Elspeth Reeve at the The Atlantic Wire points out that “Mitt Romney’s Comments on Embassy Attacks Backfire Badly“:
… But if you watched Romney’s press conference Wednesday in which he doubled down on his statement, the candidate seemed to think he was nailing it. After he finished responding to each question, he smiled, looking very satisfied. (“The statement that came from the administration was a statement which is akin to apology and i think was a severe miscalculation.” Smile. “It’s also important for me just as it was for the white house last night by the way to say that the statements were inappropriate, and in my view a disgraceful statement on the part of our administration to apologize for american values.” Smile.) Maybe that’s because he knew the kids would love it. The kids being the base, as reflected by conservative bloggers loving Romney’s response and calling the murder an act of war by the Libyan government. As he has through out much of his campaign, Romney is defying expectations that he would “tack to the center” after winning the GOP primary. On Wednesday, he played to the same crowd that was so outraged over the “Ground Zero mosque.”…
__
Whatever he might have assumed about his target audience, those smirks just seem oddly out of place when discussing such a serious topic. But then, Romney’s always had trouble interpreting the signals emitted by entities that are insufficiently akin to Romney’s experiences. The Boston Globe just published an excerpt by Scott Kearnan on a 2004 incident:
It was 2004, after the Supreme Judicial Court had cleared the way for same-sex couples to obtain marriage licenses in Massachusetts. Governor Mitt Romney remained a roadblock, endorsing a constitutional amendment that would ban it….
“I didn’t know you had families,” remarked Romney to the group, according to Wilson. The offhanded remark underscored that Romney, the governor of the first state prepared to grant same-sex marriage, hadn’t taken the time to look at what the landmark case was really about. By this point the plaintiff’s stories had been widely covered by national media — in particular, Julie Goodridge’s heartrending tale of how her then-partner, Hillary, was denied hospital visitation following the precarious birth of daughter Annie…
“I looked him in the eye as we were leaving,” recalls Goodridge. “And I said, ‘Governor Romney, tell me — what would you suggest I say to my 8 year-old daughter about why her mommy and her ma can’t get married because you, the governor of her state, are going to block our marriage?’”His response, according to Goodridge: “I don’t really care what you tell your adopted daughter. Why don’t you just tell her the same thing you’ve been telling her the last eight years.”
Romney’s retort enraged a speechless Goodridge; he didn’t care, and by referring to her biological daughter as “adopted,” it was clear he hadn’t even been listening. By the time she was back in the hallway, she was reduced to tears.
“I really kind of lost it,” says Goodridge. “I’ve never stood before someone who had no capacity for empathy. It went behind flat affect. It was a complete lack of ability or motivation to understand other people.”
While Goodridge cried, Romney brought the press into his office to give his take on the meeting.
He described it as, “Pleasant.”…
Looks like we’re approaching the point where the only ones defending Romney are paid shills and fellow Empathy-Impaired — a group with a certain amount of overlap:
Anonymous
God damn it.
Jim, Foolish Literalist and Fact Checker
I”ve long thought that ROmney’s lack of interest in foreign policy was far and away the most under-discussed relevant story of this campaign. But this business is so freakin’ weird it’s hard to even talk about it. Romney’s only real interest in foreign policy seems to be using it as an excuse to hit this siily, demagogic note about “apologizing”. That’s his only foreign policy instinct. How can any adult interested in politics and current affairs, much less who wants. to fucking. be President, fercrissake be so disengaged from foreign policy?
The Dangerman
This was my ROFLMAO find of the day (it’s a little hard to read backwards at something other than +0, but, it loops):
http://i.somethingawful.com/u/garbageday/2012/comedy_goldmine/clint_chair/R.S._Gumby_02.gif
PurpleGirl
Another one with no curiosity, no inclination to research or inquire about any topic he doesn’t already know about. {head-desk}
Jim: The rombot has no interest in anything, not just foreign policy. The only thing it seems he wants to know about are tax cuts.
penpen
Where do the Republicans find these guys?
Mike in NC
“No Capacity for Empathy” is a decent enough bumper sticker.
Hill Dweller
As some, not enough, journalists pointed out, the embassy statement Willard called an apology was made hours before any attack. They made the statement in hopes of diffusing the situation.
But that craven asshole decided to try and score some political points. I’m thrilled it backfired, and hope it destroys any chances he had of becoming President.
Richard
It’s clear this is a guy who has a complete lack of empathy. For him, this political attack was no different than say his “You didn’t build that” distortions. The fact that he was essentially pissing on the dead with his lies in this case wasn’t anything to be concerned about.
A US Ambassador was murdered, and Romney walked out of that press conference with a fucking SMILE on his face.
Comrade Jake
Looks like someone who is used to being the top prick at the dick factory.
priscianusjr
@penpen:
Robert
Romney has Asperger’s.
PeakVT
I really want to punch that smug face of his.
ETA: If only…
hildebrand
It all comes back to the fact that Romney has lived his entire life within a bubble – no one has ever challenged a single utterance than has escaped his foolish lips. This uptight, inexperienced, moralistic, self-righteous freak is dangerous – dangerous precisely because he acts like a spoiled child, without any sense of the consequences of his actions because Mumsy and Dadsy have always told him what a precious little tyke he is, and that everyone just loves him.
I think he is actually more dangerous than W. W simply didn’t care to learn anything, Mitt thinks he ‘knows’ better than everyone else, even when it is patently obvious that he is the most ignorant person in the country.
SarahT
@The Dangerman: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA ! HA.
SuzieC
My husband and I think there’s really something seriously wrong with Romney. IMO, he’s a a classic sociopath.
SuzieC
@Richard:
Yes, and it’s scary.
SuzieC
@Richard:
Yes, and it’s scary.
Cacti
Sociopath.
Villago Delenda Est
@PeakVT:
The Germans have a word for OvenMitt’s mug: Backpfeiffengesicht
Richard
Given the kind of soulless, amoral scum that today’s Republican Party seems to attract, I think that it’s just a matter of time before we find out that some prominent GOPer had been a serial killer in his spare time. Ted Bundy would have been a good fit for these cretins.
Chuck Butcher
Not to blogwhore… well yes I am – but anyhow, I wondered about Gods and Liars
mdblanche
@Robert: No, he’s just an asshole.
Mnemosyne
@Hill Dweller:
Though, depending on how exactly how coordinated the attacks were, there may have been nothing the Egyptian consulate could have done to defuse it anyway.
I’m assuming that most of the Marines who were sent in posthaste to improve the security at the embassies went to Egypt since the stories I’ve been reading say that the embassy in Libya was burned to the ground.
Villago Delenda Est
@Richard:
Ted Bundy was a GOP operative.
Hill Dweller
@Mnemosyne:
Obviously they didn’t know that at the time.
Peter
I really wonder sometimes if Romney has Asperger’s or something similar. He really does seem to be constantly misreading obvious social cues and behaviors…
andy
When people have been kissing your ass your whole life, these are the kinds of decisions they make. I’ve met rich people (who inherited their wealth) before and it’s always the same damn thing. Introduce an idea they can’t understand, or even talk back and for them it’s like hearing a foreign language. It’s why trash of this particular kind are always getting suckered by grifters- grifters always tell their marks exactly what they want to hear. Just another kind of mirror. Mittens makes stupid decisions because he employs stupid people. Stupid people who are his own perfect mirror.
The Fat Kate Middleton
@mdblanche: Gotta agree. I’m the granny of a very sweet Asperger’s boy. He feels deep pain for others – he just doesn’t know how to express it in ways the rest of us do. Romney is simply an entitled asshole, who feels no pain for others.
cmorenc
@priscianusjr:
It’s a terrifying thought that Rick Santorum, had he won, would almost certainly have handled his response to the Libyan crisis in an infinitely more appropriate way. Santorum is a man whose heart and mind belong to the 14th-Century, but he’s not a complete ruthless sociopath like Romney is.
Gin & Tonic
@Mnemosyne: The consulate in Benghazi was burned down. The embassy is in Tripoli.
Cacti
@andy:
How’s the saying go?
First rate leaders hire first rate talent. Second rate leaders hire third rate talent.
brent
@penpen: I am certain they didn’t have to try very hard. In my life, I would say well over half the Republicans I have met are complete assholes. Probably 65-70% as a guess. Mitt’s certainly not an anomaly by any means. Frankly, he may be the frickin’ archetype.
I meet people all the time who disagree with me about various things – sometimes politics, sometimes sports. Whatever. With most non-Republican human beings, its never any big deal to have some dispute. But as soon as I start seeing bad faith, petulance, whinyness, an impenetrable sense of entitlement, I know with almost rock solid assurance that I am dealing with a Republican.
julie
it’s the smile of a sociopath. there are a lot of them in the business world.
KG
This election is going to be a blow out… there is no way Romney can survive the debates as a credible candidate.
priscianusjr
@Robert:
Michael G
Forget seeing Mitt’s taxes, I want to see the results of his Voigt-Kampff test.
Chris
@mdblanche:
“Mitt, in the future, in case you’re wondering, ‘crime, boy, I don’t know’ is when I decided to kick your ass.”
amk
So how are the wingnutz handling the scummy mittbot’s implosion ?
Soonergrunt
Anne Laurie,
Check your BJ-linked email, Sis.
PurpleGirl
@Peter: I forget where I read it but there was a long post about possible brain injury from the auto accident he had in France and from which he was in a coma for several weeks (IIRC).
Chris
@priscianusjr:
For a very large measure of “superficially” and an infinitesimal measure of “charming.”
Another Halocene Human
“I don’t really care what you tell your adopted daughter. Why don’t you just tell her the same thing you’ve been telling her the last eight years.”
The headline is “I didn’t know you had families” but that comment above is the vomit line.
Richard
With regards to attracting sociopaths, College Republican organizations are evidently Karl Rove wannabe training factories. I recall reading one article that described how the baby GOPers would viciously attack each other with dirty tricks in a social Darwinist game of the survival of the most vile and despicable.
Villago Delenda Est
@amk:
They don’t see it as an implosion. What he’s saying is music to their ears.
He’s taking down the ni*CLANG*. He can do no wrong now.
Chris
@brent:
Seconded. I’m frankly astonished on those rare occasions when I find a Republican who’s not a complete asshole these days.
GregB
Note to self:
Adjust the smugometer on the RomneyBot 3000.
-The IT Dept.
Robin G.
@PurpleGirl: Was that before or after he pinned down the long-haired kid at his school and cut his hair off?
Another Halocene Human
@Jim, Foolish Literalist and Fact Checker: But this business is so freakin’ weird it’s hard to even talk about it. Romney’s only real interest in foreign policy seems to be using it as an excuse to hit this siily, demagogic note about “apologizing”. That’s his only foreign policy instinct.
R-Money is exactly like a boss I once had. (As Romney brags about taxes, my boss enjoyed wheeling his cream Mercedes on and off the property while the employees were making $23K a year or whatever.) When you came to him as a union about an issue, he would look for the flip side of whatever it was to stir up dissent against the union amongst the same old people. Lame and transparent but it riles up the weak and the dumb.
I guess that’s his base.
Another Halocene Human
@The Dangerman: Now that was hilarious.
Mike in NC
@Richard:
In my district, the teabaggers twice ran the war criminal Ilario Pantano for Congress, somebody who was kicked out of the Marine Corps for shooting unarmed civilians in Iraq. He lost the primary to a guy who bragged about working for Jesse fucking Helms!
PurpleGirl
@Robin G.: After, when he was in France in 1968. I double-checked and the article on the accident uses the term “unconscious” not “coma”. But the French police initially thought he was dead.
Felinious Wench
Add me to the “he’s a psychopath” camp.
Soonergrunt
@priscianusjr: I don’t know if Rmoney is a true sociopath, but he sure as hell looks to me like a Narcissistic Personality, although Hare’s current model factor 1 is actually referred to as aggressive narcissism.
sharl
Smirking Mitt! (This one has action!)
There is nothing Tumblr cannot do. NOTHING!
[I’ve been away from here all day. Someone must have posted this earlier.]
SatanicPanic
That smirk says to me “the bodies are in the basement”
SatanicPanic
@Soonergrunt: This one really jumped out at me:
Ahem, President of the United States
celticdragonchick
@Michael G:
He failed by the fifth question (A boy shows you his butterfly collection and the killing jar) and had to be “retired”…
Felinious Wench
@Soonergrunt:
He’s got something going on in the psychopath/sociopath spectrum. Anyone who isn’t familiar with Hare’s work should be. Without Conscience is a good introduction.
Narcissus
@Richard: So they’re Sith.
Gex
The “act like a human” algorithm needs tweaking.
Gex
@Robert: Sometimes it’s not about being autism spectrum. Sometimes its about being on the sociopath spectrum.
Seanly
@Michael G:
That turtle’s not going to turn back over on its own.
slightly_peeved
@Robert:
…..and he’s an asshole.
People with Asperger’s may be impolitic, or sometimes more direct than usual, but the desire to take advantage of this tragedy is nothing to do with Aspergers, and everything to do with being a heartless asshole.
karen marie
@amk: Heads are ‘sploding!
Another Halocene Human
@Robert: Asperger’s here says he has Narcissistic Personality Disorder.
I explained in an earlier thread why ASD and NPD have empathy problems. They arise from different places.
A person with ASD would never jump up there and try to stick a gripe to their opponent in order to rile up the rubes. But an NPD person would. They LOVE disorder and people fighting with each other.
penpen
It’s odd because I do get the sense he is not the worst person in the world from a personal/family standpoint. His sheltered, wealthy upbringing just seems to have given him zero ability to empathize with or relate to anyone whose circumstances do not approximate his own. I’m not surprised the Republicans chose someone like that, I’m just surprised they couldn’t find someone who could hide it better.
Nellcote
Nailed it!
penpen
I know we joke a lot about him being a uniquely inhuman alien/robot/alien-robot, but the world is full of incurably wealthy scions with empathy deficits; it’s just weird to see one so eager to participate in the presidential popularity contest.
Amazingly, yet another area (presidential candidate whose philosophy/governance/personality is smothered under the omnipresent weight of his father) where Republicans end up projecting hard.
Mnemosyne
@Gin & Tonic:
Oops, sorry, you’re correct. Though it does make it interesting that the ambassador was there at the consulate and available to be attacked. Was he on a planned visit? I have a vague feeling that embassy security is stronger than consulate security, but I could be wrong.
Richard
Well, it seems there is an actual term for what Romney may have been expressing with his smirks. It’s called “duping delight”.
dogwood
Could we just stop trying to find some excuse for Romney’s behavior? He doesn’t have Aspergers or some sort of psychological disorder. He’s an ass and a bad person. This isn’t even necessarily connected to his wealth. I don’t know many rich people, but I know people like Romney. They don’t give a shit about anything or anyone but themselves. They are tone deaf and superior. The Republican party is full of these assholes and the majority of them are working class and middle class douches.
penpen
@dogwood: Agreed. I don’t get the rush to diagnose him with pathologies. His behavior is sad because it’s so damn banal.
Ripley
@celticdragonchick: “My taxes? I’ll tell you about my taxes…”
BOOM.
Darkrose
I saw that article in the Globe, and I was so glad it ran. I first read about that story in 2004 in Bay Windows, and I just sat there with my mouth hanging open. The fact that he couldn’t even muster the normal “I understand that this is a complicated issue with strong emotions on both sides” took my dislike of him and turned it into active loathing.
I thought about this story when I heard about the efforts to “humanize” Mitt at the RNC, and how he consoled the family at his church when their son was diagnosed with leukemia. His empathy subroutine apparently only kicks in with people who are like him: white, straight Mormons.
Meg
I was just at Slate. It looks like both Weigel and Dickerson are trying to give Mitten’s performance a soft spin.
wasabi gasp
Don’t worry, be happy.
shep
Pen
@penpen: It’s not a rushed attempt at armchair analysis. The guy’s been in the spotlight for years and every time something like this happens, or we find out about some past action, the list of things that make you go “wait, why the hell did he do that?” gets longer.
He’s moved past just plain asshole in my book, and I honestly believe an impartial look at his statements, reactions, and behavior would mark him as some sort of sociopath. There’s spoiled. There’s selfish. Hell, there’s even being a plain asshole. I’ll agree that he’s all of those but then he keeps digging deeper. The guy reminds me of Dexter minus the bodies.his reactions, and inability to CRT to unexpected responses, strikes me as an act. Like the guy just doesn’t get empathy, like he doesn’t even perceive it.
Pen
CRT = react accordingly. Not sure how the hell that happened
shep
@Pen:
I’m going to keep trying here, since you are some of the smartest people on the interwebs and if you can’t get over your ignorant fucking prejudiced understanding of a few psychological terms/concepts, you’re going in my book:
So you can argue that many of our oligarchs engage in “behaviors that are considered antisocial by society at large, but are seen as normal or necessary by the subculture or social environment in which they developed,” but, as soon as you take away the empathy and sense of remorse, you’re talking about a psychopath.
Vanya
I vote psychopath. I actually once sat across from Romney (and Orrin Hatch) in business class on a Boston-Salt Lake flight. In private he didn’t seem Aspergery at all (and I know quite a few people with Aspergers). He seemed socially very at ease in that setting, he can hold a normal conversation easily with normal give and take, no signs of being obsessive on any topic, no verbal or physical tics, etc. He may not even be a true psychopath. Between his elite Mormon social circle and his privileged upbringing, Willard may really have never developed any understanding or feeling for what normal Americans are like. It’s ironic that Obama is constantly being smeared by the Right as “alien”, when Romney probably has culturally less in common with mainstream America than any candidate you can think of. He makes ol’ George HW Bush look like the people’s champion by comparison.
buckyblue
Wow, now I see why Michele the B thought she had a shot at the nomination. In her crazy cat-lady brain she could see that she and Mitt weren’t that different. I was one who thought that Mitt was the best repub choice for the country; as in if he somehow was able to beat Da Prez, at least the country wouldn’t go down the tubes. I thought he was a moderate at heart. God was I wrong. His foreign trips to softball countries, and now this, make me wish the Pizza Guy had won the nomination. At least we’d be in better hands if the unthinkable happens.
LanceThruster
@Comrade Jake:
Homer: [melancholy] My campaign is a disaster, Moe. [angry] I hate the public so much! [melancholy] If only they’d elect me. [angry] I’d make ’em pay! [melancholy] Aw, Moe, how do I make ’em like me?
Lojasmo
@Robert:
Yup. I think this is true. Aspergers is the most reasonable explanation.
RaflW
Romney seems to lack some sort of basic emotional tools to live among other humans. I don’t know how his family can even function, much less his campaign or businesses.
Maybe they don’t, by the looks of how Mitt for Prez is running.
West of the Cascades
@RaflW:
I don’t know how his family can even function, much less his campaign or businesses.