The U.K. Telegraph prints a bogus story on Mitt Romney

It seems that either The U.K. Telegraph is either getting some bad information or someone over there has an axe to grind with Romney.

The story via The Telegraph:

In remarks that may prompt accusations of racial insensitivity, one suggested that Mr Romney was better placed to understand the depth of ties between the two countries than Mr Obama, whose father was from Africa.

“We are part of an Anglo-Saxon heritage, and he feels that the special relationship is special,” the adviser said of Mr Romney, adding: “The White House didn’t fully appreciate the shared history we have”.

Mr Romney on Wednesday embarks on an overseas tour of Britain, Israel and Poland designed to quash claims by Mr Obama’s team that he is a “novice” in foreign affairs. It comes four years after Mr Obama’s own landmark foreign tour, which attracted thousands of supporters.

He lands in London early on Wednesday morning, in advance of meetings with David Cameron and other senior ministers on Thursday. He will also meet Ed Miliband and Tony Blair before attending two lucrative fundraisers and the opening ceremony of the Olympics.

[….]

“Obama is a Left-winger,” said another. “He doesn’t value the Nato alliance as much, he’s very comfortable with American decline and the traditional alliances don’t mean as much to him. He wouldn’t like singing ‘Land of Hope and Glory’.”

The two advisers said Mr Romney would seek to reinstate the Churchill bust displayed in the Oval Office by George W. Bush but returned to British diplomats by Mr Obama when he took office in 2009. One said Mr Romney viewed the move as “symbolically important” while the other said it was “just for starters”, adding: “He is naturally more Atlanticist”.

Mr Obama has appeared less interested in relations with London than Mr Bush. He repeatedly rebuffed Gordon Brown when the then-prime minister sought a meeting at the UN in 2009 and was criticised for responding to an elaborate gift with a set of DVDs that did not work in Britain.

The whole quote, if true, has all the trappings of dog-whistle racism. The problem is, according to Jeff over at “The Lid”, not a word of it is even remotely true:

There is one problem with the quote, it is a fraud!

Andrea Saul, Romney’s press secretary, disputed the comments and emphasized that they did not reflect the beliefs of the former Massachusetts governor.

It’s not true. If anyone said that, they weren’t reflecting the views of Governor Romney or anyone inside the campaign,” she told CBSNews.com in an email  I emailed my contact within the campaign who backed up Ms Saul’s response.

The fact that Romney denied that anyone in his campaign made that comment doesn’t matter to the US press, neither does the fact that Mr Swaine hasn’t backed up his charge with proof.

Good work on the part of Jeff to put out the truth on this story. I really do not believe this one to be a effort to knock Romney on the part of the Telegraph; however, I do believe it to be a result of some bad sourcing or planting of a false story, by someone who might have an axe to grind with Mitt Romney. This happens quite a bit in Politics.

However, Mitt Romney does have a bit of another problem, which I am covering in my next blog posting.