MARK KARLIN, EDITOR OF BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT

The most effective and politically potent moment of the GOP convention was not seen by most Americans (and the Tampa conclave had low ratings to begin with). It was a biography of the Romneys that did momentarily bring a Hollywood manufactured aura of personal amiability to the couple. Unfortunately for the hapless Romney campaign advisors, the video was shown before the golden hour of national television coverage – in order to make time for the disastrous appearance known as the "Clint Eastwood Outer Limits Moment."

One quickly glossed over moment in the video, however, is when Mitt Romney states that his father and grandparents came back to the United States to escape a revolution. Yes, they were escaping the Mexican revolution in 1912, but the GOP candidate president omits a bit of the story that is quite telling, according to the Boston Globe:

George Romney was born in Mexico and was 5 years old when a revolution forced his family members in 1912 to flee their Mormon colony and seek refuge in the United States. The Mormon exiles lost their homes, farms, and most of their belongings, were welcomed by the United States, and benefited from a $100,000 refugee fund established by Congress.

But there are other elements to the Romney story that may explain why he doesn’t tell the full tale on the campaign trail. The reason that George was born in Mexico is that his grandfather - Mitt’s great-grandfather - had taken refuge there in order to escape US laws against polygamy. It was this family patriarch, Miles Park Romney, who established the colony and lived there with four wives.

According to the Global Post:

Former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney's ancestors reportedly fled to Mexico in the 19th century to practice polygamy after it was banned in the United States, the Associated Press reported.

Romney's great grandfather, Miles Park Romney, fled to Mexico after the 1882 passing of the Edmund Act, which banned polygamy in the US. He married his fifth wife after the Mormon church formally banned the practice in 1890.

No one is going to hold his ancestors' polygamy against the devoutly monogamous (to our knowledge) Mitt Romney, but it is an interesting omission from his campaign narrative, considering that he is a devout Mormon. The only reason the Mormon church banned polygamy was that it was a required concession for Utah to become a state in 1896.

More interesting perhaps is the Boston Globe reference to US government welfare being received by the polygamous "refugees" from Mexico, who had flood the United States to pursue the practice, including the Romney ancestors.

Dosen't that mean that Mitt Romney's dad received welfare of sorts, that he didn't "build it on his own"?

If you think that this is some far out accusation, just listen and watch this interview that George Romney's wife gave when he was running for governor of Michigan in 1962 (courtesy of The Political Carnival). Lenore Romney, Mitt's mother, says that her husband, Mitt's father, "was on welfare relief for the first years of his life."

Mitt Romney's father and family were welfare "parasites" (according to Paul Ryan's definition) – now there's a testament to the Romneys that "they didn't build it themselves."

They abandoned the US for multiple marriages and then came back and went on the dole.

Mitt Romney wouldn't be a multi-billionaire today if it weren't for the federal aid safety network provided to his father, period.