French hissing: Democrats attack Mitt Romney over Francophoney

Conservative Americans' distaste for all things French (and " French-looking ") has never made a lot of sense – they may pick and choose their De Tocqueville references, but choose them they do. But rather than mock (or educate) Republicans out of the francophobia, a new anti-Romney ad from a Democratic Super Pac uses Romney's fluency in the language as not-very-subtle marker of Romney's wishy-washy ideology. Subtitles under footage of Romney speaking French in a promotional video for the 2002 Winter Olympics quote from Romney's "progressive" era: "I believe that abortion should be safe and legal in this country" and "I was an independent during the time of Reagan/Bush." These are, of course, statements that make it possible for a lot of independents to consider voting for Romney in the fall, but whatever. Primary politics! For what it's worth, with his automatronic approach to retail politics and his desire to fit in with all groups, as well as his synthetic personality – well, Romney has always struck me more as an Esperanto kind of guy.