Romney's Seven Year Itch

Mitt Romney thinks that "In France, for instance, I'm told that marriage is now frequently contracted in seven-year terms where either party may move on when their term is up." The Washington Post just reports on this straight making no note of the fact that it's ridiculously false. Mark Kleiman remarks:

As embarrassed as Romney should be, the Washington Post should be more embarrassed. Doesn't saying something checkably — and hilariously — false count as gaffe? And shouldn't Romney now be asked to explain his remark? If the Post won't do it, everyone else should.

Kleiman's obviously forgotten the central fact here: It's not a gaffe because Romney's a Republican. Recall that this isn't the first time Romney's been shown with weird ideas about France -- a country where he's actually lived.

This article available online at:

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2007/05/romneys-seven-year-itch/42495/