Tango-horse lady Ann Romney is sick of Democratic meanies picking on her Mitt, you guys!
Ann Romney said it’s all part of a plan to portray her husband “in a light that is just completely wrong… they don’t’ get him at all.” Pressed by Crawford on what qualities in her husband she sees most misrepresented, she said, that “he’s not as approachable as I am or something like that. That’s like, really kind of funny to me because it’s all – it’s all backwards.” … One opening the pair has to usher in an “everyday” persona is their search for a running mate.
That really is the perfect way to relate to the everyday American. I wish I had a nickel for every time I’ve struggled to find the perfect running mate, preferably one who would match my curtains and kind of tie the room together.
[X-posted at Rumproast]
rikyrah
I coulda told you months ago Miss Ann that nobody in the Prudential Building is playing with Willard.
You’ve been up against amateurs and grifters.
You’re so ENTITLED, that you and your ENTITLED husband just thought Barack Hussein Obama was gonna hand over the Presidency
‘ cause it was YOUR TURN’.
Bitch, he gotta be ELECTED
…………………………………………….
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505263_162-57466625/ann-romney-obamas-whole-campaign-strategy-is-lets-kill-this-guy/
dmsilev
@rikyrah: I was just about to post that quote. “Let’s kill that guy”, huh? Maybe it somehow escaped Mrs. Romney’s notice that her husband’s entire primary strategy consisted of burying his opponents in an unrelenting flood of negative ads.
Sorry, Ann, but you kind of lose the moral right to complain after that.
Jewish Steel
You had me at
Ha!
Cargo
But Mitt is the White Horse Prophecy! This whole election business is all a formality.
Hill Dweller
Why is Willard hiding behind his wife’s skirt?
Brian R.
Mitt has the answers to turn the country around? Is there any chance he’ll actually tell us what they are? Or is that something the little people don’t need to know?
JGabriel
CBSNews:
Shorter Ann Romney: Mitt isn’t out of touch with you people; you people are out of touch with Mitt!
You know something? I have no problem believing that Ann Romney is even more out of touch with people than her husband.
.
Litlebritdifrnt
Only because I am evil like that I really wish there were a First Lady debate. It would be fun to watch.
Jewish Steel
Not exactly a great position to be in for team R. Wasn’t the Obama campaign trying to deflect a certain amount of fervor at this point? “Obama is just a celebrity.” “The One.”
And their guy is still struggling to appear approachable? And has to send his child bride out to explain him? What a train wreck.
Linda Featheringill
I think it must be very hard to be a candidate’s spouse. Being a candidate’s child might be even worse. The families have my sympathy.
But . . . Running for President of the United States is the most difficult game on the planet. All the participants incur injuries. Every one. Quitcherbitching.
I’ve long suspected that sane people just don’t try for the presidency.
Brian R.
This reads like something out of the Onion
“Ordinary people can relate to my husband,” insists the billionaire’s wife who owns an Olympic horse, four houses, and “two or three Cadillacs.”
JGabriel
__
__
Hill Dweller:
Because Mitt Romney likes to play dress-up.
.
Mnemosyne
I love that Ann Romney is delusional enough to believe that people think she’s “approachable.” Seriously.
the Conster
The jet ski pictures are just awful looking. Ann’s driving and Mitt’s on the jump seat behind her looking like one of the kids in the back seat of the mini-van. He’s hiding literally and figuratively, cuz he knows he’s toast. He really doesn’t know what to do for the first time in his life. That’s what you get for being an entitled asshole, asshole.
Davis X. Machina
The Romney campaign might as well print the bumper stickers: “What are you people doing in my country?” Romney 2012.
You can think that. Hell, they all think that.
The trick is not to let it show. The old, mostly Yankee, money up heah is as thick as the leaves in October, but they’ve learned to be invisible.
Legalize
Can’t we just pay some people to make me look all-American-y? I’m running for office, for Pete’s sake!
Ash Can
Yeah, no kidding, Ann. Welcome to real-life politics. The stakes are high, and it’s no place for amateurs.
Our current First Lady is arguably the most glamorous and the most brilliant we’ve ever had. All Ann Romney has going for her, on the other hand, is her blond hair, white skin, and pretty face. She sounds like a half-wit in this article, along the same lines as Sarah Palin, and like someone who has no knowledge of or exposure to national politics. If the geniuses running Romney’s campaign had any brains, they’d relegate her role strictly to eye candy, and maintain a vast distance between her and any and all microphones.
Mike R
@Brian R.: Not a chance, why would he need to tell the little people anything. Well except maybe bow down to your master and praise my magnificence.
danimal
Ann Rmoney has a point. A lot of Dems have tried to portray Mitt as a plutocratic politician with his finger in the wind, riches to burn and hordes of trained monkeys to repeat his every falsehood. This is an incorrect, of course.
The monkeys aren’t trained.
the Conster
@Davis X. Machina:
Rmoney yesterday: “I love this country,” Romney said. “I love the people who have built this country.”
for me he means.
maya
Has their search for a running-matey already vetted all the leper colonies?
Mino
@Cargo: He saves the Nation by losing the election. That works for me.
Jan Crawford just ran the SCOTUS story, too.
Amir Khalid
@Brian R.:
You’re interviewing a guy for a management job in your company. You bring up a well-known and pressing issue that whoever takes the job must address; naturally, you ask the guy for his thoughts on how to deal with it. But instead of answering, the guy sits back and says, “I’ll tell you when I start work, not before.”
Every time he stonewalls a policy question (or his surrogates do it), Mitt Romney is being the guy in this scenario.
Davis X. Machina
@the Conster: Someone needs to tell this mofo that the second and third words in the Constitution aren’t ‘The Help’ — they’re ‘The People’.
I am beginning to gin up a Nixon-magnitude hatred of this man…
MikeBoyScout
@Litlebritdifrnt:
Maybe SNL will fill in the gap?
Ash Can
@Litlebritdifrnt: Even I cringe at the thought of that kind of humiliation.
AliceBlue
@Brian R.:
Of course the little people don’t need to know! It’s all being discussed in the quiet rooms!
hells littlest angel
I know the mormons have got an inbreeding problem, but I hadn’t realized that Mitt Romney married his own mother.
Davis X. Machina
@Davis X. Machina: I am beginning to gin up a Nixon-magnitude hatred of this man…
C-plus Augustus was the result of a marketing experiment run on the American people — he was the answer to “How little President can we put in the box labeled ‘President’ and still have it fly off the shelves? And to “What marketing will we need to move in volume a box labeled ‘President’ with no actual president inside?” It was interesting, in a morbid and lethal way, to watch.
Nixon and Reagan were weird, twisted operas, or noir flicks. Garry Wills nailed that in covering both of them (Nixon Agonistes; Reagan’s America) Operas, though, not annual reports from Accounting…
But this is different. The cold-bloodedness and calculation, like the phone call in the scary movie, is coming from inside the candidate.
JPL
When Alito’s wife became teary eyed over questions her husband had to answer, the media loved it. Sympathy and herb tea for Ann, I guess.
Balconesfault
Will the search for a VP involve Grey Poupon passing?
the Conster
@Davis X. Machina:
Mitt’s version: Me and the Little People of the United States…
Keith
If he has a “regular person” as a running mate, it means he gets to make all the jokes about regular people that he wants!
Hunter Gathers
Doesn’t Ann have a dressage horse that she doesn’t ride to tend too? Courses on Magic Underwear to teach? Shouldn’t she be trying to find planet Kolob in available star charts?
I used to think that one of Mittens’ surrogates or a GOPer back bencher to be the first to call the POTUS and his family a bunch of niggers. That’s no longer the case. It’s gonna be Ann. And she’ll do to Michelle’s face, should they ever be in the same room.
PeakVT
@the Conster: “We, The Elect, …. “
Ben Cisco
@rikyrah:
I heard this in the appropriate tone of voice and started laughing so hard I think I broke something.
Might have been a spleeen.
Steve in DC
@Amir Khalid:
Oddly enough that’s how consultants work. They come in and tell you xyz is fucked up or abc could be working a whole lot better. You need to hire them right now! But of course they can’t tell you just what their solution is because if you did they’d have no reason to hire you and pay your fees because they could implement the solution on their own!
Consultants usually get hired based off convincing everybody else that the current people running the business have their heads up their ass and everything would be so much better if they were put in charge.
In a way, having dealt with countless consultants in the past, it’s not that shocking. Of course if you have never had to deal with a management consultant the who process seems insane!
Anya
Were they not claiming few months ago that Ann Romney is her husband’s “secret weapon”? Based on what? She’s as entitled and out of touch as her husband.
amk
@Brian R.: stolen for tweeting.
JGabriel
@Balconesfault:
Caviar.
.
Nutella
My favorite bit from the article linked up top:
The VP choice will be someone just like Mitt. Two of them! That’s going to go over well.
Hill Dweller
Ann was considered a liability during Willard’s Massachusetts campaign. After seeing her in action for the last several months, it’s easy to see how people came to that conclusion. Everything that comes out of her mouth screams entitlement.
The fact that Willard’s campaign believes Ann is the one to save him when they think he is in trouble just confirms for me they have nothin’.
amk
@Ash Can: The whiny annie reminds me of that whiny wifey of that texan cretin of a gov, the imbecile rick perry
Litlebritdifrnt
@Ash Can:
Like I said, I am evil.
@hells littlest angel:
that is EXACTLY what I thought when I was watching that documentary about his mother!
Amir Khalid
And that’s how consultants get contracts, by preying on the insecurities of management at client firms. But an elected office-holder isn’t a consultant; he’s an employee of the people. It makes a mockery of the democratic process if a candidate gets to invoke “secret cause” on what exactly he’s going to do in office, so that people can’t judge his plans on their merits.
Davis X. Machina
@Hill Dweller:
The old political truism “You can’t beat someone with no one” gets a rigorous empirical test this go-round…
Mark S.
@Nutella:
Are they looking for a VP or someone to have a threesome with?
danimal
Srsly, Ann. You’re gonna go with that? After 4 years of KenyanIslamoFacism, you’re gonna say that Dem portrayals of Mitt as a rich man out of touch with the common ‘Murkan is somehow off-limits.
Gawd, these people disgust me. They can sure throw a punch, but can’t even take a light shove. Ann, I hope you and Mitt enjoy retirement from public life with the bazillions of dollars he manipulated out of the system through financial chicanery. Just get out of our lives, willya?
eric
The fundamental problem for Romney is that he IS a privileged douche AND he comes across as a privileged douche. That daily double shines through every day and most non-rabid GOPers see it. that is why Obama still has a strong Electoral College lead even after getting very limited positive press for ACA and the other legislative accomplishments AND while the economy continues to suck a$$. You have to be a special kind of douche to be losing in this economic climate. and, voila: he is that special kind of douche.
Mino
Love the header at GOS: (to paraphrase) Yeah, yeah, we wanna kill him. Now, about that blind trust…
rlrr
@danimal:
Silly, only Republicans are allowed to run a negative campaign…
Ash Can
@Anya: If Ann is the Romney campaign’s secret weapon, our election process needs a slaughter rule.
Betty Cracker
@eric: Exactly right and well said.
Keith
@JGabriel: My guess is that Mitt really wants someone that Americans want to have a beer with. Therefore, I see him choosing an heir to the Coors family fortune.
MattF
Here we go. Liar, coward, plutocrat, sanctimonious pr1ck with a Daddy problem, soulless quasi-human. If anyone claims they don’t know who you’re talking about after the first three, they’re lying.
Villago Delenda Est
This foul harridan needs to hang from the same gallows as her pirate husband.
And all their foul spawn.
eric
@Betty Cracker: thanks, I speak douche. lemme add that while W made me cringe, he did so in a fundamentally different manner than Romney. to my ear, Bush had clown in him, in a way that made him SEEM more common than he was. He did not APPEAR to be a douche. To some, he really did seem more like them because he was very imperfect. Mitt tries to be perfect and, well, he fails.
Villago Delenda Est
@Hill Dweller:
Didn’t some cretinous sack of goo at Politico claim that Ann Romney brought “rock star” pizzazz to the Rmoney campaign? The awesome status of say, Ted Nugent?
More like the caricature Marie Antoinette presence, methinks.
amk
@Mino: LOL. Nice.
Marcellus Shale, Public Dick
hey if no one else is going to say anything about matching betty’s curtains, i won’t either.
shortstop
Um, Ann, no one–except pathetic Republican women searching frantically for an excuse to vote for your husband–finds you more approachable than he. Your family is just weird.
Hearing the exceptionally entitled cry piteously that the filthy plebes are making them work for an elected office they think should be theirs for no other reason than they want it…I can approach that situation with full enjoyment.
quannlace
shortstop
@eric: Yes, wonderfully put. Not even CU can save a candidate this bad.
Betty Cracker
@eric: Agree about Bush. He seemed like a mean, overgrown, not-too-bright frat boy to me, but I could see where he had that “would like to have a beer with” factor for the people who decide our elections as if they were an episode of American Idol, and god help us, that seems to be how it’s done.
I’m appalled that this is how we decide elections, but if the unlikable factor is what it takes to keep Willard out of the Oval (rather than the fact that he’s a shameless liar and hypocrite), I’ll take it…
the Conster
Also, the more he speaks off the cuff the more his voice rises and gets faster like he’s talking down to an impertinent misbehaving child. He’s way out of his comfort zone and no one’s got his back except the equally tone deaf Ann. It’s not even gotten tough yet – wait until the debate fallout when he really pisses off the press corps because he won’t answer their questions. There’s only so much horse race they can gin up.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Mark S.: That was pretty much my thought. Is she suggesting Mitt will pick a VP or a mistress? And does she have a vote on who gets the spot (and if so, why – your thought perhaps?).
comrade scott's agenda of rage
@Anya:
I’ve watched her give a brief stump speech numerous times. And introduce her husband. She’s quite good at it. Nice voice, telegenic, good delivery. It all seems natural. Which is totally unlike her husband.
Because of that, of course the Villagers will latch onto it and use it to promote their pre-established story line in order to perpetuate the horse race myth.
But then she goes off-script…
Each and every time she’s not working from words written for her, yesssirreeeeebob, she comes across as the entitled douche she is. As pathetically out of touch as her husband. And no amount of natural flair for speaking can make up for the shitastic content coming out of the speaker’s mouth.
gogol's wife
@Betty Cracker:
The NYTimes has some article on the front page about how “swing voters” are tired of hearing about ACA. I am so sick of the whole election hanging on these know-nothing idiots.
Frankensteinbeck
I have sometimes wished it was otherwise, but isn’t ‘Stop being mean to me!’ a tried and failed campaign tactic?
Birthmarker
@danimal: Yeah, four years ago we were hearing wall to wall about a sentence or two out of the mouth of a minister. This woman, who I am sure is basically a decent person, doesn’t realize the pass they are getting.
In retrospect, I guess we can thank Sarah Palin for placing the emphasis elsewhere for the last 8 weeks of the 08 campaign.
The Vanity Fair article about the Romney family finances that has been making the rounds the last couple of days states that Mitt and Ann Romney have 102 million dollars in their IRAs.
102 million dollars in individual retirement accounts. Can you imagine the outrage if that were true of a Dem candidate?
shortstop
@comrade scott’s agenda of rage: Yes, this is an important distinction. She’s fine on script, terrible off it, and that’s because there’s no there there.
Soonergrunt
@Villago Delenda Est:
Somebody there suggested that she shits and pisses herself without showering for month? I’m not sure that’s going to work with most of the country, but I suppose the chicken-hawks who make up the majority of the conservative movement will see a fellow traveler.
pseudonymous in nc
Mittens is going to invite all the potential Veep candidates to his New Hampshire compound, where they will partake in a series of games, frank discussions and trials of strength that he’ll join in and rig so that he wins, and the most gracious loser gets the nod.
rikyrah
@eric:
so on point.
MattF
@gogol’s wife: Remember, Presidential elections are decided by people who can’t make up their minds. That’s just the way of the world.
Tom65
We’re edging closer to a “John McCain At The Grocery Store” moment. Can’t wait.
Ash Can
@the Conster: This occurs to me too, and I get the feeling it’s already starting to happen. The press corps is all about access. McCain drove them around on his campaign bus, fed them barbecue, let them play on his tire swing, and gave them enough bullshit at the right times for them to meet their deadlines and keep their editors happy. Romney’s giving these guys jack shit, hanging them out to dry, making them go back to their editors all but empty-handed. How much of that are they going to take before they start getting pissed off (and I would argue that they’re already getting restless)?
NCSteve
So, this is like, what, the third presidential election in a row where the Republican candidate and his spouse are deeply aggrieved that they’re having to do all this tedious campaigning business where dreadful poor people are allowed to mean things about the candidate, rather than just stepping aside and allowing the Republican to receive the office to which he is entitled?
I swear I recall there was an era when Republicans weren’t whining about how awful democracy is all the damn time. Seems to have ended during the 2000 recount.
Also, too, has anyone noticed how all the people expressing puzzlement either about Millard’s social awkwardness with people he meets on the campaign trail, or about how the press can possibly say that he’s that way, because, hey, that’s not the Mitt they know, are all obscenely wealthy and ultra-white?
NonyNony
@pseudonymous in nc:
That sounds shockingly accurate.
maya
Say, doesn’t the Olympics in London start in a few weeks? (July 27th) Wanna bet the Librul media falls all over itself to get Willard for commentary? And Annie for a guest appearance at the Dressage comp?
That’s why they’re resting/ rehearsing up at the Rhomney Commpound.
rikyrah
found this tweet:
Donna NoShock@NoShock
Warren Buffett’s much richer than Willard. Asked, if he ever had a Swiss bk acct, his answer, “No there R plenty of good banks N the U.S.”
Jewish Steel
@Ash Can: Whether that storm breaks or not I think depends on the strength of opposing pressure from media owners. They’re more likely to play ball with Romney because he’s “one of us,” naturally.
eric
Romney’s other super-massive problem is that DeMint thinks (rightly, I would add) that he is running the GOP and that guy is no McConnell or Boehner. He is a nasty piece of work. DeMint has a legitimate constituency, while Mitt does not, unless you count former interns from Bain and their parents and drivers.
catclub
@Davis X. Machina: They also hate the first word.
Yutsano
The WSJ ain’t sold yet either. That editorial is a beautiful whine.
catclub
My personal crusade ( pun intended): Did you know that if Romney is elected he will be sworn in on the Book of Mormon?
the Conster
@Ash Can:
Watching the B-list hacks on the talk shows this morning kind of enjoy the “it’s a tax” “it’s a penalty” “it’s a tax” squirming from the Romney camp gave me a whiff of what’s coming. They even mentioned the polling gap in O’s favor in Ohio and Pennsylvania. Romney’s a stiff and a douche, and a teetotaling entitled bully who has never had to account for himself, and his instincts to be an arrogant dismissive asshole to the press is going to be catnip for them because they’re not going to get a beer from him.
Violet
@rikyrah:
Somehow my mind turned that into Joan Crawford, with Ann Romney playing the role. No more wire hangers!
Villago Delenda Est
@catclub:
They’d change it to “We, the assholish .0001% of the population”
JPL
@maya: Mitt is going to fund raise while he is overseas, although Bob Diamond had to step down as the host of the fundraiser.
David Hunt
@Nutella:
I suppose it makes more sense than most VP choices. The MittBot v12.7 can have his alternate server and most recent backup as his VP. That way continuity of leadership is assured if something happens.
Hmmm. On second thought given who we’re talking about, it might be better for the VP to be someone with more a sense of responsibility and morality. We can start with Bernie Madoff and go forward from there.
Patricia Kayden
@rikyrah: If her interview is as awkward as what you note in your comment, then she’s not doing her hubby any favors.
And what does she mean by “kill Romney”? When has Obama or anyone associated with his campaign said anything about killing the Bot? **rolls eyes**.
Did she think that Obama was going to just roll over so that her husband could win the election? Entitlement much?
Alex S.
I think that Ann Romney’s horse is a low hanging fruit that Democrats shouldn’t use, but…
Romney/Ann’s horse 2012!
comrade scott's agenda of rage
@Ash Can:
This. I have a friend who’s a former WH Reporter but still part of the Village Media circle jerk. You have exactly described how he/she views any given administration’s press office or for that matter, chief press spokesdrone.
My friend loved Dana Perino precisely because he/she could “get the shit she needed in a timely manner” from that iteration of the Mouth of Sauron. My friend has nothing but ill words toward Carney because his office doesn’t play that game and half the time tries to cut out the WH Press Corpse. He/She claims it’s a double-standard in that this WH said it would be “the most transparent ever” and yet this WH doesn’t “play nice” the wway the WH Press Corpse expects it to play.
This isn’t exactly partisan since my friend also had nothing but disparaging things to say about Tony Snow. It amazed me how much having a different chief press spokesperson changed the actual day-to-day process in the WH as it pertained to the Villagers who cover it.
Alex S.
@Nutella:
Hell, why not Ann for VP? Romney/Romney 2012!
Paul in KY
@the Conster: Hopefully we can make this into a ‘Dukakis in the Tank’ type photo. Real Murican men do not ride the rear seat behind some lady who may not know how to properly handle the 750 cc thrust of a Suzuki Banzairunner ™.
Evolving Deep Southerner
@Tom65: We’ve already had that with his “WaWa’s” moment, no?
JPL
@Alex S.: It’s her therapy horse. It helps her deal with a stiff spouse.
If Alito’s wife came across as sympathetic, you can be assured that FOX will paint Ann as sympathetic.
Raven
@Paul in KY: Nothing, I repeat, nothing is going to make a republican look bad. Where at been?
askew
@Tom65:
I had forgotten about McCain’s hilarious and uncomfortable campaign moment. I can’t wait to see what Willard does to top it.
eric
the romneys, more than any other major public figures remind me of my favorite RATM line: These people aint seen a brown-skinned man, since their grandparents bought one.
rlrr
@the Conster:
Also, how is a jet skiing not elitist and windsurfing elitist?
mdblanche
Ann Romney explains why her husband isn’t as out of touch as he seems. What is it they say? If you’re explaining, you’re losing?
@hells littlest angel:
If Mitt Romney is the Mormon Kwisatz Haderach, I don’t think we have anything to worry about.
Hoodie
@Mark S.: Sounds more like she’s arranging a play date for a six year old.
Chris
@Ash Can:
Like Palin, the Romneys are too arrogant to take the hired help’s advice on running a campaign.
eric
Look, if a spouse that KILLED someone is not a liability, then a spouse suffering from a serious malady will not be allowed to be a liability by the MSM. Seriously sheeple.
Tom65
@askew: That was a minor flub. I’m waiting for something on the same level of McCain’s flop-sweat moment.
shortstop
@pseudonymous in nc:
This cracked me up. Unfortunately for the competitors, Mitt and Ann are the only ones who get to air grievances.
@eric:
Davis X. Machina
@rlrr: Internal combustion engine. Skiing and snowmobiling. Hiking and going mudding on an ATV.
It’s only American if there are hydrocarbons involved.
catclub
@rlrr: Easy. If it has an engine, it is not elitist. People who actually use their muscles (especially when they don’t have to) are snobs of he worst kind.
See: ATV access to wilderness trails [The people who won’t let us buzz up and down the trails are clearly elitist. How could it possibly be that they cannot afford an ATV? Or Worse yet, just dislike them?].
Golf carts.
nascar.
Linda Featheringill
@Yutsano:
I read the WSJ piece. They’re saying that Romney is losing the election, yes?
Villago Delenda Est
@comrade scott’s agenda of rage:
Carney doesn’t coddle them. He expects them to be professionals.
We learned in 1993 that the White House Press Secretary does not deal with professionals (Helen Thomas of course is the outlier) when they threw a fucking conniption because the White House Travel Office no longer coddled them. Leading the charge was the vile asshole Donaldson…how DARE you mess with my perks that I AM ENTITLED to as a senior member of the White House press corpse!
Carney expects these maggots to actually fucking work, which is more than their editors apparently do.
When it’s time for the tumbrel manifests, be sure to contact me so your friend can be included. Wouldn’t want them to miss out on the networking opportunity of a lifetime, after all!
comrade scott's agenda of rage
@rlrr:
One burns tons of fossil fuel, requires no skill and and can be done while drinking. The other…
Srzly, here in Flyover Country, especially in a place where I am (next to a river), it’s practically a residency requirement to have some kind of powered, water craft. Until last year, I had a waverunner (threw a rod) and believe me, they’re marketed at all my bubba neighbors. All they need is credit and a place to play with it and they’re set.
Windsurfing can usually only be done on either coast (Great Lakes notwithstanding) and thus here in (un)Real ‘Murka, is viewed as elitist.
shortstop
@askew: I thought I’d known about and treasured every awkward McCain campaign moment, but I don’t remember this one…?
mdblanche
As for a running mate, while everyone else is making Shermanesque statements, Governor Harkonen says he’ll answer the call, so that should make Mitt look more human, at least by comparison.
ding dong
I cannot get over the. Republicans choosing the mittster. Granted they didn not have a real great field but mitt? What were they thinking. In fact I am not going to believe it until he is actually nominated at the convention.
Paul in KY
@Raven: The photo don’t lie.
phoebes-in-santa fe
@eric: About a month ago I was talking to my son, who makes commercials for Dem candidates and is as staunchly a Dem as I am. We were talking about Romney and Bush and we found ourselves saying things like, “Well, at least Bush wasn’…” or “Bush at least didn’t do…”
All of a sudden I stopped and said to my son, “OMG, Mitt Romney is SO odious that we’re saying nice things about George Bush!” We both had a good laugh.
Paul in KY
@rlrr: Use of a motor. preferably one that pollutes the ocean.
Villago Delenda Est
@Chris:
Palin has always been a very hands on campaigner, from what I’ve read, and just not capable of delegating to a campaign manager. Wanted to micromanage the placement of campaign signs, for example.
Sir Mittens seems to have some of the same problems…can’t delegate, can’t accept constructive criticism, can’t accept coaching…remember that guy who prepped him for a debate and did such a good job he got fired because he came across better in OvenMitt’s eyes than OvenMitt?
I can’t see OvenMitt inspiring the sort of blind loyalty that Palin did (followed by an even greater sense of betrayal, natch) but I can imagine his staff just giving up on trying to give him full support, as they find out that their honest efforts are rebuffed.
Paul in KY
@Villago Delenda Est: I do think it is generally not a good idea to pick fights with people who buy their ink in barrels.
David Hunt
@eric:
John Rogers noted this phenomenon back in ’05. His some of the money quote
“He actually THINKS he’s a good ol’ boy. He hung out with southern fellas, banged stewardesses, drank too much Jack, and wears cowboy boots. When he found Jesus, I genuinely believe he found Jesus. He has no intellectual grasp of the contradiction between Christ’s method and his policies, but that doesn’t mitigate the fact he believes, and it comes through”
…
“George Bush believes he’s a good guy. Dad lived at Kennebunkport and went South when he had to. George, for all his faults, thinks he’s a Texan. He’s PROUD of his identity as a Texan, because it saved him the effort of actually constructing a personality of his own. If any of his businesses, oil or sports, had panned out, I’d take even money he never would’ve gone into politics. Karl Rove’s genius in finding Bush was finding a guy who actually believed in his own bullshit image.”
…
“Why the hell do you think they never let him do press conferences? Precisely because he’s such a shitty liar.”
tl;dr version: The reason that Romney raises your hackles more than Bush is that Romney is consciously lying as opposed to just projecting those aspect of his personality that other people like. Romney, OTOH, doesn’t even possess a deluded self-image of himself as One OF The Guys. Thus, whenever he tries to come off as anything other than an entitled douche, you can tell he’s lying.
Commenting at Balloon Juice since 1937
Who is less approachable, Mitt or Ann? That’s a tough one.
Jay in Oregon
@Hill Dweller:
Good question. He should have a frank and full discussion of his career moves with the rest of the family to discuss this.
(Seriously, that family vacation sounds like the worst hell imaginable.)
EDIT: Dammit, pseudonymous in nc! Scooped!
shortstop
@David Hunt: Eminently reasonable. I’ll buy that.
askew
@shortstop:
Here’s a video link to McCain’s bumbling.
shortstop
@Jay in Oregon: What’s really creepy about that is it has the feel of the village elders gathering to discuss a selected person’s shortcomings and tell him what he should do next–a churchy intervention of sorts. What’s also really icky is that no one seems to care about the “career moves and parenting worries” of the daughters-in-law. Perhaps none of them work outside the home, but it’s hard to escape the notion that they’re appendages of their husbands in the Romney family.
shortstop
@askew: Thank you! Sweet jesus, that was enjoyable.
Frankensteinbeck
@ding dong:
This is a campaign season unprecedented in recent history. It has allowed us to take a good look at the question of how important the Tea Party Revolution was to the GOP, and what’s going on inside this diseased political organ. The answer, which we probably should have guessed, was ‘crazy people are incompetent’. This includes the GOP base. Only an incompetent could have gotten this far. The bench of candidates were all incompetent, and the least incompetent won – barely, because the base finds his possession of even tiny amounts of competence irritating.
catclub
@Davis X. Machina: Downhill skiing is actually an exception, in my view. Since you are least using fossil fuels to ride the lift. Compare to cross-country skiing.
Also, how could places where incredibly rich people have lodges be elitist?
EconWatcher
@shortstop:
Every form of refuge has its price…
IowaOldLady
Am I the only person who reacted to the word “kill” in that quote? In our heated political climate, that’s not a word I’d choose. What’s more, I don’t believe Obama ever used it.
Chris
@ding dong:
They went through a hell of a lot of alternatives on the primaries. Trump, Bachmann, Cain, Gingrich, Santorum. Somehow none of these people were satisfactory.
Violet
@Frankensteinbeck: I noticed the same thing. The daughters-in-law seem to be second class citizens. Who talks to them about their parenting challenges? What about their careers? Or is being a mother their career?
shortstop
@IowaOldLady: I think we all reacted to its over-the-topness. But I don’t think it was specifically meant to evoke the Menacing Black Man or Tyrant Dictator memes. I suspect Ann Romney really believes that any sustained attack on her husband is objectively unfair. They’ve never really had to face one before, other than in a much weaker form in the MA governor’s race, and their insular eyes don’t see what a pass he’s getting.
eric
@IowaOldLady: yes, you are. Clearly, she used the word “kill,” not in the way your perverse liberal mind would have it, but to mean “kill” in the sense that the way having to fly to the Caymens to sign deposit cards “kills” the day. sheesh.
RedKitten
Is it just me, or is the Romney attack message, “Obama isn’t working” a huge dogwhistle? I try to not be hypersensitive to these things, but considering the typical conservative viewpoint of the non-working black man (welfare bum eating t-bone steaks on your hard-earned dollars!), it just makes me stop and wonder…
BC
My god, didn’t Hillary get pilloried for being too involved in the campaign, and now we have the Mrs. Mitt Romney talking about staying awake at night trying to decide who the VP will be? Michelle caught hell (I am on a roll, rhyme-wise) for saying anything substantive on the campaign. IOKIYAR
shortstop
@RedKitten: I hadn’t picked up on that, but I suspect you’re completely correct, and that this interpretation is the intended one.
catclub
@IowaOldLady: Yep, notice that she says this is what she _feels_ they are saying.
It is all about her fee-fees. Just extra goodness to almost accuse them of saying it, when they haven’t said anything close.
catclub
@RedKitten: It is not just you.
It is.
Geoduck
@eric:
I suspect most GOPers see it as well, they’re just holding their nose and gritting their teeth.
Davis X. Machina
@catclub: What is this ‘downhill skiing’ of which you speak?
Here we just stand under a cold shower and tear up $20 bills while a friend hits us with a tire iron. At day’s end you’re cold, wet, and broke, and stiff and sore, but your carbon footprint is smaller.
AliceBlue
@shortstop:
They don’t just want it..it’s their turn doncha know.
Soonergrunt
@RedKitten: No. It is not just you. It’s entirely intentional.
shortstop
So since soonergrunt is here, I will note that there were a number of Marines at the barbecue I attended yesterday afternoon/last evening. At 8:00, everyone got up to troop a couple of blocks east to see a fireworks show. Except the Marines, who came right out and said they don’t do fireworks and told us why. Weird that with all the military people I know and am related to, no one’s ever discussed this in front of me before until this week, when a lot of people have.
HyperIon
One opening the pair has to usher in an “everyday” persona is their search for a running mate.
1. That is one ugly sentence. I had to read it half a dozen times to get the meaning. Usher in a persona?
2. Maybe Ann just needs to unzip Mitt again/more.
scav
No wonder the rich need all that money. They have to hire someone to project humanity for them. Job-creation!
rb
@RedKitten: It’s not just you.
Lex
Shorter Ann Romney: “You’ve got it backwards! I’m an even bigger bitch than Mitt is!”
millekat
Well, maybe they want Roderick Ussher. For the common touch. :~)
There there…I actually don’t think, “My family can buy and sell yours” is meant to have racial overtones.
karen
@Birthmarker:
Fixed.
pseudonymous in nc
@shortstop:
For all the idiotic muttering about soc1@lism on the right, the way that aristocratic LDS families like the R-moneys function internally sounds a lot like a planned economy: “we will now have the report on the Tagg Five-Year Plan!” Of course, it’s financed by leveraged buyouts and vulture capitalism, but hey, them’s the breaks.
ericblair
@Davis X. Machina:
That’s totally unfair. We eat overpriced shitty chili as well.
shortstop
@pseudonymous in nc: Well, I guess that’s what I’m wondering: Is this an aristocratic LDS family thing, or just a the-Romneys-are-fucking-weird thing? There haven’t been too many Mormons, aristocratic or not, in any of the places I’ve lived, and I’m woefully ignorant of their practices.
Soonergrunt
@shortstop: Part of it is, I think, that there’s less shame attached to military PTSD than there used to be.
shortstop
@Soonergrunt: And damn right, too. My dad was in combat in Korea and he has major issues to this day.
rikyrah
@RedKitten:
not just you
Nutella
@pseudonymous in nc:
In a normal family the kids would be conducting their careers with only occasional advice from the parents but in a normal family the kids would not have financed their careers with millions in tax-free transfers from the parents. It makes sense to me that Mitt is able to demand accountability from these people he set up in ‘business’ (as they call vulture capitalism).
hitchhiker
The basic problem is that entitled people can’t see entitlement in the same way and for the same reason that fish can’t see water.
It’s what they swim in, and if they ever get plucked out of it, they can’t breathe.
Mnemosyne
@shortstop:
Mitt is an LDS bishop and IIRC they take that stuff very seriously. They really do think that he is their spiritual leader and he has a responsibility to give them spiritual guidance.
Ruckus
@shortstop:
Old navy vet here. Didn’t get sent to Vietnam, didn’t see combat. Still don’t care any more for fireworks. It seems to me to be glorifying war. It’s a shitty, dangerous, often deadly job that sometimes people have to do but there is no glory to be had from warfare even though sometimes people do things during warfare that they deserve being glorified for.
That said I went last night with friends to watch. During the whole time I was thinking how little this looked like a 5 inch gun firing or a missile launch/strike.
jefft452
@JGabriel: “You know something? I have no problem believing that Ann Romney is even more out of touch with people than her husband”
This
I’m sick and tired of people talking about how Lady Ann is such an asset to the Romney campaign
I have yet to hear her speak without a “let them eat cake” moment
Jebediah, The Cornstarch of the Comment Threads
@Nutella:
I get that this type of phrase doesn’t have to be literally accurate, but something about “vulture capitalism” bugs me. Vultures feed on corpses, and so do an important job. Mitt wants us to think he just took on “corpse” companies and through his management genius, revived them. But when an outfit like Bain (perfect that is a homophone of “bane”) takes a perfectly cromulent company and destroys it, along with lots of American jobs, I think “cannibal capitalism” is more apt.