Playing with words, Romney-style

By Richard K. Barry

According to The Maddow Blog, Mitt Romney claims to be a life-time member of the National Rifle Association. In fact, he fairly recently bought that designation, as one can do with any number of organizations if you pay enough or, in some cases, are elected to the position.

It's interesting, as well, because Romney has not always seen eye-to-eye with the NRA.

On the point of being a life-time member, though, that's a pretty cute trick. If you are not paying attention, you might think that being a life-time member means that one has already been a member of a given organization for much of their life, but, not necessarily. Starting today, you can pay to be a life-time member of Weight Watchers, Mountain Co-op, Gold's Gym, the Girl Scouts of America, and the International Atlantic Economic Society, just to name a few opportunities. I'm sure there are countless others.

And, by the looks of it, also starting today, you can become a life-time member of the NRA for $1000.

My guess is Mitt can spare the scratch.

The point is that politicians are always playing with words to suggest things that aren't quite true. Mitt Romney, however, raises this to a special art form, and for that we should listen very carefully to everything he has to say.


(Cross-posted at Lippmann's Ghost.)