I guess you remember during last Saturday debate in Iowa, Mitt Romney recalled how he lived him France when asked if he ever lived through hard time during austerity time. It was right after his $10,000 bet gaffe. Mitt Romney told the audience that he lived in difficult condition while working as missionary for his church in France. He said that the place where he was living was small and had no fridge and was deprived of luxurious items.
In fact he told Diane Sawyer that he was forced to live with only $110 a month while being missionary in France for almost two years during the Vietnam war.
"So, I lived in a way that people of lower-middle income in France lived", He said before adding that they had no working lavatory, nor bath nor shower in the house. I'm not kidding. I guess Romney wanted us to believe that his time in France was as bad as Victor Hugo's Les Misérables.
We had instead the little pads on the ground There was a chain behind you with a bucket. [...] If we were lucky, we actually bought a hose and we stuck it on the sink ... and wash ourselves that way. Most of the apartments I lived in had no refrigerators.
Well as you expected with Mitt Romney, he never tells the truth. In fact, TPM reported that British newspaper The Telegrah discovered that Mitt Romney lived a rather lavished life while in France.
But the Republican presidential hopeful spent a significant portion of his 30-month mission in a Paris mansion described by fellow American missionaries to The Daily Telegraph as “palace”. It featured stained glass windows, chandeliers, and an extensive art collection. It was staffed by two servants – a Spanish chef and a houseboy.
Although he spent time in other French cities, for most of 1968, Mr Romney lived in the Mission Home, a 19th century neoclassical building in the French capital’s chic 16th arrondissement. “It was a house built by and for rich people,” said Richard Anderson, the son of the mission president at the time of Mr Romney’s stay. “I would describe it as a palace”.
Tearful as he described the house, Mr Anderson, 70, of Kaysville, Utah, said Romney aides had asked him not to speak publicly about their time together there.
Remember, Mitt Romney told us that he had been living like "people of lower-middle income in France lived". Yeah I'm sure that French People of lower-middle income lived or still live in big Mansions staffed with servants and "Spanish chefs" . WOW France must be a lovely place for lower-middle income people. I can't just imagine how rich people live in France.
But of course, we are talking about Romney's world view.
The building, on Rue de Lota, was bought by the Mormons in 1952, having been seized by the Nazis during the Second World War. The Church sold it again in the 1970s, and it was until recently the embassy of the United Arab Emirates. It is currently worth as much as $12 million (£7.7 million).
As for the "No Shower and no bath" claim :
In his remarks this week, Mr Romney said of his French lodgings: “I don’t recall any of them having a refrigerator. We shopped before every meal”. Mr Anderson said that as well as a refrigerator, the mansion had “a Spanish chef called Pardo and a house boy, who prepared lunch and supper five days a week”.
It was “well equipped” with all modern conveniences, including a combination washer-dryer machine, Mr Anderson said. “I never saw anything like it in another private home at that time.”
Mr Romney added in his comments that “most of the apartments I lived in had no shower or bathtub”. He said: “If we were lucky, we actually bought a hose and we stuck it on the sink.” He said he was forced to use a hole in the ground and a bucket for a lavatory.
Jean Caussé, a 72-year-old Mormon who met Mr Romney in Bordeaux, said he “would be astonished” if that had been the case. “I never knew missionaries who had to do that,” he said. “I don’t see why he would have lived in conditions like that for two years when it was far from the general case”.
The mission home in Paris was fully plumbed and central heated. “All of the missionary rooms had something like a bath or a shower attached to it,” said Mr Anderson. “The home had several”.
8:11 AM PT: Thanks for Recommending this diary .