The Romney Campaign selectively edits great speeches from history

By now you probably know all about the Romney campaign’s creative editing of President Obama’s “You didn’t build that” quote, in which they changed the meaning of what Obama said by editing out the first part of the President’s sentence. It’s not the first time the Romney campaign has been caught splicing Obama quotes to change their meaning. We got to wondering, what if Romney’s crack editing team went to work editing some famous speeches from history? How could they change their meaning, just by cutting out some key parts of the speech? Let’s take a look…

Abe Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address:

“Four score and seven years ago, our fathers died in vain.”

Patrick Henry’s “Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death” speech:

“I beseech you, sir. Give me chains and slavery, not liberty or death.”

JFK’s Ask Not What Your Country Can Do For You speech:  

 “Let the word go forth, from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that there is little we can do, for we dare not meet a powerful challenge.”
 

Ronald Reagan’s “Tear Down This Wall” speech:

“Mr. Gorbachev, I fear war and I pledge to you to tear down my country’s defenses.”

Lou Gehrig “Luckiest Man on the Face of the Earth” speech:

“Fans, today I consider … I have never received anything from you fans. I would give my right arm to beat those boys in white coats.”

FDR’s “The Only Thing We Have to Fear is Fear Itself” speech:

“The only thing we have to fear is government, the dark, a plague of locusts, and me.”

Winston Churchill’s “This Was Their Finest Hour” speech:

“I spoke the other day of the colossal military disaster which occurred when the French High Command failed to withdraw the northern Armies from Belgium at the moment when they knew that the French front was decisively broken at Sedan and on the Meuse. This delay entailed the loss of fifteen or sixteen French divisions and the battle in France has been lost. They have suffered severely. This was their finest hour.”

MLK’s “I Have a Dream” speech:

“I am happy to join with you today to cash a check our republic wrote. And so we’ve come to demand the riches and take the tranquilizing drug and blow off steam. We must degenerate into physical violence. Distrust all white people! We will not be satisfied until the hotels of the cities are free at last for black men only.”

Hamlet’s Soliloquy, by William Shakespeare:

“To be, or not to be, that is the question: Whether ‘tis Nobler to suffer the whips with a bare bodkin? To grunt and sweat, rub that flesh?”

Jesus (Mark 8:34-38) “Gaining The World, Losing Your Soul”:
“Good News. If any of you wants to follow my selfish ways, my adulterous and sinful days with the holy angels, you benefit if you gain the whole world. Is anything worth more?”