Knowing how to speak French can kill a Presidential campaign. Just ask John Kerry. While running for President in 2004 there were multiple soundbites floating around of Kerry speaking French. The Republicans learned that Americans tended to view someone who speaks French as 'elitist' and 'out of touch.' Worse still was the fact that many Americans thought Kerry LOOKED French as well. This information, coming on the heels of the 2003 ban on FRENCH fries at lunchrooms all over America due to France's refusal to support our invasion of Iraq, was basically the political kiss of death for Kerry. Now, political foes of Mitt Romney are using his ability to speak French against him in an effort to derail his campaign for the White House. Drudging up a video which shows Romney speaking French in an informational video for volunteers for the 2002 Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, they hope to paint him as an elitist or, even worse, a SOCIALIST! Even though another contender for the Republican nomination for President, Jon Huntsman, also speaks a foreign language (Chinese), but apparently that is seen as an asset rather than a liability since we owe China a ton of coin. There is also no downside to harassing someone for their ability to speak French because there is no French lobbyist organization to push back against the criticism, nor does the French government give a crap that they're being called Elitist Snobs because, well, let's face it, they are Elitist Snobs.
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