GOP Presidential candidate Mitt Romney, to graduating students at Regent University (Pat Robertson’s school, from which many future convicts, including Monica Goodling, have graduated):

"It seems that Europe leads Americans in this way of thinking," Romney told the crowd of more than 5,000. "In France, for instance, I’m told that marriage is now frequently contracted in seven-year terms where either party may move on when their term is up. How shallow and how different from the Europe of the past."

French marriages that are "contracted in seven-year terms"?  Ana Marie Cox gets to the bottom of this:

UPDATE: I have spoken to an actual former citizen of France, who tells me that he has no idea what Mitt is referring to here. "It’s the former length of the presidential term," he guessed, "and there’s a thing like a civil union…" That lasts seven years? "No."

I’d also like to note how truly bizarre it is that the WP printed this quote completely uncritically and without comment, as if seven-year marriages in France were something we all had heard of and accepted as true.

Mitt Romney is the the leading Republican candidate for President, and he talks about things that simply — bluntly — are not true.  Do we need another President who has trouble grappling with, or even amassing, facts?