Advertisement

Understatement of the Week: Mitt Romney

By ANTHONY HALL, United Press International
Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter

Is it an understatement to declare there are eight justices on the U.S. Supreme Court, when there are, in fact, nine?

Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry criticized the court's "eight unelected and, frankly, unaccountable judges" in a debate about prayer in schools, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Advertisement

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich also tried his hand at the week's understatement accolade by describing Palestinians as "an invented people."

"The fact is, the Palestinian claim to a right of return is based on a historically false story. Palestinian did not become a common term until after 1977. This is a propaganda war in which our side refuses to engage and we refuse to tell the truth when the other side lies," Gingrich said explaining his comment.

Gingrich, at a debate at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, then took another shot at landing the Understatement of the Week accolades while sparring with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

It began when Romney accused front-runner Gingrich of being a career politician. The former speaker hit that one over the fence. "Let's be candid, the only reason you didn't become a career politician is you lost to Teddy Kennedy in 1994," Gingrich retorted.

Advertisement

Romney tried a comeback, but if he doesn't make it to the White House his comment may be the Understatement of the Year.

"But I spent my life in the private sector," he said ...

Wait for it ...

"Losing to Teddy Kennedy was probably the best thing I could have done for preparing me for the job I'm seeking," he said.

Latest Headlines