New York Times campaign reporter Ashley Parker, following GOP candidate Mitt Romney around Iowa, nonetheless managed to celebrate Barack Obama’s "eloquent and inspiring rhetoric in the state four years ago" in Sunday’s “Romney Quotes His Favorite Patriotic Songs and Offers Voters an Interpretation.”
Mr. Romney often eases into the musical portion of his speech while saying how much he loves the country, the unspoken assertion being that he cares for the nation in a way that President Obama never will.
“The president said he wants to fundamentally transform America,” Mr. Romney said on Wednesday in North Liberty. “I kind of like America. I’m not looking for it to be fundamentally transformed into something else. I don’t want it to become like Europe.”
He continued, “I want America to be more like America, if you will. I want the songs, that patriotism we have.” He then began quoting directly from his favorite verses of “America the Beautiful.”
But Mr. Romney is also using the patriotic songs to try to elevate his own political speeches -- making them, in a way, more like Mr. Obama’s eloquent and inspiring rhetoric in the state four years ago. (Indeed, Mr. Obama became so famous for the soaring remarks he wrote himself that his rival Hillary Rodham Clinton, borrowing a line from former Gov. Mario Cuomo, remarked that you campaign in poetry, but govern in prose.)
