The embellished résumé has been a problem ever since there
were résumés. And politicians
embellishing their backstory has been around since there have been politicians.
The Internet has improved our memory for such tall
tales. After all, a candidate for a
small local office tells his story and it goes on the record. That story shouldn’t change. And politicians
have been held accountable for such things as military service (or lack
thereof) and academic degrees.
The most famous tale is Obama’s. He’s been around the world. And he’s sealed his college records. Now why would he do that? He’s already told us he was a lousy student
at Occidental College. And he seemed to have done well at
Harvard. Some think it has to do with
his minority student status; that maybe he claimed to have been something other
than a U S Citizen. Of course, that
doesn’t prove he was born in Kenya,
but the alternative explanation is worse; that he fibbed about his citizenship
to claim a foreign student spot.
And there is written evidence that his publicist claimed he
was born in Keyna in an effort to sell his books.
Then there was the Elizabeth Warren story. Oy vey!
The story goes like this. Warren’s
mother told her she was part Cherokee and she went with it. Boy, did she go with it. She claimed to be a “woman of color” in order
to get a teaching job. And she milked
that story until she gained tenure.
She rode that trail of tears all the way to the U S Senate.
Now my mother used to call me her Superman. She even sewed me a red cape. But she wouldn’t let me play on the roof of
the garage. And my brother used to
remind me that, “Just because you have rust in your shorts doesn’t mean you’re
a man of steel.”
What mother told you may be an embellishment not suitable
for the political arena. And if you’ve
told mother’s story in an earlier campaign, expect to have to back it up later
on…or admit it was just a quaint family story.
Enter Mia Love. Back
in January of 2011, before she was a candidate for Congress, Mia was the
subject of a Deseret News story by Lee Benson.
It was a fluff piece really.
Benson wanted to highlight Mia Love because she’s black and successful. What could be better for Martin Luther King
Day?
And Mia told her story about how she was the reason her
parents got to stay in the United States
and she was the reason her siblings got to emigrate from Haiti. It was quite a detailed account, claiming
that her birth in December of 1975 was just in time for the deadline of January
of 1976.
Mia went on the run for Congress. She even spoke at the GOP convention. What could be better than a woman who is
black and successful? And she spoke
about her parents coming from Haiti
with $10 in the pockets, but not a peep about her role in their immigration.
Along comes Mother Jones, claiming that Mia was an anchor
baby. Now, that’s a non sequitur. Mia never said her parents were ever illegal,
only that her birth qualified them to remain and bring over her brother and
sister.
Here’s the critical part: Mia denied she ever told that
story. She got all indignant and claimed
the liberals were picking on her. She
claimed her opponent planted the lie. By
extension, she implied that the reporter made up the story. (It’s funny that she never said anything when
the story ran in January of 2011.)
Further, she would not allow people to talk to her parents.
So if she’s stonewalling, let’s play a little game. Let’s think about possible endings to the
story. What is she hiding from? Let’s SPECULATE:
Ending #1: Mia wanted to distance herself from the “anchor
baby” label, even though her parents were legal throughout.
Ending #2: Her parents are illegal aliens and never did
legalize.
Ending #3: Her parents are Obama supporters.
Ending #4: Her siblings are illegal aliens.
Ending #5: Her parents are green card holders but never
bothered to become citizens.
Ending #6: The story was nothing more than an anecdote she
liked to tell with no basis in fact.
Ending #7: Lee Benson is a liar who never liked her and made
it all up, knowing that someday Mia would be more than the mayor of a small
town in the Utah desert.
Ending #8: Have at it.
You make up your own ending.
Here are the stories:
The original:
The exposure:
…or this one:
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865563132/Questions-raised-about-Mia-Loves-immigrant-parents-story.html?pg=all
The reporter’s side of the story:
The reporter’s side of the story:
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