Pardon My French

Mitt Romney recently tried to compare President Obama tom Marie Antoinette in a pathetic attempt to make the President look elitist. The multimillionaire said of Obama, "When the president's characterization of our economy was, 'It could be worse,' it reminded me of Marie Antoinette: 'Let them eat cake.'"

Yeah, well, when we cried for jobs, Mitt Romney's fellow Republicans in Congress let us have anti-abortion legislation. And when autoworkers cried to have their jobs saved, Romney himself pretty much said, "Let GM and Chrysler go bankrupt."

But that's not why I bring this up. I bring this up because Romney, like most Republicans these days, not only tries to avoid putting on airs to avoid looking elitist himself, he even tries to avoid looking educated - especially when it comes to his bilingualism. When Chris Matthews of MSNBC asked Romney if he could say "Let them eat cake" in French, Romney replied by saying, "I can, but I won't."

Jeez, even George Walker Bush spoke conversational Spanish in public.

Romney not only has to appeal to Republicans who are undereducated - i.e. most of them - he's trying to downplay his experiences in France as a Mormon missionary to appeal to Republicans who are Francophobic - i.e., all of them. I don't get the Republican hatred for all things French. Just what don't they like about the French, the people who invented photography and milk purification? Is it that they dress too prettily? Or maybe, oh, I don't know, enough Republicans bought Renaults and got stuck with a lemon? Is it the fact that the French think a lot? Did all of these Republicans like Catherine Deneuve in those Chanel ads until they found out she was a serious actress who had a brain? Did they go to one of her movies and, I don't know, have trouble reading the subtitles? Or maybe had a hard time wrapping their tiny little minds around the philosophical ramifications of the plot?

By the way, Mitt, you looked silly distancing yourself from all things French while campaigning in a state whose capital and largest city is called "Des Moines."