It’s still a goddamn Mittastrophe.
If Mitt Romney wasn’t such a lying douchebag who played to the worst elements of his base with repeated racist, classist, misogynist, and every-other-kind-of-ist-you-can-imagine comments, I might feel sorry for him. No wait — I probably wouldn’t.
Via WaPo:
SAN DIEGO — The man who planned to be president wakes up each morning now without a plan.
Mitt Romney looks out the windows of his beach house here in La Jolla, a moneyed and pristine enclave of San Diego, at noisy construction workers fixing up his next-door neighbor’s home, sending regular updates on the renovation. He devours news from 2,600 miles away in Washington about the “fiscal cliff” negotiations, shaking his head and wondering what if.
~snip~
The defeated Republican nominee has practically disappeared from public view since his loss, exhibiting the same detachment that made it so difficult for him to connect with the body politic through six years of running for president. He has made no public comments since his concession speech in the early hours of Nov. 7, and avoided the press last week during a private lunch with President Obama at the White House. Through an aide, Romney declined an interview request for this story.
After Romney told his wealthy donors that he blamed his loss on “gifts” Obama gave to minority groups, his functionaries were unrepentant and Republican luminaries effectively cast him out. Few of the policy ideas he promoted are even being discussed in Washington.
“Nothing so unbecame his campaign as his manner of leaving it,” said Robert Shrum, a senior strategist on Democratic presidential campaigns. “I don’t think he’ll ever be a significant figure in public life again.”
Yet friends insist Romney is not bitter. Bitterness, said one member of the family, “is not in the Romney genetic code.”
One longtime counselor contrasted Romney with former vice president Al Gore, whose weight gain and beard became a symbol of grievance over his 2000 loss. “You won’t see ‘heavyset, haggard Mitt,’” he said. Friends say a snapshot-gone-viral showing a disheveled Romney pumping gas is just how he looks without a suit on his frame or gel in his hair.
Well, at least he’s not gonna get fat like Al Gore, mirite?
(h/t Baud)
[cross-posted at ABLC]
Litlebritdifrnt
I read that piece earlier and I know it probably makes me a really horrible person but what cheered me was to learn that Marie Antoinette Anne has been doing a lot of crying because she really believed they were going to win and she was going to be First Lady.
It absolutely warms the very cockles of my heart to know that her dreams have been shattered and that she will have to bitterly watch the absolutely fantastic Michelle doing her FLOTUS gig for another four years. I can imagine Anne watching our brilliant FLOTUS on tv for the next four years, stuffing truffles in her gob, her faced streaked with mascara while she swigs from a bottle of vodka (yeah I know that bit is not likely) while she screams “it should’a been me!” at the screen.
Yeah I know I’m a bad person so sue me for relishing in revenge.
Liberty60
When I am tempted to pity Mitt, I remember how he and his weasel running mate were happily planning to cut off my access to Medicare and Social Security, overturn Obamacare and the benefits it brings to my wife and son, how they planned to carve themselves and their cronies fat slabs of tax cuts and rent-seeking subsidies and force working Americans to pay the cost of the absurd military expansion they so casually dreamed of…
Then to dispel the white hot seething rage, I reflect that Barack Obama is now President.
As Peggy Noonan might say, “Let Us Savor”.
dmsilev
First, they mean the Al Gore that took up climate change as a cause and hence has actually done something you know, useful, with himself?
Secondly:
It’s mean of me I know, but paragraphs like this just ooze schadenfreude. Their “destiny” to become President? Screw you and the horse you danced in on.
RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist
I hadn’t seen that photo before. He looks a bit like a less self-aware Bruce Campbell. Apologies to Bruce, of course.
dmsilev
Also, too,
Because I’m *sure* the GOP is just overflowing with eagerness to follow Mitt’s turnaround advice for them.
MikeJ
God forbid you learn something from defeat.
RepubAnon
Poor, poor, pitiful Mitt – forced to live in his La Jolla mansion, with nothing to do but run the car elevator up and down. Life sure is tough when you’ve got a few hundred million in the bank…
On a side note: maybe they can cast Bruce Campbell as President of the United States in the upcoming World War Z movie.
Frankensteinbeck
Right. Except the bitterness we’ve specifically heard from him in the only moments when he didn’t seem like a poorly programmed robot. This article is a fascinating mix of ‘He’s not a whiny, entitled prat’ mixed with the evidence that he’s a whiny, entitled prat.
PsiFighter37
I pity the fool /Mr. T
Okay, not really. I will gladly shower in Queen Anne’s tears indefinitely, thank you very much.
JPL
I’m shocked.. just shocked that now that the campaign season is over, he’s driving his audi.
quannlace
Feel sorry for him? WTF for? The man has more money than God and will never know for a nano-second the fears, pain and struggles of 99 percent of Americans. His contempt for said majority has come through loud and clear. He wasted 8 years of his life chasing after the Presidency, mainly for his own sense of entitlement. Tough. So now he’s rattling around one of his massive homes, feeling bereft? He’ll get over it. Perhaps he’ll dedicate himself to charitable work, though probably only for members of his church.
RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist
Crap. Now where did I put that tiny, tiny violin? It’s around here somewhere.
RaflW
@JPL: Next thing you know, he’ll be windsurfing back east, too.
PurpleGirl
Why this concern over whether or not Mitt is going to be a voice or play a role in the Republican party. Outside of the years as MA governor and then the years running for president, did he ever have a voice in policy decisions or anything in the party? I think he initially found a role as a presidential candidate because of his money and not because of ideas he had expressed. The party was probably hoping he’d finance his own campaign and let them put the money to other uses and campaigns. Which of course, he didn’t do. He sucked up donations like a vacuum.
Good riddance to bad rubbish. (And Ann, dear, sometimes you might want something very, very badly — doesn’t mean you’re going to get it.)
Brachiator
A cynical politician “plays” to his base. Mitt ain’t that smart. Everything we saw of him, from his revealed 47 percent remarks, to the crap spewed by his campaign strategist, suggests that Romney actually believes his bullshit.
They shoot horses, don’t they?
Capt. Seaweed
Playing the “Al Gore is fat” card. About 12 years too late for that meme, Mitts.
the Conster
@RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist:
It’s right here.
bemused
One of his campaign co-chairs didn’t know if it was even healthy for Mitt to be doing any personal introspection. I would say that was a very odd thing to say but probably not from a conservative. Introspection is not how they roll.
I think it’s amusing that his fat cat donors turned on him for blaming his loss on Obama’s “gifts” even though they must agree. I guess Mitt made the mistake of not making sure he was saying that in “quiet’ rooms, not publicly.
Nick
I believe that. A man can’t look so shiny-plastic all the time.
gogol's wife
@JPL:
Yay Slovakia! (I’m Slovak.)
This is sweet. I love that picture.
Triassic Sands
When I was a little kid, my parents gave me a book — “How to Do Nothing with Nobody All Alone by Yourself.” While none of the suggestions is the book was or is earthshaking, what the book taught me was simple — there is no reason to be bored…ever.
Maybe Mitt should round up a copy so he won’t be bored — even though he has enough money to do pretty much anything or go anywhere on Earth, and he can even afford a trip into space. (Hey, Mitt, I’m sure they’d love to hang out with you on the space station.)
I’m sure that losing a presidential election is one of life’s greatest letdowns, but a person of real character would have no trouble finding worthwhile things to do. Hmm. I guess that excludes Romney.
JPL
So on Thanksgiving there is a cute pic of Mitt and Ann in the kitchen readying for the feast but either Ann’s a lousy cook or that didn’t happen.
Narcissus
@MikeJ: Or, y’know, learn something about themselves.
Just Some Fuckhead
He still has his millionaire friends and sweet, sweet life. Maybe they can all chip in and buy a modest Central American country to rule.
Capt. Seaweed
Welcome to the 99%, numbnuts.
Helen Bedd
All candidate Romney had to offer were more tax cuts to the 1%.
Ex-candidate Romney doesn’t even have that….no wonder no one is seeking out his company.
And who exactly would want any advice [policy or otherwise] from someone who spent the last 6 years of their life running for President [and much of the previous 6 years preparing for the run] and losing the nomination the first time and losing the election the next?
I suspect he’ll resurface giving tax avoidance seminars…
PS
Gore might have had a hard time for awhile after 2000 because he won the election by 600,000 votes and watched Bush get sworn in.
Keith
It’s beating a dead horse at this point, but I seem to recall Romney claiming that he only put water in his hair and blow-dried it.
Dream On
First off, the gas-station photo is almost certainly fake. I work with Photoshop a lot – it’s altered and fake. Like an Elvis sighting.
In right-wing circles and much of the media, there seems to be some sort of Ghost Dance mythology emerging about Mitt Romney. A bizarre wistfulness you never saw with the defeats of John McCain, Dole, Bush Sr., Gerald Ford – so many Republicans. It’s turning into a Where’s Waldo of Romney sightings and speculation about “what would Romney think/do?”. His words could turn darkness to light, his actions could move us from hell to utopia. He’s turned into their White Knight, a symbol of dashed dreams. If there’s a GOP Boulevard of Broken Dreams, Romney seems to be walking it.
Which is really funny considering that all of the evidence shows that Mitt is a major-league asshole. Try this bully-fest on for size. It’s creepy and mean.
The link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxMD02zU9SE
MonkeyBoy
“Bitterness”, said one member of the family, “is not in the Romney genetic code.”
I don’t think Romney has ever experienced bitterness in the sense of looserhood from which you can’t recover.
I do think that Romney is now furious and once he finally realizes that there is really nobody to take it out on and restore his position that he will finally know the meaning of “bitterness”.
WarMunchkin
This I don’t quite understand. As I see it, the plan that Republicans are proposing as the “moderate” plan is: capping deductions and lowering rates 20% across the board, and that just happens to be the Romney tax plan.
Keith G
Why are pixels and kbs being wasted on this man? For the time being, he is not important to what we need to do.
Helen Bedd
@RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist:
obama’s got it
http://i.chzbgr.com/completestore/2008/4/25/yeahwellthis128536006990946723.jpg
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I’m not surprised Fernstrom said that, but even considering it’s WaPo (Shalleigh Murray? I haven’t looked yet) I’m surprised the reporter cited it and used that “symbol” crap. When I frist read the quoted part, I just assumed it was Mike Allen or some other Politi-tool.
@JPL: nice catch. As ever: You can just imagine if this were a Dem.
RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist
@efgoldman:
Okay, thanks. BTW, if you missed my shameless pimpage of my latest magazine electronics project, it’s up.
TheOtherWA
Their DESTINY? Is she fucking kidding with that? She’s not a starry eyed teenager. No one over the age of 14 should think that way.
RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist
@Helen Bedd:
That is outstanding. LOLLing here!
eclecticbrotha
I know these “poor, poor, pitiful Mitt” stories are the media’s attempt to re-cast #Romneyshambles as a sympathetic character, but every time I read one I always think of the scene in “Rocky III” where Rocky Balboa and Apollo Creed are training on the beach and suddenly another flashback about the butt-whoopin’ Rocky just took from Clubber Lang stops Rocky dead in his tracks.
If Barack Obama’s victory in November broke the spirit of Mitt the Mendacious all I have to say is “Bravo, Mr. President.”
SiubhanDuinne
Wonder who paid for that meal, since all the staff credit cards were summarily cancelled.
SFAW
@RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist:
Fixed because Rmoney deserves it. (Although Bruce doesn’t.)
Linda Featheringill
Running for president is very, very hard, even for the winners. The losers have an even more difficult time of it. I’m sure that all the losers, of whatever political persuasion, have cried over their failure.
I’m surprised that the Romneys didn’t go somewhere out of the country to hide away for a few weeks, well away from the public eye. It takes time to recover from such a thing and privacy can be very beneficial.
RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist
The really tragic part, which is totally their own fault, is that they believed right up until the concession speech that they were going to breeze through in an easy win. Nobody outside the GOP bubble believed that, but it had to be a terrible shock.
I’d have hated to be Lady Anne’s maidservant that evening.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Catholic friends (I’m extremely lapsed) tell me the thing about converts being the most annoyingly zelous members of the Church tend to be true, so maybe Ann was the one who really thought Willard was the White Horse. I’m only disappointed that there’s no mention of bitter tears amongst the Mittlets
gene108
Also, too Mitt will not likely win share of Nobel Peace Prize and an Academy Award.
SFAW
@MonkeyBoy:
Oh, I imagine Willard can scrape together enough money to find some people to hold down a gay preppie while Mittens gives the poor kid a haircut.
That will get him out of his funk; it always did before.
MikeJ
@Keith G: GYOFB
SFAW
@gene108:
Rumor has it that Norwegian Nobel Committee creating a special category, just to help Mittens get over the shock of his destiny going unfulfilled: it’ll be the Nobel Peace Prize for Cluelessness, Dickishness, and Being an Entitled Prick Who Blames Everyone but Himself for His Own Damn Failures.
I am hopeful that AMPAS will award him the Oscar for Whiniest Performance by a Leading Prick.
pat
I’m curious how that photo could have been faked and photoshopped. I looked at it closely and it seems the car’s mirror (close) and the lights (far) are pretty sharp, but Mitt isn’t. Care to elaborate? It certainly does seem to be a picture of mitt himself…
Rich2506
Eh? Excuse me, but WHAT policy ideas!?!?!? The “give more money to the rich” ideas or the “shamelessly ripped off from my more-progressive opponent” ideas or the ideas that didn’t add up? I’m curious as to exactly what policy ideas Mitt’s referring to.
Richard Fox
The Romney campaign was going to shoot off a huge fireworks in celebration of victory. Compare / contrast to President Obama, who had no such plans, thinking it unseemly to have a celebratory gloat at his opponent’s defeat. And that in miniature is all one needs to know about how much we the people have dodged a huge bullet. The arrogance and willful blindness to anyone’s feelings but their own. Pitiful. We have happily stopped those ass clown entitled tasteless pricks being anywhere near the levers of power. I for one am taking all this current post election nonsensical fiscal cliff mumbo gumbo in stride, just knowing our President is at the helm. Makes everything else seem puny and fixable, and ho hum…
MikeJ
@RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist:
I don’t believe it will happen, but it is my hope that perhaps Republicans will realise that there’s no such thing as “Democratic polling” or “Republican polling”. There is accurate polling and inaccurate polling. And then they generalise and learn that science doesn’t care if you’re a Republican or a Democrat, and maybe they’ll figure out global warming.
Liberty60
@TheOtherWA:
Not really. I ttruly think that the Romney’s believe (consciously or not) in the divine right of monarchy, meaning them, of course.
Frankensteinbeck
@SiubhanDuinne:
The cards for the staff were canceled. These are the TOP advisers, the chummy yes-men who the article goes on to note Romney got high paying jobs for.
Keith G
@MikeJ: Oooh, boy. Now that’s original.
Ash
The Q7 is so ugly. Mittens isn’t even cool enough for an A8.
Baud
My first h/t ever on a blog. I finally feel like I am somebody.
(Which is more than Mitt Romney can say. Bwahaahaa.)
Hal
Al Gore had the election stolen from him. Mitt Romney lost fair and square. There’s a huge difference there in essentially winning the popular vote and having the Supreme Court’s pals of GWB hand him the Presidency because they decided having people’s votes accurately counted was too much of a burden on the public.
RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist
@MikeJ:
HAHAHAHAHA!
Nope.
the bubble is now a permanent feature of the Right. They have invested so much in developing the belief that they are special, exceptional and separate that it’s impossible to accept mainstream ideas developed outside their magic realm of ideological perfection and evil chicanery.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Baud:
And just like that, yer The New Internet Jesus. What’s it feel like, superstar? Take a victory lap.
eemom
@Litlebritdifrnt:
bunch of folks around here were saying before the election that they thought both Romtrons would be secretly relieved to lose. Don’t hate to say I told you so, but I always knew that was bullshit. And I’m sure Mittens would be doing lotsa crying too, were such permissible for big bad Mormon bishoppy boys.
Permit me to join you in luvin every minute of it. As for being a bad person, that ship is long gone over the horizon in my case. bwaaahaaaahaaaahaaahaaaa
eclecticbrotha
@RepubAnon: Heh, you beat me to it I see. Maybe we can re-work the lyrics to the Linda Ronstadt song?
Baud
@Just Some Fuckhead:
LOL. Well let me just say, since this thread is dedicated to Mitt Romney, that I’d like to denigrate all the little people who made this possible.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Baud: SPEECH! SPEECH!
Dream On
@pat:
You asked how this photo could be faked/altered with Photoshop. Hmm, now I could be wrong, it’s possible, but I’ll go with instinct.
Here is an image of Romney pumping gas during a campaign photo-op.
You will notice that the lighting is consistent throughout. Yes, it’s a day-shot sot no flash-camera would be required. But, rings true to me.
Regarding the Gas Photo, the lighting is way overlit, a stuck-up virtual billionaire would never pump gas in attire that way – I sure wouldn’t, and I’m no billionaire. Do you (or does anyone?) stick your hand in your pocket while you pump gas at night? The dimensions of the passenger-side mirror are too large compared with the background of Mitt and the gas pump. And I don’t know any Mormons who don’t take care of their hair. Cleanliness is close to Godliness and all that.
Plus there is the slight inconvenience that the guy in the picture doesn’t particularly look like Mitt Romney. If somebody didn’t tell you “who it was”, could you guess?
Plus, the pixel resolution is so bad that you can’t see enough detail. This lack of detail helps cover up any Photoshop masking/touchups.
A picture of a losing candidate so disheveled is wishful thinking. I’m sure he’s getting a manicure instead, as he uses his ivory backscratcher. In a solid-gold bathtub. For he is Corporate Boy – and – “corporations are people too, my friend…”
lahru
when something fails it is most likely the pilot and not the plane, but in regard to recent politics it is the plane and the pilot.
Republicans have nothing positive to offer the majority of voters. They propose taking rather than giving.
You don’t need to be a rocket doctor to see that…….
handsmile
@RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist:
Congratulations on the MAKE article and the completion of your speaker project.
While your fields of interest and expertise are beyond my ken, I very much enjoyed reading the interview linked to in the article. Passion for what one does is always inspiring.
Your observation on the constraints of peer discussion seemed apt to threads here, and your finely tuned words of advice are applicable to many pursuits. Finally, your praiseful remarks about your wife are simply lovely (and I suspect far more heartfelt than what could be uttered by the Mittbot about Rafalca’s owner).
Mike in NC
A really wonderful article, and the comments are just as precious. So much stinging wingnut butthurt about Poor Little Willard getting his ass handed to him (“but, but Benghazi!”).
I think I’ll read it aloud on Christmas morning to my family as we look forward to the New Year without the nightmare of President Rmoney and VP Ryan haunting our dreams.
RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist
@handsmile:
Thank you. DIY electronics has been my personal unseemly enthusiasm for years. The amazing Mrs. inDetroit Gets It, which is essential for any fanatic. MAKE Magazine is a great resource for creative and handy people.
I really believe in getting outside your social and conversational realm, even outside your comfort zone. I think the GOP failed at this in the last election and it really hurt them.
mellowjohn
late to the party, but BOO-FUCKING-HOO.
Felonius Monk
@dmsilev:
Joel
@JPL: Times like these, I wish I still lived in San Diego. No offense to Mr. Bogg, I don’t miss the place all that much. However, I would relish the opportunity to encounter Mitt Romney riding around on his bicycle.
“Please proceed, Governor”.
Dream On
@mellowjohn: Not late at all. Let’s all go BOO-FUCKING-HOO!
GregB
Mitt hears this from the moment he gets up to the time he goes to bed.
Mitt’s soundtrack.
Violet
@Dream On: If it wasn’t Mitt Romney, wouldn’t someone in his camp say it wasn’t him? Seems like a pretty unflattering photo to have out there with his name attached if it’s a Photochop or it’s actually someone else.
RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist
@Dream On:
‘Winger friends posted all kinds of warnings and admonitions on FB after the election, urging Dems not to dance in the end zone and rub it in. I saw little of that, and none from the national party.
But we are a little glad. Okay, we’re very very glad. Too bad, Mitt. Toooooo baaaaddd!
Mike G
A posse needs to tackle him to the floor and forcibly cut it “to an approved length” while he screams for mercy.
BTW, Romneytron3000 was spotted at McDonald’s before he went to lunch at the White House. I guess he was afraid he’d be served “soul food” or something other than his preferred nursing-home-bland diet.
http://www.dependablerenegade.com/dependable_renegade/2012/11/what-was-he-worried-that.html
moops
@Felonius Monk:
uhm, that’s exactly what his campaign actually did. Sold out the brand, laid the whole campaign off, payed off all his friends handsomely, then just walked away. The only person not wealthier this time is himself. The political consultants hoovered up all the cash (of which Romney risked none of his own, another Bain technique) in huge management and consulting fees.
If the GOP lives, fine great, whatever. The vultures all get their payday no matter what.
JWL
Deep Thought In Still Waters: Gore may have gained weight, but Gore can always lose weight. On the other hand, Romney, who is an asshole, will remain an asshole until his dying day.
Mike in NC
@Joel:
I was stationed there in 1980-81 and enjoyed it quite a bit. Went back in 1988 for two weeks of active duty and was immediately struck by the increase in air pollution, homelessness, illegal aliens, etc. Haven’t had the desire to return since.
Anyway, raise your glasses tonight to toast “Mitt Romney, Down and Out in La Jolla”.
jheartney
@Dream On: I also do plenty of Photoshop, but I don’t agree there’s anything screaming “fake” about this shot. Assuming Mitt is at one of those gas stations with a big overhead lighting setup and it’s nighttime, of course he’ll be overlit compared to his background. The shot is obviously taken from a good distance away, based on the foreshortening of foreground and background elements, so the relative size of the mirrors don’t tell you anything. And his generally disheveled look is what you get when there are no handlers around to smooth out your shirt wrinkles. (If somebody took a random shot of me at night when I was not expecting it, the results wouldn’t be pretty either.)
All in all, it’s possible the shot is fake, but I’m not seeing that it has to be from any evidence in the image.
Dream On
@Violet: I doubt anyone in Mitt’s personal camp (outside of family) cares enough to bother disclaiming the photo. They were and are hired help.
gogol's wife
@jheartney:
Thank you. I’m ridiculously invested in this picture being real. It certainly looks like Mitt to me, and that’s exactly what his hair would do without Brylcreem if a little breeze blew his way.
amk
I am just relieved that ‘murka didn’t have a relapse of its usual dumb dubya moment and elect this pathological liar and tax-cheat.
RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist
@moops:
It’s been argued that this was the main effect of CU. A lot of wealthy people got talked out of dough that was supposed to win elections. Instead useless ads got (expensively) made and aired where they did no good. payday for media consultants and no discernible effect on the outcome. Profit first, results second, that’s the GOP way. What did anyone think was going to happen?
Dream On
@jheartney: yikes!
You may be right – now, like Mitt, my worldview is shattered. Could I have been wrong? I’ve made no concession speech…
Seriously, good analysis.
Elizabelle
In more cheery news:
Turner Classic Movies has “Sullivan’s Travels” tonight at 8 Eastern for its Essentials series.
Preston Sturges directs Joel McCrea, himself playing a film director who wants to bring “O Brother Where Art Thou” to the screen. Initially released in December 1941.
TCM has some great flicks. “Harry and Tonto” and “It Happened One Night” later tonight; theme tonight is “The Road”.
Charles Burnett’s “Killer of Sheep” is on at 0 dark hundred tomorrow night (4:00 a Eastern, I think, for insomniac cinephiles.)
moops
most former candidates mostly disappear if they aren’t currently elected officials. Al Gore is one of the rare exceptions.
I’m hoping we can experience a fading Paul Ryan.
Mr Stagger Lee
Has Mitt hit that magical 47% popular vote yet? Shame that the Freeper/TeaBag Patriots can’t find the location of the Electoral College, so they can storm the place and force those electors to vote for the White Guy. (Damn those Google Maps!!! Must be part of the Obama/Agenda 21/NWO conspiracy!)
amk
@Mike G: The comments are funny.
Wolfdaughter
Remind you of anyone?
I’ve been overdosing on Schadenfreude these past weeks and will continue to do so. At the same time, I do feel a little (not a lot but a little) sorry for the Romneys at this time. Yes, they are wealthy in a way that most of us can’t imagine, but that only goes so far and money doesn’t make you happy. They have to figure out what to do next, and for them this will be particularly difficult. I guess the Mittster can devote himself to annoying the Mormon church, and Ann to her horses and dressage.
I also am pretty sure that they are reaping the whirlwind of excreting on people, now that they no longer have the glamour associated with running for the presidency.
And like all of you, I’m massively relieved that we don’t have to face them as POTUS and FLOTUS.
Jewish Steel
@eemom:
That was me! Amongst others, I’m sure. I’m delighted to be wrong. Tales of the their suffering have lost none of their savor even a month later. Bastards. Let them choke on it to their graves.
Canuckistani Tom
Lady, unless Zathras says so, you do not have a destiny
Violet
@jheartney: It doesn’t look fake to me either, but I’m no Photoshop expert.
If you look through the photos in this article, there are pics of Mitt at Disneyland with his family and he seems to be wearing the same shirt he wore at the gas station. His hair is also somewhat disheveled, although not at the level of the gas station photo. If he’s pumping gas after a day of dealing with the grandkids at Disneyland, he might be a bit unkempt. I know I would be.
Frankensteinbeck
@RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist:
I thought exactly this would happen. I also don’t think they can fix it. CU will overall be an advantage for the GOP, but will suffer from truly amazing diminishing returns. If the party doesn’t return from crazy land, CU may actually be a net loss for them.
Violet
@Dream On: I agree to a certain extent, but I still think that Ann might be vain enough to make him put out a statement if that ugly photo wasn’t really of him.
RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist
@Frankensteinbeck:
It does explain why they were on the air in states they couldn’t win right before election day. Had to churn those last few bucks through the machine to get their cut.
Intermediating between wealth and political advertising is going to be a gold mine thanks to SCOTUS.
RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist
@Frankensteinbeck:
In one plausible scenario, outside groups pop up and poach money off of the GOP’s donor base, wasting it and reducing the party’s own fund raising. I guess that’s called ‘competition’.
Phoenician in a time of Romans
@PurpleGirl:
Good riddance to bad rubbish. (And Ann, dear, sometimes you might want something very, very badly—doesn’t mean you’re going to get it.)
But she’s rich, you asshole. Things like this aren’t supposed to happen to the rich!
PurpleGirl
@Phoenician in a time of Romans: Well, it sucks to be her because this time it happened, rich or not.
moops
IS there some wacky Mormon prophesy about winning the Presidency? Where does Ann get this destiny stuff from?
Phoenician in a time of Romans
@PurpleGirl:
Do you have no empathy for her travails? Do you not have any sense of pity for her as she is ripped from her rightful place in the world?
ruemara
@Dream On: I work with Photoshop a lot too, I have no idea what you’re basing your statement on. It’s a snapshot.
I could not feel a bit less sympathy for Ann Romney, and I am very glad not to have to see her fake all over the place. As far as Romney’s plans not influencing the GOP, they’re submitting his tax plan even now. Way to be morons, 4th estate.
Citizen_X
@dmsilev:
What does “trying” to ride her horses mean? It’s not like she has a full schedule now or anything.
Dear Ann, it’s very simple:
1. Have slave/manservant/V.P. candidate walk horse out of its stall.
2. Put saddle blanket, saddle, and bridle on horse.
3. Get on horse.
4. Start riding.
Yutsano
@moops: The White Horse Prophecy. Willard has been getting that garbage fed to him since he was a teenager.
Mr Stagger Lee
@Yutsano: Maybe the White Horse Prophecy was meant for John Huntsman? I would love to see reaction, of Mitt’s buttkicking in the offices of the LDS.
jacksmom
So GWB won before the supremes gave him the job?@Hal:
mai naem
Well, I never could stand Anne so she can cry her freaking eyes out for all I care. I was always concerned for her, though, in the sense that I felt she was the one who was going to have a nervous breakdown if he lost. Turns out I was on the right track.
As far as the crack at Al Gore, I always thought he gained weight because he didn’t give a crap at that point. Kind of like when you see some old actor/actress who gains a bunch of weight after they don’t need or want the job anymore, because they don’t need to be a size zero anymore. I figured he had always had to be careful with his food because of the public part of his job and now he didn’t have to look good. Whatever, they didn’t need to make that crack anymore. Anyhow, I don’t see Mittman winning the Nobel Peace Prize Ever!
Citizen_X
@Yutsano: So he’s not the kwisatz haderach?
amk
@ruemara: dream on is the same POs, the mittbot troll, now under various butthurt avatars.
rikyrah
fuck this lying piece of shyt.
let him roam the streets in a bathrobe for all I care.
I’m so glad this sociopath didn’t win I don’t know what to do.
He was always a joke of a candidate.
All he had was that he was a rich, White man.
Nothing else.
rikyrah
Remember, she said it was THEIR TURN.
Fuck this entitled bitch.
Spencer
Mittens thought he was chosen by God to lead his chosen people through the presidency.
His depression is not the depression of a politician who lost, it’s the depression of a true believing prophet who realizes God wasn’t working through him after all. He’s not depressed because he lost the presidency, he’s depressed because he thought he was chosen by God to lead america and God said no.
Ann too. She’s not depressed about losing first lady, she’s depressed because she wasted all her time indulging the foot fetish of a man who turned out not to be the prophet they both thought he was. All those years she spent with his unwashed feet in her mouth, toejam dripping onto the back of her tongue, saying “fuck me with your white horse cock” have left a bad taste in her mouth now that she realizes he’s not the chosen one.
Understanding their reactions to the lose requires taking seriously the idea they both were true believers in that prophecy. I wouldn’t be surprised if they divorced.
Dream On
@amk:
Kindly soul (aka you asshole), you are wrong, and you’d be embarassed to know how wrong you are. Mitt Romney is a sociopath, and I have NEVER supported him. I don’t know where you came up with that nonsense. Brick Oven Bill I’m not – remember him? I’ve been posting for a long time here.
As for various avatars, I have no other, you jerk. It’s even the same avatar (Dream On) that I use for the Seattle Times. I hope you are confusing me with someone else.
The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge
So this time they went through all the not-Romneys they could find—went back through the deck a couple of times in fact—and finally nominated Romney. Next time, after they’ve been through the not-Romneys and can’t nominate Romney, what do they do?
Plus, they’ve factored in the 5 or 10 point “Well, at least he’s white” advantage into all their calculations. When that evaporates, they’re going to be even more taken by surprise than they were this time (especially if they run some dusky type—as in, name ends in a vowel—and they have it working against them!)
Xecky Gilchrist
The man who planned to be president wakes up each morning now without a plan.
To be fair, he didn’t have a plan then either.
Full Metal Wingnut
I’ll be the last person to defend Romney, but what is he supposed to do? If I lost the election goddamn right I’d go to my (imaginary) California beach house. Hell, if I ran into him I’d fucking thank him for staying out of the way after his loss. Good riddance.
Full Metal Wingnut
@Hal: I don’t believe in God, but if there’s a hell, the 5 justices who gave Bush the keys to this country deserve to be there.
Ruckus
@rikyrah:
All he had was that he was a rich, White Asshole.
FIFY
Ruckus
@Xecky Gilchrist:
To be fair, he didn’t have a plan then either.
He actually did have a plan.
Rape, plunder and pillage.
It’s worked before.
Brachiator
I am openly relieved that Romney lost.
Ken
Yet another case of reality ripping off The Onion:
http://www.theonion.com/video/mitt-romney-terrified-what-will-happen-if-he-ever,30112/
@Rich2506: I think they mean Romney’s “I should be President” policy, which was the only one he clearly articulated.
Chris
@Liberty60:
I’m torn between being delighted that someone finally slapped Romney in the face with the fact that there are some things your money just can’t buy…
… and being slightly chagrined that this is probably the worst thing he’ll ever have to endure in his life. Other people lose their jobs and with it all their livelihood. Other people go bankrupt from inability to afford health care (or, still today, actually die or watch their relatives die from the lack of it). Other people find themselves homeless when the bank forecloses on them. Other people are pressed into the military by lack of opportunity, or go to college and bankrupt themselves for the next ten or twenty years, or spend their entire life working low-wage jobs for too little pay.
Mitt Romney… loses elections and goes back, crushed and deafeated, to his West Coast mansion and his millions. Poor dude.
Chris
@RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist:
I think what offended me most about the whole thing was the degree to which it was faith based. All my wingnut friends were convinced he was going to win, but none of them even looked at any doctored Fox/Washington Times/PJM polls – it was just “oh, I have a feeling.”
Grown fucking people actually think like this. Not just Mittens who’s had his entire life handed to him on a silver platter, but the entire base. They actually think that just because they feel a certain way the entire world’s going to just bend over backwards to make it so.
Johannes
@Citizen_X: There’s nothing wrong with Ann that a date with Danny the Wonder Pony won’t fix. Just sayin.’
Starlit
@TheOtherWA: She was looking forward to being the only Mormon woman in history who got her planet in this life, too.
Starlit
@MonkeyBoy: What you said.
You’d think a guy who likes to fire people would just buy a company and do what he loves.
danielx
Mitt haz a sad.
Oh well, he has 250 million ways to feel at least some consolation.
calabi-yeow
I’m still laughing at the “white turkey chili and grilled chicken salad” that President Obama served up to Willard at their White House lunch meeting a few days ago.
I’m assuming that a boar’s head with a golden apple stuffed in its mouth was not considered subtle enough.
Note to Andrew Sullivan: Yes, food actually is a narrative medium.
….and final note to Ann Romney: If your tears are shed in genuine shame at your hubris in assuming that your “destiny” was ascending to the White House, then you have my (limited) sympathy. If not…..you have my pity.
Uncle Ebeneezer
Robert Shrum, a senior strategist on Democratic presidential campaigns. “I don’t think he’ll ever be a significant figure in public life again.”
And with that, Nate Silver now predicts a 97% chance that Romney will win the Presidency in 2016!
James E. Powell
@Chris:
All my wingnut friends were convinced he was going to win, but none of them even looked at any doctored Fox/Washington Times/PJM polls – it was just “oh, I have a feeling.”
My wingnut colleagues were similar. They believed that because they really, really hated Obama, he could not win re-election.
redshirt
I love that little detail that Mitt went to McDonalds BEFORE lunch at the White House. I’ve got a drug addicted brother who does shit like that all the time.
Also: I’d pay TOP DOLLAR for a vial with just a few of Lady Anne’s tears. I’d keep it all special like!
redshirt
Also too: I checked the kerning on that photo. Not a ‘shop.
Chris
@James E. Powell:
As the 2007 “Crazification Factor” conversation noted, “David Koresh was utterly committed to being Jesus Christ. See how far that got him.”
FormerSwingVoter
@moops: Google the White Horse Prophecy. Actually, check it out on Wikipedia here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Horse_Prophecy
Seriously, read about it, and then the Romney campaign will make SO much more sense. The sense of entitlement, the apocalyptic themes, everything.
pseudonymous in nc
@bemused:
Well, introspection might make it clear how his campaign team was happy to take Mitt’s money (and claim their bonuses) and the wizbang techno-team was paid millions to create Orca the Narwhal killer that kept going beep-beep-beep on election day, and let’s not go back over that stuff, mkay?
CW in LA
I’ll bet $10,000 that whoever made that gratuitous dig at Al Gore believes that continuing to blame Bush for the clusterfuck he created is just wrong, very wrong.
eclecticbrotha
@FormerSwingVoter: Of course, in Mitt’s case it was “The White Horse’s Ass Prophecy.”
Schlemizel
I wish I had the address for their shack in La Jolly, I’d love to send him a sympathy card. The cover would have a beautify sunset and read “Sometimes in lose we learn a greater truth”. The inside would be white with block lettering “The truth is you just are not good enough”
Trixie Belden
@Spencer:
Well, OK – but isn’t what she would actually be saying under those circumstances something that would sound more like “uuk eee ith ur ite uurse okk”?
MomSense
@Former Swing Voter
I’m starting to believe the prophecy. The Constitution and the Republic have been saved because Mitt Romney was a terrible candidate and ran a horrible no good very bad campaign. He saved our country be helping to re-elect President Obama for a second term!
Triassic Sands
Two things are virtually certain —
1) Mitt won’t get fat like Al Gore;
and
2) Mitt won’t win a Nobel Prize, unless they create one for robotic greedheads.
Still, #1 — Mitt getting fat — is a lot more likely than #2 — Mitt winning any prize for excellence.
AgentofChaos
Gee, too bad all he has to fall back on are his hundreds of millions of dollars, five homes, and multiple children and grandchildren.
Seriously, fuck this guy. There are people in real pain out there.
Kane
It will be interesting to see in six months if Mitt continues to color his hair and receive his spray tan. If he isn’t, then it was all part of the political calculation. If he is, then it is merely ego.
Kane
For the remainder of their lives, Mitt and Ann and the boys will have to endure the knowing glances and uncomfortable whispers inside the LDS church of having suffered defeat to a black man.
Marmot
That’s just tacky, ABL.
Oh hark! Someone just said something on the Internet!
Alex Milstein
I wonder if Mitt will do what Jimmy Carter did and start helping Habitat for Humanity. I wonder if he will do what Al Gore did and produce a documentary about climate change, or start Current TV. I don’t think Mitt will do anything but enjoy his money and all it can bring him. When you read about his wife’s belief that the Presidency was their destiny, you understand that Mitt did not give one whit for America. And now that he lost he still doesn’t really care about what happens. He just wanted the title and the glory.
Suffern ACE
Yep. Totally disappeared. You’ll never see a profile on him again in the Post. Or a million little articles about a turkey chili meal. Or pumping gas. Or telling donors that he really thinks cutting entitlements would have worked as a vote getter if only Obama hadn’t given so many gifts.
It’s like he’s keeping a low profile or something. He’s only in the news every other day.
jim filyaw
so, bitterness is not in his genetic code, is it?
maybe.
had i a hand in making up whatever went into my own genetic code, i would have opted to leave out some of the things willard obviously got in bunches, mendacity, venality, obliviousness, self satisfaction, smugness, and the like. i could handle all the bitterness the almighty cared to pour in and consider myself blessed.
wiscomom
This thread is dead but there are just a few things that perplex me about this Romney clan which I think lead me to conclude just one thing that led to his complete and utter failure at this presidential run.
Mitt is and was completely inauthentic.
His lifestyle had no relationship to anything approaching “normal”.
Who has all the money they have and put a son, his wife and four kids into one bedroom for a holiday visit? Who has a kitchen and money to bring in someone to cook a nice Thanksgiving meal but orders from Boston Market?
As Americans we are exposed to lots of stories/articles about the very well off. Mitt and his family were more odd than anything.
ThresherK
Ooh, a video showing Mitt at a fueling station, doing “gasoline stuff” like us commoners.
I guess Mitt’s at the point of the arc where the mainstream press can’t wash the stench of losing off him. Yet.
o. aguabonita
Mitt pumps his own gas???
Ida thought Masters of the Universe like Willard would have some 47%ers on call to handle such menialities for them.
Patricia Kayden
“One longtime counselor contrasted Romney with former vice president Al Gore, whose weight gain and beard became a symbol of grievance over his 2000 loss.”
So Gore gaining a little weight and growing a beard was to grieve his loss to Bush? Who knew? Thank you, Rightwingers.
Also, let’s be honest. The reason Romneybot isn’t getting any play in media or politics since his defeat is that he was largely unpopular. Who liked him, except for his family and rich friends?
Patricia Kayden
@Litlebritdifrnt:
“By all accounts, the past month has been most difficult on Romney’s wife, Ann, who friends said believed up until the end that ascending to the White House was their destiny. They said she has been crying in private and trying to get back to riding her horses.”
Yes, this makes me smile also. Poor Queen Ann.
fuckwit
First world problem.