I kid. I kid parce que j’aime. I’m making reference to those funny Pace Picante Sauce commercials of yesteryear, in which the mention of “New York City” prompted outrage from the gruff cowboys around the campfire, and prompted one of them to suggest, “Git a rope.” Here is a video of Mitt Romney speaking passable French 10 years ago. He did his Mormon mission as a young man in France. I imagine Rick Perry is already cueing up this video for a Freedom-Fries-y commercial. As one of the few, the proud Francophilic conservatives, having an American president who speaks French would be grand. (Any Hispanophones know if G.W. Bush’s Spanish was any good?) In fact, having an American president who is fluent in another world language would be nice, wouldn’t it? By the way, here is a video of GOP presidential candidate Jon Huntsman, the former US ambassador to China, speaking Chinese. Guess what? He did his Mormon mission in Taiwan. If Romney becomes the next president, I bet he makes Huntsman his Treasury secretary, or better, his Secretary of State.

One thing I hate about the state of populism on the Right: the fact that Romney speaks French might actually be a strike against him. I don’t think it’s mere anti-intellectualism, though. Huntsman wouldn’t be faulted for speaking Mandarin. Bush wasn’t faulted for speaking Spanish. It’s a Francophobic thing.