Questions About Romney’s Past

by Columnist TRB Taxes, and how much Romney paid, really isn't the half of it.

There is more back there for Romney - questions that would have knocked Obama right out of the Presidential race. But the news media is using far different standards for the two men and frankly Romney has not received from the news media the same vetting. One might call this practice, racist. But in today's America it is just a fact of life. When he was a candidate the news media looked very closely at Obama's religious beliefs and practices. They even went after Obama based on the political opinions of his pastor. Not stopping there they reported widely on the practices of his church, what they believed in, etc.

As a member of the Church of the Latter Day Saints (Mormon), Romney has a spiritual leader. Has that spiritual leader been vetted by the news media as Obama's was? Has the church's beliefs been explained by the news media as Obama's were? They are easy to explain. The Mormons believe that Jesus was born right here in the USA. In upstate New York or Vermont or thereabouts. And not very long ago, either. Back in the 1800s. A mormon leader claimed to have found some gold tablets with instructions for the new religion, or was given them in those parts, and a religion was created. A large part of their beliefs center around their conviction that when the the world ends, the brass angels on the roofs of their Temples will blow their horns and space ships will appear and take them from this earth. Of course there is more to the religion - that is only the basics.

The Church of the Latter Day Saints right up until the early 1980s when Mitt Romney was in his 30s, was a racist religion, a religion that would not allow African Americans to be priests or occupy certain other positions in the Church. African Americans, like President Obama, would have been, by virtue of his color, excluded from leadership positions in the church. This is very unusual, since anti-discrimination laws had been in effect for more than 20 years. It is also ironic. But you would have to look all month to find any mention of it in the major news media. Imagine if the shoe had been on the other foot - if Obama had belonged to a race-discriminating church in the '80s. It is easy to believe that the major news media would have made a very big deal out of it and Obama would not be in the White House today because of it.

Let us imagine that Obama, while a governor (he has not held that office), had aggressively supported a man for the federal Congress with the following kind of background: A State legislator, who lied about his education credentials on his web site. A man who was an ex-cop, who when he was a cop had partnered with an officer who actually sexually assaulted very young girls while on the job. (He later went to prison for it.) At least one of the victims claims that our Congressman wannabee actually witnessed her assault, did nothing to stop it and did not report his partner at the end of the shift. The local media, The Boston Globe, The Patriot Ledger, various radio talk shows, reported on this individual's background extensively. He was not elected. But our fictional Obama supported him until the end, giving him $2500 in campaign funds. And just recently he gave Romney $1000. One of the victims of this ex-cop even agreed to appear on television at the time and explain how the candidate had not helped her when she needed it the most. But the fictional Obama did not believe her. He stuck with his ex-cop instead. So did Sen. Scott Brown.

But of course it was not Obama who backed this man. It was Romney. If it had been Obama and the major news media had gotten wind of it, Obama's days as president would be over. This is the double standard - practiced by people who call themselves "journalists."

As mentioned, in the end Romney's friend did not get elected. He got an even better job as Deputy Sheriff of Plymouth County.

Deputy Sheriff Jeff Perry. A friend of presidential candidate Mitt Romney.