And THIS Is The Guy Who's Probably Going To Be The Candidate

[filkertom]

Yesterday, Mittens was asked about immigration reform. Among the things he said:"You don't have a way of telling, if someone comes and they speak with an accent do you say, well, are you here legally or illegally?"
Somehow, I bet he doesn't wonder if someone's here illegally if they have a Boston accent. Or a Brooklyn accent. Or an Italian accent

Comments

[scifantasy]

You know what's really frustrating? What he's saying could so easily have been a repudiation of exactly that logic. He could have taken almost the same words and rearranged them and come up with a statement that was just as strong for his point and probably scored him points with independents and, especially, legal immigrants.

Recall, Romney is speaking about the need for employment verification of immigration status. If he had said it like this:

"We need to have employment verification, because it's not as if you can tell who's here legally or illegally just by their accent."

...then, whatever your thoughts on employment verification schemes, at least you would recognize that he's arguing for facts, not speculation, and review not based on profiling characteristics such as accents.

In fact, when I first read the transcript, I thought he might well have been saying just that. The wording was somewhat ambiguous. Then I listened to the recording, and what he's saying is this:

"We need to have employment verification, because you can't believe what people with an accent say when they tell you whether they're here legally."

Fucker.