FACT CHECK: Romney on his dad growing up poor

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.newswest9.com/story/17752814/fact-check-romney-on-his-dad-growing-up-poor

Posted: Apr 25, 2012 4:05 PM CDT
Updated: Apr 25, 2012 4:41 PM CDT

By ANDREW MIGA
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - Mitt Romney likes to talk on the campaign trail about how his father "grew up poor," but that's not the whole story. snip

"I'll tell you about how much I love this country, this extraordinary land, where someone like my dad, who grew up poor and never graduated from college, could pursue his dreams and work his way up to running a great car company," Romney told the crowd. "Only in America could a man like my dad become governor of the state in which he once sold paint from the trunk of his car."

George Romney was born July 8, 1907, in Chihuahua, Mexico, where his parents and other Mormons had moved to avoid persecution and U.S. laws against polygamy.

"At 5 years old, Dad and his family were finally living pretty well. They had a nice home and a small farm, and Dad even had his own pony, called Monty," Mitt Romney wrote in his book "No Apology: The Case for American Greatness."

[JoePhilly]

1. Sure, but his dad didn't have any Dressage horses ... see how poor he was?

[tanyev]

2. Only in Mitt Romney's America could a man like his dad be described as poor.

[FSogol]

3. They were so poor, they only had one horse elevator.

They were so poor, they had to put the dog on top of their wagon.

They were so poor, they...

[pinboy3niner]

5. LOL!

Straight from the late night talk shows: "How poor were they?"

[Enrique]

4. "I was born a poor Mexican child..." n/t

[Quixote1818]

10. All I need are these Mexican jumping beans. Thats all I need! And this

sombrero, thats all I need!

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

6. Mittens' notion of "poor" is probably a bit different from yours and mine.

To me, being poor means you don't have enough money to consistently cover your basic living expenses. You can't pay all your bills on time (or at all); you might have to skip meals sometimes if you can't afford the ingredients for Sean Hannity's rice and beans and cheap meat recipe; your car breaks down and you can't fix it; you might have lost your house to foreclosure if you had one, or you're living in a run-down apartment with bugs and leaky plumbing, or maybe you don't even have a permanent place to live.

I suspect Mittens can't even imagine that kind of life. To him, "poor" probably means you have only one home (or, if you have a vacation home it's just a little cabin at the lake); your domestic help is a neighbor kid who mows your lawn for $20; you go on vacation to Yellowstone Park instead of Paris; you don't have a couple of Cadillacs or a car elevator to move them with; your boat is just an aluminum fishing boat with an outboard motor; when you go out to dinner you go to Applebee's instead of Elaine's; and your kids have to get scholarships and student loans to go to the state university.

Oh, the horror.

Actually, I'd bet he can't imagine even that level of "poverty."

[tsuki]

8. Those are the people he doesn't worry

his beautiful brain about.

[randr]

7. Didn't George Romney run for President?

Having a Mexican National as President doesn't matter so much for the Republican crowd I guess.

[Javaman]

9. I wonder if mitten's (aka amoeba man) dad was a naturalized citizen.

just asking.