Romnesia

English

Etymology

Blend of Romney (“Mitt Romney”) +‎ amnesia.

Noun

Romnesia (uncountable)

1. (US politics, of Mitt Romney) A propensity to claim to have forgotten, or act like one has forgotten, one's past deeds and political positions.
   • 2011 November 22, Ronald B. Scott, Mitt Romney: An Inside Look at the Man and His Politics‎^[1], Lyons Press, →ISBN:

     When the Boston Globe asked Mitt about the incident in 1994, he provided a classic mind-numbing “Romnesia” evasion: “I don't have any memory of what she is referring to, although I certainly can't say it could not have been me.”

   • 2012 May 11, Timothy Lange, “The bully's bully: Mitt Romney's consigliere Eric Fehrnstrom”, in Daily Kos‎^[2], archived from the original on 24 May 2013:

     In a typical display of what Kossack AlyoshaKaramazov calls "Romnesia," the all-but-official presidential nominee conveniently couldn't remember the incident in which, aided by some of his pals, he attacked a gay student at his prep school and, while others held the boy to ground, whacked off his non-conformist long hair because "he can’t look like that."

   • 2012 May 18, Jed Lewison, “Another dazzling display of Romnesia: Mitch Daniels says we're in 'peacetime'”, in Daily Kos‎^[3], retrieved 2012-10-19:

     The fact that Mitch Daniels apparently has forgotten we are at war in Afghanistan—even though he served in the White House when we began the war more than a decade ago—is a fitting tribute to the Romnesia that has infested the Republican Party.

   • 2012 October 19, Barack Obama, “Remarks by the President at a Campaign Event — Fairfax, VA”, in The White House‎^[4], retrieved 2012-10-19:

     If you say you’re for equal pay for equal work, but you keep refusing to say whether or not you’d sign a bill that protects equal pay for equal work — you might have Romnesia. If you say women should have access to contraceptive care, but you support legislation that would let your employer deny you contraceptive care — you might have a case of Romnesia. If you say you’ll protect a woman’s right to choose, but you stand up at a primary debate and said that you’d be delighted to sign a law outlying — outlawing that right to choose in all cases — man, you’ve definitely got Romnesia.

   • 2013 September 5, Timothy J. Callahan, Poet Against Israel, Bloomington, IN: AuthorHouse, →ISBN, page 418:

     This is more than Romnesia / Or any other Romney brainteaser. / This is cognitive dissonance.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:Romnesia.

Anagrams

• Romanies, romaines, moraines, rosamine, Romanise, rainsome, Romaines, romanise