up his recent statement that it was not worth moving heaven and earth and spending billions of dollars to capture Osama Bin Laden.
About the only sensible Goddamn thing Romney has said, if you want to know the truth.
We have neither the smarts nor the bravery to do the job, so let's not waste a lot of resources on it.
Posted by Mooser | May 8, 2007 10:52 AM
I would also like to know who told him this (since he said, "In France, I'm told...") and whether they get to keep their job.
Wasn't there a poll recently where he was in the lead in NH? He'd definitely be my favorite candidate from the Republicans.
And Air Hillary, I tend to see the beliefs of my fellow Americans as more likely to determine what happens in our next election than the beliefs of Germans or the French. Even though I'm a Democrat, I sorta hoped Sarcozy would win: Royal seemed to be not-well-informed, and America needs every friend we can get after Bush has alienated so many countries.
Posted by JoshA | May 8, 2007 11:29 AM
First he names the scientology schlock "Battlefield Earth" as his favorite novel, and now internalizes Orson Scott Card's stuff too. What a weird dude.
If Roswell Romney were a Democrat, the media would be all over this.
Posted by Otto Man | May 8, 2007 12:30 PM
"I would also like to know who told him this (since he said, "In France, I'm told...") and whether they get to keep their job"
Who cares? The relevant point is that he's so ignorant and devoid of judgement that he actually believed it.
Posted by Andrew | May 8, 2007 1:47 PM
Perhaps by a Frenchman. Romney was in France for 2 1/2 years as a Mormon missionary.
Posted by gjdodger | May 8, 2007 2:34 PM
Gee, it's a real shame he's not my Gov. anymore.... a real shame.
Posted by mdhatter | May 9, 2007 1:04 AM
Heinlein did it first anyway.
(Hey, Ana Marie, you never say hot stuff about Bayes Theorem anymore. *sigh*)
Posted by Charlie (Colorado) | May 9, 2007 1:29 PM
The marriage contracts in Memory of Earth were for one year, renewable annually.
It's astonishing to see the anti-religious hatred revealed by the people posting on this blog. If you were ridiculing any group BUT Mormons or other conservative Christians, you would be embarrassed by what you reveal about yourselves.
Posted by Orson Scott Card | May 9, 2007 5:34 PM
Can we get verification that Mitt actually said this?
As long as we're criticizing the WP for not questioning this, can we at least look into whether he said it?
Posted by Half Canadian | May 9, 2007 10:14 PM
Not to be too nerdy and technical but, I have my doubts that the idea actually originated with Card. First of all, as someone pointed out above, the notion of contracted-marriages is pretty widespread in science fiction and not exactly unheard of in social theory. Furthermore, in Card's series the marriages last only ONE year, not seven, as both the Plank and you claim. I'm certain I'm not remembering this incorrectly, because it would require that the many (adolescent and adult) children of the patriarch characters would have to be of considerably different ages, as each has a different mother or father, and yet all are essentially within a decade or so of age.
I have no idea where Romney got this little nugget of fact, but I think the Card theory is weak and relies on "Romney a Mormon, Card is a Mormon, Card wrote a book with contracted marriages that do not resemble the marriages Romney mentions, therefore Romney stole the idea from Card!"
Posted by Joshua | May 10, 2007 2:44 AM
Orson Scott Card? I don't know whether Card included the idea of limited-term marriages in his fiction, but he certainly didn't invent it. Robert Heinlein was there first, in his 1951 novel "The Puppet Masters". When Sam and Mary get married in Chapter 21, the clerk at the license bureau asks them, "Term, renewable, or lifetime? If it's over ten years, the fee is the same as for lifetime; if it's under six months, you don't need this; you get the short form from that vendo machine over there."
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