# Gingrich attack ad/Romney speaking French \[edited title\] **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [January 13, 2012, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gingrich-attack-ad-romney-speaking-french-edited-title/609453 "2012-01-13T23:44:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2012, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gingrich-attack-ad-romney-speaking-french-edited-title/609453/1 "2012-01-13T23:44:45Z")
Apparently Gingrich is attacking Romney for his [ability to speak French](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-16549624). WTF? I mean… seriously? Is there something I’m missing? ---
**Author:** ![New\_Deal\_Democrat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/9d8465/32.png) [@New\_Deal\_Democrat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/New_Deal_Democrat)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2012, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gingrich-attack-ad-romney-speaking-french-edited-title/609453/2 "2012-01-13T23:55:40Z")
Rank and file Republicans resent education and learning and dislike all things foreign. ---
**Author:** ![rocking\_chair](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocking_chair/32/2918_2.png) [@rocking\_chair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rocking_chair)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2012, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gingrich-attack-ad-romney-speaking-french-edited-title/609453/3 "2012-01-13T23:59:16Z")
yes, seriously, and no, not missing anything. speaking french is a prep school, mamby, pamby, rich boy thing, according to some people; and always something someone who lived in mass. would do. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2012, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gingrich-attack-ad-romney-speaking-french-edited-title/609453/4 "2012-01-14T00:04:31Z")
Strangely, Newt Gingrich has a PhD and has worked as a college professor. You’d think that this anti-intellectual sentiment would work against him, too. ---
**Author:** ![Gagundathar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a183cd/32.png) [@Gagundathar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gagundathar)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2012, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gingrich-attack-ad-romney-speaking-french-edited-title/609453/5 "2012-01-14T00:06:52Z")
Yeah, why would any prospective leader of our country need to speak with anybody in Quebec? I don’t like Romney, but dangit the Gingrich camp is just over the top with this one. Pick something else, you silly idiots! Attack his positions, not his competencies! Sheeesh. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2012, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gingrich-attack-ad-romney-speaking-french-edited-title/609453/6 "2012-01-14T00:14:07Z")
> [@Gagundathar](#): > > Yeah, why would any prospective leader of our country need to speak with anybody in Quebec? Is there really even a single person there who doesn’t know English, at least as a second language? (I’m sure there are no Indians left who don’t, from the Rio Grande to the Northwest Passage.) ---
**Author:** ![Gagundathar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a183cd/32.png) [@Gagundathar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gagundathar)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2012, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gingrich-attack-ad-romney-speaking-french-edited-title/609453/7 "2012-01-14T00:15:29Z")
Well, you have a point. Didn’t remember that not ever having been there. Though I really wish I had. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2012, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gingrich-attack-ad-romney-speaking-french-edited-title/609453/8 "2012-01-14T00:27:02Z")
I’m pretty sure this Gringich’s way of turning [Romney’s comments about Obama trying to make the U.S. like Europe](http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_BRITAIN_ROMNEY_ATTACK?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT) back on Romney himself. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2012, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gingrich-attack-ad-romney-speaking-french-edited-title/609453/9 "2012-01-14T00:37:25Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Is there really even a single person there who doesn’t know English, at least as a second language? (I’m sure there are no Indians left who don’t, from the Rio Grande to the Northwest Passage.) In fact, yes – visiting Montreal & Quebec City I’ve found plenty of people with little or no English. But the POTUS doesn’t deal with the Province of Quebec any more than the Prime Minister of Canada deals with the State of New York: speaking French would be more useful in dealing with France, and with those countries in Africa that used to belong to the French Empire. ---
**Author:** ![Alley\_Dweller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alley_dweller/32/430_2.png) [@Alley\_Dweller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alley_Dweller)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2012, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gingrich-attack-ad-romney-speaking-french-edited-title/609453/10 "2012-01-14T00:53:55Z")
Anyone remember the popular [anti-French hysteria](http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/feb2003/fran-f15.shtml) back in 2003 when France dared to question the US plans to liberate Iraq? People in the US were buying expensive French wine and pouring it down sewers. The US Capitol cafeteria renamed French Fries as “Freedom Fries.” There were movements to boycott French goods and companies, including that notorious [French discount store chain Target](http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl-target-veterans.htm). So do you think the Bain cafeteria was serving French Fries or Freedom Fries? It’s a way to leverage that old anti-French patriotic fervor. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2012, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gingrich-attack-ad-romney-speaking-french-edited-title/609453/11 "2012-01-14T01:36:28Z")
> [@Alley\_Dweller](#): > > Anyone remember the popular [anti-French hysteria](http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/feb2003/fran-f15.shtml) back in 2003 when France dared to question the US plans to liberate Iraq? People in the US were buying expensive French wine and pouring it down sewers. The US Capitol cafeteria renamed French Fries as “Freedom Fries.” There were movements to boycott French goods and companies, including that notorious [French discount store chain Target](http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl-target-veterans.htm). > > So do you think the Bain cafeteria was serving French Fries or Freedom Fries? > > It’s a way to leverage that old anti-French patriotic fervor. “Lafayette, we are here!” – [Col. Charles E. Stanton, 1917, at the tomb of the Marquis de Lafayette.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_J._Pershing#World_War_I) ---
**Author:** ![Gagundathar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a183cd/32.png) [@Gagundathar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gagundathar)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2012, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gingrich-attack-ad-romney-speaking-french-edited-title/609453/12 "2012-01-14T01:38:04Z")
> [@Alley\_Dweller](#): > > Anyone remember the popular [anti-French hysteria](http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/feb2003/fran-f15.shtml) back in 2003 when France dared to question the US plans to liberate Iraq? People in the US were buying expensive French wine and pouring it down sewers. The US Capitol cafeteria renamed French Fries as “Freedom Fries.” There were movements to boycott French goods and companies, including that notorious [French discount store chain Target](http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl-target-veterans.htm). > > So do you think the Bain cafeteria was serving French Fries or Freedom Fries? > > It’s a way to leverage that old anti-French patriotic fervor. Oh crap. Somehow I had a brain fart and forgot that. Sorry. Working while posting does that sometimes. ---
**Author:** ![rocking\_chair](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocking_chair/32/2918_2.png) [@rocking\_chair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rocking_chair)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2012, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gingrich-attack-ad-romney-speaking-french-edited-title/609453/13 "2012-01-14T02:02:37Z")
kerry was also mocked for speaking french. of course that was closer to the “freedom fries” anti french thing. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2012, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gingrich-attack-ad-romney-speaking-french-edited-title/609453/14 "2012-01-14T02:28:02Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > Apparently Gingrich is attacking Romney for his [ability to speak French](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-16549624). > > WTF? I mean… seriously? Is there something I’m missing? > [@](#): > > Some commentators have highlighted a possible irony in that Mr Gingrich, a former House Speaker, has a doctorate in European history. His 1971 dissertation, Belgian Education Policy in the Congo 1945-1960, contains a number of sources in French in its bibliography. So there’s that. One thing the story doesn’t say is where these ads are being broadcast. South Carolina, I presume? ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2012, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gingrich-attack-ad-romney-speaking-french-edited-title/609453/15 "2012-01-14T02:29:58Z")
Worst ads since probably LBJ’s ads of “If Goldwater gets elected, nuclear war will ensue”. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2012, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gingrich-attack-ad-romney-speaking-french-edited-title/609453/16 "2012-01-14T02:52:15Z")
> [@Alley\_Dweller](#): > > It’s a way to leverage that old anti-French patriotic fervor. Well, they were kind of…tacky…in two world wars. ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2012, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gingrich-attack-ad-romney-speaking-french-edited-title/609453/17 "2012-01-14T03:08:36Z")
America’s attitude toward France has always been schizophrenic from extreme Francophilia as the bastion of culture which American intellectuals often worshipped blindly to extreme Francophobia as Napoleonic conquerors, Jacobin radicals, or cheese eating surrender monkeys. ---
**Author:** ![Paralogic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/eb9ed0/32.png) [@Paralogic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paralogic)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2012, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gingrich-attack-ad-romney-speaking-french-edited-title/609453/18 "2012-01-14T03:25:31Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > Apparently Gingrich is attacking Romney for his [ability to speak French](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-16549624). > > WTF? I mean… seriously? Is there something I’m missing? No. Both Gingrich and Romney went after the racist vote the past couple of weeks by blaming African Americans for costing the country too much in unemployment assistance. Gingrich now blames Romney for having an education. Something that will play well with white toothless beer chugging mindless drones that are, surprisingly, able to vote, and always vote Republican. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2012, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gingrich-attack-ad-romney-speaking-french-edited-title/609453/19 "2012-01-14T03:29:11Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > Worst ads since probably LBJ’s ads of “If Goldwater gets elected, nuclear war will ensue”. That might well have happened. ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2012, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gingrich-attack-ad-romney-speaking-french-edited-title/609453/20 "2012-01-14T03:39:01Z")
> [@rocking\_chair](#): > > kerry was also mocked for speaking french. of course that was closer to the “freedom fries” anti french thing. I also recall a Fox News piece from back when he was running for president about how he seemed “too French.” [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gingrich-attack-ad-romney-speaking-french-edited-title/609453.md?page=2)