Did Beth Reinhard misrepresent Romney speech?

Yesterday, I noted a report from Herald reporter Beth Reinhard that GOP candidate Mitt Romney allegedly botched a speech to a group of Cuban Americans by using the phrase, "Patria o muerte, venceremos!" (Translation - "Fatherland or death, we shall overcome!")

A commenter who goes by the handle of Conservative Gladiator, posting at Babalu Blog and Captain's Quarters, makes a forthright assertion about what Romney actually said:

Romney: “I said at the outset that the threat in Latin America is unprecedented. I say that because the Castros have a second tyrant and he has great wealth, from oil. We must stand just as firm against caudillos like Hugo Chavez, tutored by Fidel Castro. Chavez and Castro are brothers in blood, intent on personal gratification at the expense of their people. Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro have stolen the phrase – ‘Patria o muerte, venceremos.’ This phrase should not be used by dictators, but by liberators.

“There are two spheres of influence in the Western Hemisphere. One is dark, bellicose and spreads misery by denying people basic freedoms; the other shines like a powerful light, is peaceful and wants only for its people to live in liberty and prosper.

If this is a correct transcript of Romney's speech, then it casts his use of the offending phrase in a very different light.

I don't know what "Conservative Gladiator's" source is for this, so I can't vouch for it.  But I do know that Beth Reinhard is an activist in the Democratic Party, and that her views are pretty hard-left.  So I would not be shocked if she misconstrued Romney's remarks.

If there is anybody out there who has a full text of Romney's speech, please drop a link in the comments.

More:  In the comments to the Babalu Blog post, Babalu author Val Prieto comments:

Whatever Romney's point was, it was a horrendous choice. You dont go into a Jewish community and use "sieg heil!" to get chummy with said community.

I find it funnier than I do insulting but seriously, if someone is gonna come to my house to kiss my ass, he should does his best not to piss me off in the process.

Another Update:  The text of his speech is here.  As Val says, it still may have been a gaffe.  But it wasn't nearly as bad as Reinhard's report suggested.  Reinhard should have reported the full context of how Romney used the offending phrase.  That would have at least allowed readers to put the comments in context with the reactions that were reported in the article.

One More Update: For new readers visiting from Captain's Quarters and Michelle Malkin, my suspicion of the Herald has a long history.  Here's one example for background.

I LIED -- HERE'S ANOTHER UPDATE: Beth Reinhard kindly responded to an email from this morning (my office has cut off access to Internet mail accounts, so I didn't receive her reply until I returned home, this evening).  She writes:

I think that "conservative Gladiator'' took his quote from the campaign website, not from the speech itself as it was delivered.

It's a fair point, but one that will be tough to analyze without the text of the speech as delivered.  I'm still hoping to get a copy of the remarks as made by Romney at the time.

Comments

[David Glick]

Wow. When you read the whole speech, it's really quite good. Amazing what lengths the MSM is going to in their attempts to discredit Mitt Romney. The sad thing, is that far too many Republicans are falling for it. The MSM is working so hard to discredit Romney because it knows that he is the true conservative in this race. Republican voters need to get their heads together and figure this out as well rather than listening to all of the rhetoric.

[Conservative Gladiator]

David,

I venture to say that not only is the left scared of him but I think that many on the right are scared that he can't win in the society that we live in now. The right believes that there are too many in society accepting personal social and moral irresponsibility and so Romney personally, politically, and fiscally looks too perfect in the current climate. There really is nothing that people in the MSM or in the Republican party can say about him except attack him by taking partial truths and making it fit into their agendas. The problem with the right is that they're accepting of what's there without questioning. As individuals we need to do a better job than listen to people in the MSM.

The other issue is that there are right wingers that truly don't like the Mormon church so they're not going to give him the benefit of the doubt that way. They'll accept anything the MSM will say so long as it's not Romney for President. So there's a lot working against him which is good because it's really sharpening his message and this will only help.

Watch for him in the months to come.

[Jonathan]

This is a manufactured controversy. Does anyone think Romney is pro-Castro? I don't really care about Reinhard, who is using Romney's supposed gaffe mainly as a hook on which to display her own opinions. But the notion that it's terribly important if a presidential candidate makes a minor spoken error (if he did) is stupid. Al Gore once said something about leopards changing their stripes. Ha ha ha. Did it mean anything? No. If there are any questions about what Romney meant, it might be better to ask Romney rather than waste time on a search for meaning where there may not be any meaning.