The Romney Latino Fleece Job Continues: Latest Spanish Ad Highlights His Dad’s Birth in Mexico

Jul 18, 2012
10:00 AM

So the Mitt Romney Latino strategy continues with the latest Spanish ad that features his son Craig (looking like a Univision soap opera star) telling Spanish-speaking voters that his father Mitt believes in immigration and will work to find a bipartisan solution to reform the immigration system. Titled "País de inmigrantes," the ad mentions nothing about Romney's previous stances on immigration, just that he is planning to work with the other side of the aisle.

Craig also mentions that "his grandfather George was born in Mexico." Here it is.

The Romney campaign is clearly trying to distance its candidate from a more hard-line immigration that was being pushing during the GOP primary season. Talk about a fleece job. Romney has yet to admit that such rhetoric has led to a genuine distaste and unpopularity among US Latino voters, and instead of having the cojones to speak publicly about it, he is using his son and his dad's birth in Mexico as his Panderdfiesta cards.

Because earlier this year Romney addressed this very same issue when he was asked about his dad being born in Mexican and this is what he told Univision's Jorge Ramos before the GOP primary in Florida:

JR: The mother of former governor of New Mexico, Bill Richardson, she was born in Mexico, and he calls himself Mexican-American. Your father was born in Mexico. So the question is, are you Mexican-American? Could you be the first Hispanic president?

MR: I would love to be able to convince people of that, particularly in a Florida primary. [Laughter.] But I think that might be disingenuous on my part, because, in my case, my dad was born in Mexico, and I am proud of my heritage. But he was born of U.S. citizens who were living in Mexico at the time, and was not Hispanic. He never spoke Spanish, nor did his parents. So I can’t claim that honor. But he lived in Mexico until he was five or six years old. And then, with the revolution in Mexico, his parents and he, as a young boy, came back to the United States and settled in the western part of the country.

JR: So you wouldn’t call yourself Mexican-American, even though he is Mexican by definition. I just read the Mexican constitution, and they would say that he is.

MR: I don’t think people would think I was being honest with them if I said I was Mexican-American. But I would appreciate it if you’d get that word out. [Applause.] And, by the way, we haven’t recognized someone in the audience here today, who is one of America’s great heroes, and that is the first Hispanic senator, Mel Martinez. I just want to have Mel Martinez be recognized. [Applause.] Mel? Thank you. I think Mel actually is Cuban-American, right? [Laughter.]

(h/t to Colorlines for the Univision interview recall)