Is That Legal?

I thought Romney took a page out of the Ronald Reagan playbook since Reagan launched his campaign in Philadelphia, Mississippi. Prior to that the most important event in Philadelphia, MS, was the deaths of civil rights workers Schwermer, Cheney and Goodman.

The coup de gras was when Reagan declared "I believe in states' rights. I believe that we've distorted the balance of our government by giving powers that were never intended in the Constitution to the federal establishment." Talk about rolling back the clock.

No, I'd say it was definitely more Reagan than Biden.

Somehow I don't think that has anything to do with why he opened it there.

I'm gonna go with "he had no idea." I for one sure didn't.

Moreover, Corrine, analogizing that decision to Reagan's campaign launch in Philadelphia, MS is highly questionable, in my mind. Philadelphia was known for little more than the brutal murders of Schwermer, Cheney and Goodman-- and Reagan had to have known that fact. Ford, in contrast, is known by most citizens (likely including Romney) as a quintessential American brand, and Henry Ford is thought of by most people, first and foremost, as an American entreprenuer who epitomizes an entreprenurial spirit, not as a Hitler sympathizer.

I am certainly not defending either 1) Ford's Nazi sympathies; or 2) Romney's campaign, but I have to say you're making too much out of this.

To add to Moye's comment, it's not like the Henry Ford Museum is a museum devoted solely to Henry Ford. It's surely the largest American history museum in the Midwest, and probably second only to the Smithsonian. The museum itself doesn't highlight Ford's anti-Semitism, but it doesn't whitewash it either, and the museum (which holds the Ford archives) has been unhesitating in making its collections available to scholars researching that issue.

ELM: These are valuable points, alkili. It is very much to the museum's credit that it deals with this aspect of Ford's legacy.

I stand corrected on this point. The more I ask around about this today, the more my Jewish friends and colleagues have informed me that it is "very well known" that Ford was a jew hater.

One of my best friends just emailed: "it's pretty well-known that he was not a fan of the O.T. (original tribe)..."

I had no idea. I guess that shows my ignorance--and maybe Romney's as well?

In that particular sense, maybe your analogy to Biden's "articulate" flap is more apt than I first thought, since lots of white people saw nothing wrong with using the adjective "articulate," whereas in black culture it automatically raises questions of racism.

We're all making too much of it.

The more mundane explanation is that his father, George, was a former governor of Michigan in the 1960s and an AMC chief executive who made his own run for the presidency. (He made the decision to drop the Nash and Hudson to focus on the Rambler, a decision which is credited with saving AMC.) Detroit was the capital of the automotive world and at one time, was considered a place of innovation.

The symbolism of announcing from the Ford Museum was likely totally lost on Mitt Romney and anyone from his campaign.

I'd go with Corrine's explanation, above. I'm sure he's trying to link with the legacy of his father. I mean, I'm allegedly well-educated, but I was only vaguely aware of Henry Ford's ideology.

You gotta figure, if you're Mitt, annoucing in either Salt Lake or Boston would also detract from his own campaign. Pick SLC and then it becomes a "Mitt the Mormon" story. Pick Boston and the Republican base is reminded why they're so skeptical of his newfound conservatism. Besides, in the general election, Michigan is much more in-play than either UT or MA.

"Here in Detroit nearly a century ago, as all of youknow better than me, Henry Ford set history in motion with thevery first assembly line. He built not only a Model T, but a new model for the way America would do business for quite a longwhile. He said he was looking for leaders and thinkers andworkers with "an infinite capacity to not know what can't bedone." People like that came together in Detroit and all across America. They forged America's transition from farm to factory.Detroit led the way and America led the world."

U.S. President Bill Clinton, singing the praises of Detroit's favorite anti-Semite on January 8, 1999. See: http://clinton4.nara.gov/textonly/WH/New/html/19990108-2098.html

You mean it's not just Mitt Romney who has given a speech in Detroit that referenced Henry Ford? Gosh!

We'll know what the high-powered American Jewish lobby thinks about Romney if and when AIPAC -- and not Abe Foxman -- expresses itself on this matter. The AIPAC folks are, as I understand it, of the Lieberman political stripe and far more inclined to vote GOP than DEM. Of course, my impressions could be wrong.

There is a much simpler explanation. Romney opened his campaign in Michigan, because he was born there and his father was governor of Michigan from 1963 to 1969. Romney may have chosen the Ford museum, because his father, George Romney, was once head of American Motors Corporation. However, that doesn't explain why he picked Ford, because AMC was later merged into Chevrolet not Ford. However, Chevrolet is now co-owned by the German company, Daimler-Benz, so maybe Romney was throwing a sop to the nativists in the GOP after all.

I just googled Henry Ford's book and found it! I had no idea Henry Ford was a Jew-truther!

"Jewish Jazz -- Music for Morons" That's priceless!

Now it's "Jewish-produced Rap -- Monkey Muttering set to Music!"

ELM: Ah, the pleasures of an open-comments policy.

Just to clean up a few points: Yes, it well-known the Ford was rabidly Anti-Semitic. Yes, the most "important" thing to happen in Philadelphia Mississippi was the murder of the civil rights workers-- so important in fact that the "liberal elite" in Hollywood made a movie about it: Mississippi Burning.

AMC and Jeep became part of Chrysler, not Chevrolet (which is part of General Motors -- GM). It is Chrysler which was purchased by Daimler and is now back on the auction block.

Instead of the Ford Museum, there are many historic and interesting sites that Romney could have chosen, including the current state capital Lansing. Of course, that would mean he would be trodding on the territory of Michigan current Governor, Jennifer Granholm. Instead of that option, he could have chosen the Gerald R. Ford Museum -- who, though not the most widely revered President, was always a loyal moderate Republican and contemporary of Romney's father, George.

So perhaps there is some "unspoken" message in the location Romney chose for his presidential candidate's "unveiling."