Okay, you’re driving down the highway and see a car that has crashed into someone’s house. What do you do? Stop and help? Make sure everyone’s okay? Then go on your merry way?
If you’re one of the privileged princelings pooped out by Mrs. Mitt, you apparently also ask someone at the scene to take a picture of your grinning, devil-eyed mug next to the crash vehicle then tweet a self-aggrandizing account of your own heroism:
Was first on scene to big accident, see pic of car in the house. I lifted 4 people out to safety. All ok. Thankful.
According to the cops, none of the car’s four occupants were injured, and the homeowner was also okay:
“When our officers arrived, the driver of the car was getting out of the car,” Hoyal told TPM. “Romney was on the scene and was there in the house with these individuals. Our officers and Romney helped get these individuals outside and to medical attention.”
Hoyal said the four passengers did not need to be taken to the hospital and were “checked at the scene and released.”
Does it sound a bit like the cops were puncturing Romney’s initial account, taking pains to emphasize that Romney didn’t “lift four people out to safety” in a single bound, all by himself? Maybe Utah is as sick of the Romneys as the rest of us. But given his parentage, perhaps it’s not surprising that young Romney has an inflated sense of his own centrality to events.
The Romneys seem to inhabit a reverse Walter Mitty universe, living fantastically privileged lives where all the skids are greased, all the jobs are hobbies and failure is literally not an option but yet somehow imagining themselves as courageous achievers. On what other planet would you expect to be lionized for lavishing billions of federal dollars to “rescue” the SLC Olympic Games or have your $70K tax write-off dancing horse considered a therapy appliance?
Mike in NC
I hope to read about how one of those strapping young Rmoney bucks has decided to hang out a lot with George Zimmerman down in Florida.
Schlemizel
A legend that will last a lunch time! My guess is the boy is pimping himself for the government gravy train:
I thought that when it was your time that you would be the one to hold the strings. Senator
CorleoneRmoney. GovernorCorleoneRmoney. Somethin’.Fuzzy
The universe they hang out in is called Republic of Republican Utopia and it is a mental institution for the 1% .
Talentless Hack
The golden rule, Romney-style – make sure you claim credit.
agrippa
Those people are ‘legends in their own mind’.
George Romney was the best of that lot.
shelly
Hard to describe just how fucking-creepy that photo is.
Aji
@Mike in NC: Nah. He’s just taking a page from his playbook, while keeping a safe political distance.
And ten bucks says he didn’t lift anyone to safety. They probably already had the doors open and were stumbling out by the time he stopped dithering and decided to play savior. The only thing he “lifted” was a politically useful photo op.
bemused
I would be very happy to never read about or see any photos of the Romney family. Photos of Mitt or the boys smiling creep me out.
The Dangerman
I got 20 that says he was first on the scene because he ran the car off the road.
JPL
The classic was Ann Romney explaining how the had to support themselves during college and even had to sell some stock to get by. How can you exist in the world and not have a clue that when you mention stock, most people think of stock the same way they think of broth.
Aji
@JPL: Or cattle.
ktoz
He at least deserves a Distinguished Service Cross for his heroism, if not the Congressional Medal of Honor. (At least in his own mind)
eric
@JPL: or richard petty….oh my god, they sold richard petty!! white slavery!!
Higgs Boson's Mate
@JPL:
You have obviously never experienced the shame and fear of being down to your last million dollars.
JPL
@shelly: Creepy was not the image he hoped for but he can’t help himself. Why would he think that sending a photo of himself smiling was good p.r.?
brettvk
@JPL: That remark, and the 47% speech, demonstrated to me that the Romneys really don’t have a clue about the country they wanted to govern (or rule). You’d think that an elementary skill for elective office would be the ability to express empathy, or at least a glancing understanding, for the living condition of the majority of your voters. Ann really cannot grasp that whining about how you had to sell off shares during college does not evoke sympathy from the millions of us who will be paying off student loans for decades — and we’re the lucky ones who could get to college. All I can think is that their lives are lined and guarded by other people who carefully tend their delusions.
scav
It was clearly the golden protective halo of his mere existence and presence in the vicinity that protected those poor poor underling humanoids. That sort of divine cone of protection is why we clearly must submit and endorse the family as anointed prophesied photo-op leader.
Linda Featheringill
Looks like the actions of an unhappy, unfulfilled person.
Although if the whole clan stays inside of their private universe, they might remain content enough.
Harold Samson
Class Warfare!!
PsiFighter37
I feel totally okay now. I’m pretty sure what happened is that I was inhaling through my mouth way too much yesterday instead of my nose while running – so I was sucking in frozen air the whole time. After I drank some tea and ate some hot food, I was a-okay.
As for the above, he looks like he’s excited by being around a scene of destruction. Seems like a sociopath, just like Daddy Mittens.
Amir Khalid
When I first saw that story, I thought for a moment that Josh Romney had done like George Zimmerman, and staged a “good deed” with help from a friendly cop. Now that I know the truth, that what help he gave was trivial, I can rest assured that Josh is merely full of himself and not a liar.
Lurking Canadian
Is that the spawn who should have been locked up for threatening to punch the president for sassing his pappy, or one of the others?
shelly
Or their own private car elevator. I’m sorry, I don’t care how large a ‘family compound’ you have, I’m sorry……. Unless you’re running a multi-level parking garage in some big city….?
After multiple McMansions and a fleet of private jets, maybe this is the latest 1 percenter status symbol?
Villago Delenda Est
That entire family needs to be erased from existence.
Tbon
Sorry, but who the fuck takes a picture posing in front of an accident?
YellowJournalism
Like with his mom’s comments about “struggling,” I think it’s not what the Romney’s say sometimes but how they say it. Normal person, if they tweeted this, would have said something like: “OMG! Just witnessed car crash through house. First one there. Four ppl okay & safe.” They may have even taken a pic o the crash to show how bad it was, but not while standing next to it like a proud hunter who just shot a deer.
The Romneys are either robots or aliens trying to seem human.
BGinCHI
Really surprised he didn’t find any golden tablets inside that car.
jl
I blame Cory Booker!
He started the superhero trend in public officials. Poor GOPers have to play catch-up.
Schlemizel
@brettvk:
Sincerity is critical – if you don’t have it you have to at least fake it. the Rmoney couldn’t even find the word in a dictionary
Also, given the the Mormons have admitted they buried their gay-hate simply to further the Rmoney campaign you really have to wonder how awful his administration would have been. I thought it would be a W level disaster but it might have been even worse.
Aji
@YellowJournalism: This:
But see Dangerman, above.
You might be a little too close for comfort with that.
ruemara
I had no idea that magic underpants gave you superpowers.
Amir Khalid
@shelly:
I still don’t understand how Mtt can have a house big enough for a four-car underground garage and not have room to build a ramp. A ramp doesn’t cost money to operate, will still work during a power outage, and is far simpler and cheaper to maintain.
jl
And I examined the pic’s kernings, as my own citizen investigation into possible funny business. That car really went inside the house. Assuming that everyone was OK, and it was not morbid, I would want a pic of the car sitting inside a dining room, or living room, or whatever that living space car went through. I don’t think I would twit it though. Then, I don’t think I would tweet anything.
Villago Delenda Est
@Schlemizel:
The thin veneer of “compassionate conservatism” would have been utterly discarded and full scale “let them eat cake” policies would have been instituted.
There’s no question that Rmoney would fight it out with the deserting coward and Buchanan for the title of “Worst.President.Ever”
GregB
The dude looks like Ray Milland at the end of The Man with the X-Ray Eyes.(Scroll down)
I am pretty sure the Romney Presidency would mirror the Jack Nicholson Presidency in Mars Attacks.
I would be surprised if the Romney Clan doesn’t communicate with each other by yelling “ack-ack-ack’.
Villago Delenda Est
@Amir Khalid:
Well, you’re using common sense. This is something that wealthy asshats don’t bother to utilize because, well, that’s a mark of peasantry.
TooManyJens
@Lurking Canadian:
That was Tagg.
Charmers, this family.
Redshirt
@Amir Khalid: True, but ramps also require quite a bit of real estate. If I recall pictures of Romney’s California mansion, it was fairly close to neighboring mansions.
PeakVT
@Amir Khalid: The property isn’t that big. If you’re going to build a mansion on that lot, a car elevator is actually reasonable (if cost isn’t a limitation). And I suspect a backup generator will be installed. The cost of one of those is trivial compared to the cost of the lot.
I have to admit that I don’t really care that he’s blowing a bunch on a nice beachfront house. I just think it was typically stupid that they announced it during the campaign. Nothing like a car elevator to show that you’re a man of the people.
Anton Sirius
I couldn’t help myself.
mellowjohn
@Amir Khalid:
but not as much fun.
Richard Fox
On a related point (more or less) I just finished reading a two volume bio of Jenny Jerome, Lady Randolph Churchill, mother of Winston Churchill. It was fascinating. The family was greatly gifted and certainly did much hard slogging to achieve political prominence. But it also… HELPED enormously that Jennie knew just the right people, knew to nag the PRINCE to get Winston posted in a job, CAJOLED the head of the army to get Winston an assignment… the author wrote something to the effect that if you were in this tiny social world you had the in, and they kept it that way, always. Not that this isn’t known of course, but to read of the methods used, and the lengths one had to go to to achieve the ends.. made for sobering reflection. I think in certain regards it fits why the President is treated with such disdain, in certain circles. He’s not one of us! How DARE he raise himself above the cattle! Some things are timeless and fit any period…
Villago Delenda Est
@Richard Fox:
Applied to Clinton as well, who…usurped the Presidency from the very Village friendly Bush Crime Family. You note how the deserting coward was embraced by the vermin of the Village…he belonged in the White House (even if he had to be appointed to it by the Supreme Court) unlike that fucking hillbilly.
brettvk
@Schlemizel: What strikes me is that Mitt & Ann either can’t even buy the advisors that would keep their silver feet out of their mouths, or they resolutely purge from their staffs anyone with a realistic view of the country. How the hell did Mitt even get to the MA statehouse? Although if IRC he left it with notably low poll numbers.
Villago Delenda Est
@brettvk:
He didn’t dare run for reelection, because it was a certainty he would lose, and that would damage his cred for a White House run.
We dodged another bullet a year ago, as we did four years previous. Both Rethug nominees were disasters in waiting.
And yes, they purge campaign staffers who look too good next to them…they see them as some sort of threat. They want yes-men, not actual advisers. They know everything there is to know…it’s the fucking White Horse prophecy, you know.
Keith P
Hey, look, Corey Booker with photos! Also reminds me of the time Tom Coburn supposedly delivered a baby right after a car wreck that he happened to come across. Since both of those happened relatively soon before the aforementioned ran for Senate, one must assume this Romney (Mugg?) will be doing the same.
Comrade Mary
I don’t think the police story is necessarily totally inconsistent with this preening narcissist’s story. I’m reading a driver and 3 passengers (passengers not injured, driver got out under his own power) and 4 people in the house. That’s 7 people to help out between cops and spawn, and he could have blessed 4 people of that 7 with his personal Romney touch.
He’s still a preening narcissist and a privileged asshole. Helping distressed people potentially in real danger is a good thing to do, and I can understand the impulse to take a picture at the scene after everything settled down, but posting the image and the smarmy accompanying text is shameful.
brettvk
@Villago Delenda Est: I guess we lucked out that these sociopaths are the superstitious sort — willing to leave the fulfillment of prophecy to their sky fairy instead of working in the real world to get what they want. If this holds true we may never see a LDS presidency, which I think is all to the good. I’m usually a polite atheist (gotta be in the bible belt) but I really can’t respect anyone who takes Joseph Smith seriously.
Talentless Hack
@Villago Delenda Est: That entire family needs to be erased from relevance.
FIFY
Elmo
@YellowJournalism:
Yes 100% exactly. The business about struggling students selling stock to survive – is that The Most Tone Deaf Comment in History, or The Most Tone Deaf Comment In All Of Time, past present and future?
And there were so many of those that you really have to wonder – how do these people really think? Do they really just not see other humans at all?
Ruckus
@Schlemizel:
I always thought the W stood for worst.
Ruckus
@Amir Khalid:
Written by someone who obviously doesn’t have unlimited funds to throw at non problems.
And that is a complement.
MoeLarryAndJesus
On the planet Kolob each Rmoney son will have DOZENS of car accidents to call his own.
Amir Khalid
@Villago Delenda Est:
If as governor you suck so badly and/or you piss so many people off that they won’t re-elect you, maybe that’s a sign you shouldn’t be thinkling about running for President.
But I’m using common sense again, aren’t I, and a Romney is supposed to be above anything common.
Commenting at Balloon Juice since 1937
The rotten apple doesn’t fall from the diseased tree on to third base choking on a silver spoon.
NotMax
Single-handedly foiled a home invasion.
Bill for services rendered will arrive in the mail Monday.
maya
A Good Samuraitarian would have lopped their heads off as they exited the car.
rea
@Richard Fox: Jennie knew just the right people, knew to nag the PRINCE to get Winston posted in a job
She’d had an affair with the Prince (not to mention another prince, Herbert von Bismarck)
MomSense
I really dislike the Rmoneys and fear that they are all politically aspirant. Constant vigilance, B-Jers!
MomSense
@Amir Khalid:
You do not understand because you are not a narcissist and hopefully have never had to deal with one.
Suzanne
From what I read, all he did was open the car doors and the people all climbed out on my own.
I once witnessed a wreck in which a driver going over 50 mph hit an ambulance with a critical patient inside while it was turning, and the ambulance became airborne and rolled over. I actually helped the seriously injured EMTs get out of the ambulance, which was really hard considering that the vehicle was on its side. Somehow a picture of the wreckage (how morbid) never made my Twitter.
Lurking Canadian
@Elmo: if you’re struggling to start your own business, don’t be too proud to ask your parents to lend you your first 50 grand!
It really is “Qu’ils mangent de la brioche”. They are too clueless to know they sound clueless.
matt
@jl: Bill Frist did it before Booker.
brendancalling
Maybe I’m just so filled up with holiday cheer that my I can’t find the snark, but really… wtf?
I find it difficult to condemn the dude. I don’t know the extent to which he did or didn’t rescue these people, but is this worth a while thread of snark?
I think the Romneys are a pretty douchey family, especially Mitt, but making a big deal out of Josh seems kind of petty.
Eric U.
@brendancalling: your concern is noted
StringOnAStick
OK, what I object to is the impression this twit has given the world, namely that the first thing you should do when you see an accident is pull people out of the car (even if that isn’t exactly what happened, it is what he implied). Spinal injuries are common in these situations, and the damage suffered is easily made immeasurably worse by some untrained yahoo dragging people out of the situation before TRAINED MEDICAL PERSONNEL arrive who know to check for and stabilize potential spinal injuries. Seriously people, sometimes the best thing you can do is keep the accident victim from hopping up and letting their adrenaline surge cause them permanent damage.
I am a certified WFR, something I maintain because of my outdoor hobbies and the accidents/injuries I have seen over the years. I once had to stop a well-meaning bystander from insisting that a woman who had knocked herself out in a bicycle crash stand up and be on her way. She was in the middle of the road, and I thought she was dead when I first saw her; her first words were “I can’t move”; something indicative of a severe concussion, yet he wanted to stand her up and send her on her way. Within 5 minutes she was no longer making sense, also indicative of a severe concussion and intracranial swelling, pupils not equal, helmet broken into several pieces, etc. The EMT’s thanked me for controlling the scene and recognizing a brain injury. “Mr. Helpful” was pissed that I stopped him from “helping” and drove away in a huff; if he’d stuck around he could have learned something.
Keith P
@matt: Was Frist the one who delivered the car wreck baby? I was thinking Coburn, but it’s been so long, it may very well have been Frist. But it’s definitely a sign of running for office.
greennotGreen
@brendancalling: When someone posts something as douche-worthy as Josh, even if he were not a member of a famous family, it is reasonable to bring out the snark arsenal. I wouldn’t be terribly surprised if this ended up on Memebase.
Villago Delenda Est
@Amir Khalid:
Particularly common decency, which no one in the Rmoney clan has the slightest knowledge of.
Higgs Boson's Mate
Young Josh is certainly a flake off of the old turd, isn’t he?
Amir Khalid
@StringOnAStick:
I know exactly what you mean. Once, a tree uprooted by a rainstorm fell on my cousin’s car, landing right on top of the driver’s seat, and, as I recall, fracturing two of his cervical vertebrae. Well-meaning passers-by pulled him out of the car before the EMTs could arrive. My cousin is now a quadriplegic.
siciliandish
Sounds like the police spokesperson had to spend time answering questions about the heroics of a rich and famous bystander as opposed to the every day duties of cops and emts.
Ash Can
When I first saw this photo a day or two ago, I looked at only the photo; I hadn’t scrolled all the way down to the tweet under it. I didn’t recognize who it was, and — judging from the particular look to his shit-eating grin — I thought it was a photo of some sociopathic schmuck who was somehow responsible for the wreckage he was showing off. I expected the commentary under the photo to be something about some asshole posing for wreckage-porn pics in the wake of some tornado, or some bastard who had torched someone’s house and garage and had stupidly posed for a photo that would guarantee him prison time because, duh, evidence.
Hey, if Little Mitt saw a wreck and stopped to help, that’s dandy. Good for him. But to conflate his role in the operation is telling — and it’s just as telling, IMO, that he didn’t look at this photo of himself and immediately think, “Oh god, this looks awful. I can’t tweet this.”
jl
@matt: Thanks for the reminder on Frist, which as I recall was a one-off. But, then there was his history unsavory recycling of (supposedly) pre-dead pets. So there was the mad scientist angle, not a pure superhero schtick.
Bargal20
@Talentless Hack: If Obama ever starts advocating the rescue of car accident victims, the Romneys will no doubt call the circumstances of their accident “unique”.
Shakti
So the crazy eyes isn’t just some bad flash? Because without knowing the context, it looks like Josh Romney is a gremlin who caused the crash. Normal people at an accident scene either 1)freeze or 2)call 911 or 3)start trying to do something. They don’t think “man, I’m going to pose with this car, smile and tweet it” even after EMTs/police/fire come to the scene.
It’s like he wants to pretend to be Cory Booker or Rahm Emanuel, but has not the bravery or the social finesse to pull it off.
Jay
Which Romney is that? The Bateman clone who threatened the President?
opiejeanne
@shelly: Not necessarily. In Seattle there is a nice modest house with a tiny garage. They have installed a version of this car elevator inside it in order to park both of their cars off the street. It’s a very clever solution.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
Heck, if you want to go with a crazy cultist who manages to save people’s lives, your best bet is Tom Cruise, not one of the Rmoneys.
I do kinda understand taking a picture of the scene, since there’s a freakin’ CAR in the middle of someone’s living room, but I don’t get putting yourself inside the picture.
StringOnAStick
@Amir Khalid: I’m so sorry for your cousin. Both victims and would-be rescuers don’t realize that the adrenaline they are feeling covers up injury and pain in the former, and leads to poor decision making in the untrained of the latter.
Chris
He looks like his dad after Benghazi.
“Big disaster! OH YEAH! Finally my big break!”
ottercliff
Will make a great campaign commercial when Dad decides to buy you a Senate seat.
Peanutcat
What a sanctimonious little shit . . . .
LanceThruster
That kid should be in the front lines, he’s a sure thing for a Medal of Honor with such oozing manliness.