WashPost Promotes Obama Silver-Birther Swipe at Romney -- Then Rebuts It, Low in the Story

April 19th, 2012 8:32 AM

The Washington Post promoted Barack Obama's slam at Romney yesterday: "I wasn't born with a silver spoon in my mouth." It was a headline above an Obama picture on page A-4, with a caption noting Obama's "not-so-subtle swipe" at Romney. It was promoted in the second paragraph of a campaign roundup on A-5 by reporters Amy Gardner and Nia-Malika Henderson.

But for readers who made it to paragraph 22 of the Gardner-Henderson piece, it became clear Obama is exaggerating the silver-birther attack, or it could be, argued, lying about Romney's life story:

Romney is sensitive to perceptions that he grew up wealthy, so Obama’s “silver spoon” remark could strike a nerve. On the campaign trail, Romney sometimes talks about his father growing up poor and driving across the American West looking for work.

When Mitt was born, the family was middle class, moving from Detroit to the tony suburb of Bloomfield Hills after Mitt was a teenager, when George Romney took over American Motors. Although Mitt’s parents helped fund his college and graduate education, and helped him and his wife, Anne, buy their first home, he did not inherit their wealth; he amassed a multimillion-dollar fortune on his own, working at Bain Capital.

Obama's swipe was just as personal as if Romney said he wasn't born to a deadbeat dad from Africa. But it wouldn't take 20 paragraphs for the Post to offer analysis.