Health & Fitness
Romney's Harvard Problem
Mitt Romney says President Obama shouldn't listen to the faculty from the school that Romney attended and has financially supported.
From Tara:
I keep thinking about the Leonard Steinhorn piece in the Huffington Post last week--the one that connected the often-noted Republican mistrust of science with four factors: "anti-liberalism, anti-intellectualism, religious conservatism, and corporate self-interest." Here's a prime example:
On the campaign trail, Mitt Romney has been criticizing President Barack Obama for listening to advice from the "Harvard faculty lounge." Inflammatory words, those, in some right-wing activist circles...you can imagine the connections listeners are expected to draw: "Harvard = the pinnacle of academia = intellectuals = people who think they're better than me."
But there's a problem. Unlike Rick Perry, who appears to revel in his intellectual lightweight credentials, Mitt Romney WENT TO HARVARD. Both for business school and for law school. And he's trotted out a list of campaign advisers who are also connected with Harvard. He's donated $50,000 to Harvard's business school. Finally, he's received over that amount in campaign contributions from Harvard faculty and faculty spouses.
But his intended audience for the "Harvard faculty lounge" line isn't the people who are savvy enough to question the absurdity of the statement. He just wants his listeners to link Obama to Harvard, and to think "that's bad," despite the patently obvious connections between Romney himself and the University.