WELCOME to the debut of “The Truth Is!”, a blog of reporting and commentary that aims to be informative, thoughtful and provocative. At least initially, the blog will have a strong heartland flavor by virtue of the connection of a number of us to Cowles family journalism. I am former editor of the Des Moines Register’s opinion pages. Another contributor, Michael Gartner, is former editor of the paper; he later served as president of NBC News. Another former Register editor who has agreed to contribute, Geneva Overholser, is director of the University of Southern California’s Annenberg school of journalism. Followers of the blog will have access also to the work of Herbert Strentz of Des Moines, a close Register and other newspaper watcher who once headed Drake University’s journalism school. Bill Leonard, a longtime Register editorial writer, will add insights.

“The Truth Is!” will be supervised by my daughter, Marcia Wolff, a communications lawyer for 20 years with Arnold and Porter (Washington, D.C.). Invaluable technical assistance in assembling and maintaining the blog is provided by my grandsons Julian Cranberg, a college first-year, and Daniel Wolff, a high school senior.

If you detect a whiff of nepotism in this operation, so be it. All of it is strictly a labor of love. —Gil Cranberg

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Gilbert Cranberg: ROMNEY’S SECRET PLAN

Before the recent presidential campaign recedes into the mists of time, the Truth Blog brings you an exclusive: how the Romney campaign planned an audacious effort to snatch victory from looming defeat by proposing to fly Romney to Israel with his five sons for all of them to be circumcised to demonstrate the “oneness” of the Romney clan with the Jewish people.

Circumcision: ”The act or custom of cutting off the foreskin of human males particularly as a religious rite of Jews, Moslems and others or as a hygienic measure.”
The elder Romney, upon being briefed about the plan, endorsed it instantly. His sons were less certain. They were convinced, finally, to embrace circumcision by polling data showing that the states of Florida and New York, both vote-rich with persons of the Hebrew persuasion, were crucial to Romney’s electoral hopes. The family matriarch, Ann Romney, was noncommittal . She said somewhat enigmatically “It’s their bodies, they should use them for the greater good.”
Arrangements for the event were proceeding until a campaign staffer conceived the idea that it should be televised. The staff as a whole endorsed the plan and set about arranging worldwide coverage. The reception in Israel, however, was a whole different order of magnitude. A special meeting of Sages was convened. It was tumultuous. A Sage who left the meeting visibly agitated was heard to mutter, “Mishegas!” Things went downhill from there and the plan for the mass Romney circumcision petered out and was then abandoned.
When political scientists gather the conversation invariably turns to the aborted Romney circumcision. It would have made electoral history, but would it have mattered? We may never know. All that can be known with certainty is that future presidential candidates are grateful that it did not come to pass.


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