Romney, Saw 2, Update

A quick, follow-up post regarding the game of linguistic limbo Mitt Romney is currently playing with the word "saw." As I chronicled yesterday, Romney is facing scrutiny over his claim, "I saw my father march with Martin Luther King."

Subsequent reporting has uncovered the fact that George Romney, though a supporter of the aims of the Civil Rights movement, never actually marched with King. Faced with the evidence, Romney's campaign proclaimed that their man was speaking figuratively, not literally.

Well, now we have it from the horse's mouth, so to speak. Romney explains the confusion:

"The reference of seeing my father lead in civil rights," he said, "and seeing my father march with Martin Luther King is in the sense of the figurative awareness of and recognition of his leadership. I've tried to be as accurate as I can be," he continued, smiling firmly. "If you look at the literature or look at the dictionary, the term 'saw' includes being aware of--in the sense I've described."

The questioning did not relent. "I'm an English literature major," he insisted at one point. "When we say I saw the Patriots win the World Series, it doesn't necessarily mean you were there." (He meant the Super Bowl, of course.)

You can't make this stuff up. Of course, the analogy of the Patriot's World Series Super Bowl win doesn't work because the Patriots did win the Super Bowl, and George Romney did not march with Martin Luther King Jr. Whatever expansive definition Romney would like to apply to the word "saw," he should take better care with his analogies.

Update: What literary criticism tricks will Romney use to explain his 1978 claim to the Boston Herald:

"My father and I marched with Martin Luther King Jr. through the streets of Detroit."

The false memory alibi seems better to me at this point.