Romney’s Campaign Goes to the Dogs
Yesterday’s Boston Globe report that Mitt Romney once strapped his dog to the top of a station wagon for a twelve hour car ride, during which the thing that the bumper stickers say “happens” in fact did, is getting much attention around the blogosphere.
Ana Marie Cox attributes the behavior to Rommey’s Mormonism although, to be honest, I’m pretty sure this is not a widespread practice among that faith.
Fontana Labs concludes that Romney is an orifice that, along with opinions, everyone has and which his dog made use of during the incident in question.
Steve Bainbridge avows that “there is now no set of circumstances under which I’ll be voting for Romney. Sam and Toby would never forgive me.”
In Romney’s defense, however, I’d note that the incident took place over twenty-five years ago. Goodness knows, his views on dog travel have certainly changed half a dozen times in the interim.
If that is the worst thing they can find, Romney is a shoe in.
I have to agree with Bainbridge. I am a Guiliani guy, but I have always planned to pull the lever for any R against Hillary. However, I will not vote for a dog abuser. I will put dog loyality in front of party loyalty everytime. I don’t care if it was 25 years ago. What a sick asshole.
Wasn’t that around the time National Lampoons Vacation came out?????…Nahhhhh
What is even more bizarre is that Rommney actually believes that this shameful incident reflects well on his crisis handling skills.
A normal person would have tried to forget about this incident of animal cruelty or explain away it as a mistake, an aberration, or a lesson learned. But no, Rommney puts this out there and tries to spin it into showing how cool and decisive he is during a crisis of his own making.
He could have told the reporter that if he had to do it all over again the suitcases should have gone up on the roof rack instead of the dog.
Ana Marie Cox attributes the behavior to Rommey’s Mormonism although, to be honest, I’m pretty sure this is not a widespread practice among that faith.
Which is bad enough. Some of the bigoted comments at her blog are positively stomach-turning. I’m sorry you saw fit to send traffic her way.
I suspect that this will only serve to justify pre-existing anti-Romney sentiments. (as evidenced by James’ gratuitous aside.)
Lets see… 25 years ago a man with a large young family and a dog makes decisions on how to transport his family several hundred miles with limited resources. I’d hate to hear what these pot-bangers say about how my family traveled 35 years ago, or how my Mother’s family traveled in the 1920’s.
Seems like the Globe is doing all it can to harm Romney and many are only too glad to help.
Oh, please. 25 years ago was 1982, right?
Here’s excerpts from Romney’s Wikipedia entry:
You think the son of an auto company president, cabinet secretary, and governor was strapped for cash?
Let’s move on:
So, in 1982, we had the son of a wealthy man who is seven years removed from being a top JD/MBA graduate of Harvard, the VP of a consulting firm, and about to launch his own investment firm.
You really think he couldn’t afford to transport his dog in a humane manner? Hell, my family had, shall we say, more limited resources and always managed to find room for the dog.
Come on James, I said limited resources, not strapped for cash. You are a bit younger than I, and I don’t know how/if your family traveled. Mine did – in a micro-bus then station wagon – two parents, four kids, a black lab and a calico… with three weeks of frickin baggage. Some rather unconventional things were done out of necessity that would transgress today’s pot-bangers definition of child abuse not to mention animal abuse. The point is, it was a different time (anybody remember what gas prices were in 1965?), things were done that we did not think abusive, it just was. There is a word for judging what happened yesterday by today’s ‘conventional’ morality. Sure my dad could have flown us ahead… or the dog, but that was an opulence best left with the Rockefeller’s.
Oh, and as the youngest boy, I begged for the option of riding in the roof rack.
Bains,
I was an only child, so the logistics were different. Still, we’re talking about 1982, not 1965. Things have changed quite a bit since then but . . . not THAT much.
You are still not getting my underlying point James. If it really was a case where the Romney family dog was being abused, the kids would have spoken out. Irrespective of my love for my father, had he done something I felt abusive then, I would have spoken out then, and now. In fact, re-reading the Globe story, I see the telling of my family life, full of joys, challenges, failures and triumphs. While you are not banging the “animal abuse” drum, you are pointing to the band that is. Based upon my life experience, I just don’t see it that way.
Hence my original point. This meme will find little traction outside those already predisposed to oppose Romney. Said another way, he sounds like my father.
I wrote about this on my blog yesterday and I think what bothers most people is the cruelty of Mitt after the dog lost control all over his car. Obviously the dog was in such distress that it was evident he should have been removed from the top of the car. I don’t care how long ago it was, how could anyone continue to subject the poor dog to the remainder hours of the ride? Did he also put him back up there on the way back? Something is wrong with Mitt. Maybe it was the hit in the head he took during that car accident in France.
What’s so funny to me is that EVERY glowing puff piece has some sort of example of what a slimebag this guy is. For example this piece (http://newsmax.com/archives/articles/2007/5/22/90847.shtml) on his wife contains the gem…
(Ann Romney speaking) “…he’d [Mitt] dated a bunch of my friends, and so I kind of knew him a little bit from my friends. He was one of those guys that would date a girl for like six weeks and then go on to another girl, and then another and another. He kind of did that through my sophomore year. He dated about three of my friends. So I was very wary of him.”
Let’s see, that “was March 21, 1965” – Mitt was born March 12, 1947. So he was fully 18. Hmmmm. Eighteen year old (and presumably a high school senior) rich kid working his way through the sophmore class, basically 15 year old girls. “he’d broken a bunch of my friends’ hearts” says Ann. We know what that’s code for – they put out and he dropped them.
Does anyone find this creepy? Had she been my daughter I guarantee you Mitt would now be walking with a limp.
George W Bush spent his childhood feeding firecrackers to frogs and watching them explode.
It’s not unheard of for Republicans to raise children with absolutely no empathy or compassion. When I read that Romney’s children’s reaction was “Ew, gross!” it makes me think that his children are as amoral as their father.
I guess Elizabeth Edwards comments about ‘raising’ the dialogue hasn’t reached the netroots… that or they’ve already swallowed the hypocrisy therein.
Conservatives can’t ditch Romney. Who would be left?
1. Guiliani – supports gay rights – and is very big on cross-dressing, pro-choice, pro-gun control, married way too often, fooled around publicly.
2. John McCain – supported the president’s immigration bill, anti-torture (nope, redneck America won’t like him a bit)
3. Corporate / foreign government lobbyist – and one term senator Fred Thompson
4. That leaves the rest – Brownback, Huckelberry, Paul et al….WILL SOMEBODY PLEASE FIND A REPBLICAN WE CAN VOTE FOR!
And if you think that will get a conservative to vote for Hillary?
Romney has shown himself to be the most dishonest and pandering presidential candidate in my lifetime. Nothing comes close to him.
The fact that he supports torture, including the family dog, is just more proof of what he is about.
The man is worth 300 million. Was he too broke back then to have someone take care of the dog instead of torturing it?
Soulless.
Bainbridge called it in his post:
Bains, what is a pot-banger? And how does that relate to Hillary Clinton. This is definitely a strange story about Romney. Stranger still, it appears it was supplied by his campaign (not the “liberal media.”)
what kid is going to say something about the treatment of their dog, to a father who would tell them,, kids we are making NO stops other than pre-determined gas stops, i dont care if you have to go to the bathroom or not. and then straps the “beloved” family dog to the roof of the car for a 12 hour trip? i would be afraid that he would decide to put me up there with the dog for the trip in order to show my brothers the price one pays for talking back to the man in charge.
and what gets me,, is that he thinks this story shows some kind of calm and cool leadership quality.
does he think the average american, at the site of some dog poo on the back window, would start screamin and suffering heart palpatations to the degree that they would drive their family off a cliff, ending their lives in a dramatic fireball?
wow, he pulled over and hosed the poo off,, man,, thats some freakin LEADERSHIP there.
only a rich person whos had everything handed to them in life could think that having to clean poo off a car is some sort of crisis. and then to have the gall to think of themselves as a hero because they did.
once, and this is a true story, i was driving down the road with my dog in the passenger seat. my dog got car sick and barfed all over me. rather than panic and and kill what could have been 20 kids in a bus in the opposite lane, i just drove on for a block or two until i got to a gas station, where i used the restroom to clean off and get my dog a dish of water.
it now pleases me to announce, that based on my calm and decisive crisis management skills, as i’ve outlined above, that i will be running for President.
How humane do you imagine it is to put a dog in a carrier and put in in the cargo hold of an airplane? And non-Mormon white people do that by the hundreds every day.
I suppose its fair to implicate his religion in that Mormon families, at least the ones in Utah, are famously huge in number. Seriously, 11 kids is not unusual. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Dogs don’t ride on top of airplanes. Cargo holds are exactly that – cargo holds. Cargo is not subject to stiff winds or extreme temperatures. The cargo hold is pressurized just like the rest of the airplane. Nice try, but Romney is an arse for putting his dog on top of his car – PLANE (pun inteneded) and simple.
I think cargo holds probably get really cold. If somebody knows the answer I’m open to being corrected. My understanding is flying is incredibly stressful for animals. But, hey, because we have to do it, so do they.
According to the FAA the temperature in a cargo hold can vary from between 0 to 104 degrees. Of the average of 108 pets that die yearly while in airport custody, most are from excessive heat, with poor ventilation being another large cause(allthough there are regulations pertaining to ventilation of the cargo hold to avoid just such incidences).
Are you retarded?
This is a prime example of folks being purposefully obtuse.
Appropriately I sit here listening to my computer trying to play Talking Heads Stop making Sense – seems a dust speck has got it confused.
In a container that airlines would ‘ship’ a dog – without kids around to spy dog droppings – Romney straps to his rooftop – with custom built windscreen – his dog. In 1982. Romney, 35, with five kids, and wife. As much as Bainbridge would like to portrait my dismissal of this story as railing against anti-Mormonism, the fact is, my family did similar things. This story is risible only to those predisposed to dislike Romney.
“Are you retarded?”
I only bring it up because I needed to travel with my dog but he was kind of sickly, so I took him to our vet and the vet said flying is incredibly stressful for animals and that if we put him in the cargo hold he might die. I suppose maybe I’m retarded.
…I don’t know about inhumane… I’ve had dogs who loved to ride in the back of a truck, but I’ve also had dogs who didn’t. Not too far of a stretch for me to see some dogs might be fine on top of a car. Some might think it’s hell.
But how in God’s name does washing the dog’s crap off the car make anyone anything other than a cleaner-of-dog-crap? B/c it’s Mitt Romney? Are we supposed to think he’s one of “the people” now? If anything, his campaign releasing that information as “evidence of his leadership” is purely asinine. Want more bogus crap sold as Republican Leadership? WTFever, man.
BTW: Best Republican strategy (I think) is for Republican leadership to begin pushing the impeach Bush thing- steal that one from the left and get some seats back in ’08… that guy has taken the GOP soooooo far down with his liberalism…. you know the left is just waiting until next year to whip out the “it’s the economy, stupid” line and in light of GWB’s spending spree….
no bains, it’s only risible to those predisposed to disliking the kind of person that is cruel to animals. Whether it’s Mitt and the dog, or Frist rounding up cats in while in med school, or Guliani’s ex sacrificing dogs just to demonstrate medical equipment that she was selling.
bains: “my family did similar things”
I’m getting the idea that you would make a similarly excellent candidate. Why not jump into the race?
“If it really was a case where the Romney family dog was being abused, the kids would have spoken out”
You’re amazing. The kids ranged in age from 2 to 13. They had presumably received previous similar training in proper animal care, courtesy of dad. Why would they be wiser than him? And why would they have the balls to speak up, even if they were?
The story is basically about how the kids were expected to hold it in for 12 hours. The kids already had enough to deal with, getting dad to care about their own bladders, without also convincing dad to remember that the dog also had a bladder.
“Some rather unconventional things were done out of necessity”
One of the striking things about this story is that “necessity” had nothing to do with it. As has been pointed out, this was a self-imposed crisis, completely the result of poor planning and a lack of common sense. This is totally aside from the cruelty issue.
There was room for the dog inside the car. The car had at least one empty seat, and possibly as many as three. I prove that here.
Here’s one aspect that’s overlooked. Forget about the fact that the crate was on top of a moving car for 12 hours. A dog doesn’t belong in a crate for 12 hours, period, even if the crate is in a nice, safe, stationary spot. Aside from overnight (which is different for various reasons), most vets and other dog authorities will tell you that a dog should never be in a crate for more than 5-6 hours.
It’s very unusual for a dog to poop in its crate. The fact that it did so is a very strong sign that it was in great distress due to both the nature of the experience and the duration of the experience.
cfoster: “How humane do you imagine it is to put a dog in a carrier and put in in the cargo hold of an airplane”
It’s not particularly humane, which is why organizations like ASPCA recommend that it only be done when absolutely necessary, and which is why many or most pet owners completely avoid the practice. Also, many owners choose to sedate the pet. Also, the number of flights that are 12 hours long is very close to zero. Also, being in a dark cargo hold is arguably less stressful than being on top of a car moving at high speed. For one thing, the wind velocity inside the hold is zero. Yes, I realize that Mitt supposedly rigged some kind of ‘windshield.’ Sure he did.
Other than all that, you have an excellent point.
By the way, here’s what the Humane Society of the US says:
A similar statement by the ASPCA is here.
“because we have to do it, so do they”
Families with dogs will often travel by ground instead of air. Or they will leave the dog behind. Or they will carry the dog inside the cabin, in a small crate (if the dog is small). Or they use a specialized service like this.
fdog: “I’ve had dogs who loved to ride in the back of a truck”
There are many, many potential differences. It makes a big difference if the animal can see the owner, say, through the back window. It makes a difference if the animal is confined to a crate, as compared with being able to move around freely (this includes the animal being able to control how much wind it’s getting). It makes a difference if the animal has had a chance to become accustomed to the experience, by virtue of being exposed to it gradually over a long period of time.
And obviously there are very important questions of duration and speed. A casual jaunt around the block is very different from 12 hours on the highway at 70 mph.
tony: “Frist rounding up cats”
Don’t forget Dubya having fun with firecrackers and frogs.
Exploiting the powerless (both humans and animals) seems to be a GOP theme.
25 years ago. OK, I get that. But it’s only about 25 days ago that Romney said: “We ought to double Guantanamo.”
Maybe he has a bit more compassion for dogs now than he did in ’82. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt on that.
But he sure as hell has nothing in the way compassion or mercy for human beings locked away under the thinnest pretext as “enemy combatants”, without due process or the protection of international laws once championed by the US.
Most dogs are treated far better than the prisoners at Guantanamo. In speaking favorably of this notorious place, Romney shows no more common sense or moral decency than Bush or Cheney.
donna: “25 years ago”
What’s interesting is that it would be very different if Mitt was handling this the way Dubya handled his alcoholism: ‘look what I did when I was young and stupid; thank God I’ve come a long way since then; I no longer have that kind of poor judgment.’
Instead, Mitt seems to think we should be impressed at his skills with a garden hose. Weird.
(For the record, it was 1983.)
I love convertibles! I drive with the top down all of the time. I do have a windshield. I have the top down in the heat of the day and the cool of the night.
I’ve even been caught in the rain on a drive with my mother with the top down. My children, grandchildren and dog love to ride in the back seat. I’ve had many road trips with the top down all day and especially at night!
I have to say my dog has never messed in the back seat of our convertible with the top down, however I did have a dog mess all over my grandfather’s shoe in the back seat of our car with the top up.
Gosh, I never thought a convertible was torture. I’ll have to let the motorcycle drivers and convertible owners know this is a torturous way to travel.
I’m going to have to think about how I’ll let my dog know the bad news.
This ‘Bush-frog-firecracker’ thing. I’ve heard it before but I never followed up. Where does that come from? As always, I’m opened to being convinced, but I’m always most embarrassed to be taken in by a falsehood that flatters my preconceptions. So please, no “Dude, yeah! I heard it’s true!” But a link to a reasonably believably source would be sincerely appreciated.
“I love convertibles! I drive with the top down all of the time. I do have a windshield. I have the top down in the heat of the day and the cool of the night.
I’ve even been caught in the rain on a drive with my mother with the top down. My children, grandchildren and dog love to ride in the back seat. I’ve had many road trips with the top down all day and especially at night!
I have to say my dog has never messed in the back seat of our convertible with the top down, however I did have a dog mess all over my grandfather’s shoe in the back seat of our car with the top up.
Gosh, I never thought a convertible was torture. I’ll have to let the motorcycle drivers and convertible owners know this is a torturous way to travel.
I’m going to have to think about how I’ll let my dog know the bad news.
“
That is one funny comment. It’s hysterical the lengths GOP apologists will go to to try and spin away problems and criticisms.
Comparing being strapped in a crate to the roof of a car for 12 hours to riding in a convertable – that’s just priceless.
You know how you’re not supposed to leave a pet in a car with the windows up, lest they die from heat stroke? Let’s see how you could spin that one… “saunas are great!” or maybe “who wouldn’t like to simulate a tropical vacation?”
You can’t spin this away with “but this is twenty-five years ago, let it go”. As someone mentioned, this is an anecdote that Romney wanted out there today to benefit his campaign. He wanted this classic example of animal cruelty out there to prove that he had what it takes to be President of the United States. In his twisted mind and soul, this is the type of behavior that should GAIN him voters. That’s his mindset today, not “twenty-five years ago”. You want to try to defend the indefensible, go right ahead, but don’t try to make this out as some long ago mindset that Mitt used to have. He’s there now, and I’ll bet he’ll be surprised as hell that people are even bothered by this.
Ironically, one of the few issues you wish Mitt would have changed his mind on, that is animal abuse, is one that he certainly hasn’t.
Re the frog story. There may be other sources, as well, but the one usually cited is a New York Times (reasonably flattering Bush as small-towner with heartland values, etc.) profile, titled “George W. Bush’s Journey: A Boy From Midland: A Philosophy With Roots in Conservative Texas Soil,” during the 2000 campaign. And, as in the Romney piece, the person telling the story is laughing in a “boys will be boys” kind of way and it’s not being highlighted for outrage.
http://partners.nytimes.com/library/politics/camp/052100wh-gop-bush-bio.html
Here’s the relevant passage; it’s something like 60 paragraphs down (Throckmorton is Terry Throckmorton, a childhood friend.):
In addition to church groups, various civic organizations were also active, and one of the local rituals for children was the meetings with cookies and milk at the home of a nice old lady who represented the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
The cookies were digested more thoroughly than the teachings.
“We were terrible to animals,” recalled Mr. Throckmorton, laughing. A dip behind the Bush home turned into a small lake after a good rain, and thousands of frogs would come out.
“Everybody would get BB guns and shoot them,” Mr. Throckmorton said. “Or we’d put firecrackers in the frogs and throw them and blow them up.”
When he was not blowing up frogs, young George — always restless and something of a natural leader — would lead neighborhood children on daredevil expeditions around town, seeing how close they could come to breaking their necks.
convertible: “I have to say my dog has never messed in the back seat of our convertible with the top down”
I’ve already covered most of this, but you’re obtuse.
A) I’ve owned multiple convertibles, and multiple dogs. The wind exposure in the back seat of a convertible is not nearly as great as the exposure up on the roof of a station wagon, notwithstanding a very questionable claim about an improvised windscreen.
B) A dog wants to see and be close to the owner. This is a major factor in whether or not the animal feels safe. In the back seat, the animal is close to its family. On the roof, it has no idea what the hell is going on.
C) Your dog presumably had a chance to become accustomed to the experience gradually.
D) There’s a huge difference between being able to move around, and being confined to a crate.
E) Duration and speed matter. Let us know if you ever took a 12-hour highway trip with your animal in the back seat, with the top down, and without giving the animal a bathroom break. If you did, you should nominate yourself as Mitt’s VP.
“motorcycle drivers”
I don’t know too many motorcycle drivers who are eager to sit on the bike for 12 hours, at highway speed, without a bathroom break. Any normal human would call that an ordeal.
Your comparison is silly, as someone else mentioned. Next up, you’ll be explaining how you once walked your dog on a windy day, and how this is the exact equivalent of what Mitt did.
cfoster: “This ‘Bush-frog-firecracker’ thing. … Where does that come from?”
I notice Val has already answered you, but I’ll proceed anyway.
It comes from an account by a credible, named eyewitness:
That’s from “The Bushes: Portrait of a Dynasty,” p. 132. The book is browsable and searchable at Amazon, here
The same eyewitness was quoted in the NYT, here. Portions of this article are cited elsewhere, like here. That latter article makes interesting observations with regard to how childhood sadists often grow up into sociopaths, and about how people who are cruel to animals are often cruel to humans.
Speaking of sadism, you might be interested in the story of Karla Faye Tucker. By comparison, punching a guy is no big deal.
Of course all this was long before waterboarding, sodomy, and rendition to Syria.
We were warned. Now we’re being warned about Romney.
Another interesting parallel between Romney and Bush, that I’m surprised is rarely mentioned: they both graduated from Harvard Business School in 1975.
And of course they are both sons of very successful politicians.
My vote had been with Romney, but this I can’t get around. THE DOG LOST ITS BOWELS. How scared did that dog have to be for that to happen. Dog owner my whole life. Dogs can have accidents very young (learning the rules) and very old (infirm), in between, I’ve never met a dog that didn’t know to do its business outside, and could wait a long time to do business. I could even have forgiven Romney the first leg of his trip (big family, big trip, lots of chaos, didn’t know better), but putting the dog back on the roof after knowing how terrified the dog was? Wow. That I can’t get around.
aww… who among us doesn’t now love Sam and Toby?
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Elect this abuser and he’ll strap all of America to his roof.
Not very, IMO. I wouldn’t do it to my dogs.
Good point. I don’t think this incident speaks badly of Mormon’s but possibly of Romney himself.
How perfect for this cipher if the poor ghost of Seamus returns to derail his former owner’s sad campaign. What a prick; bye-bye Mitt!
southern: “THE DOG LOST ITS BOWELS”
Exactly. Here’s what Mitt did to the dog: scared the shit out of it, literally.
helen: “Elect this abuser and he’ll strap all of America to his roof.”
Exactly. And as a follow-up, he’ll give us a good hosing, and then brag about how good he is with a hose.
Questions: What would it take to get a 70lb. dog into a crate on the roof of a car? How compliant would the dog be and what were the logistics? Was the dog put into the crate first and then put onto the roof or was the crate lashed down and then the dog was lifted to the roof? The reason I ask is to attempt to determine the mind of someone who would do such a thing. A sane person would realize the dangers – get a ladder carry the (large) dog up the ladder, stand on the roof, and put the dog into the crate. One could fall from the ladder, slip off the roof, etc. A sane person might extend that thinking to what might happen to the dog during all of this AND what if the crate were to fall off the roof during the ride since there’s no permanent roof carrier for dogs. A sane person would have considered all of this and then would have decided to either put the dog in the car or make arrangements to leave the dog at a reputable kennel or with a pet sitter at home. Maybe I’m confusing sanity with intelligence, but in both cases a normal person of average intelligence would have made a very different decision with the life of the furry family member. Mitt (named after a baseball glove?) proves he is either stupid or unbalanced. I say both. Cruelty to animals is a certain sign of ……..
They don’t have to vote for Hillary, they just have to not vote.
Wonderful! Have you ever tried riding on the roof rack of a station wagon for 12 hours of highway driving? No? Well come back and let us know when you have, then your personal experience may be relevant. As has been noted already, the passenger compartment of a convertible and the back of a pickup truck have very little and relatively slow airflow by design. The roof of a station wagon on the other hand, will experience a greater volume of airflow (because most of the air displaced by the car travels over the roof) and at a higher velocity than the car is actually traveling (because the air has to travel further than the car does in the same amount of time).
“What would it take to get a 70lb. dog into a crate on the roof of a car?”
Interesting point that I haven’t seen raised.
I have a 70 lb dog, and I can carry it, if I have to, but getting it on top of a car would be a dicey operation. The story suggests that what Mitt pictured was putting the dog up there and then leaving it up there for the duration of the trip, because getting it up and down would be a tricky and potentially dangerous (especially to the dog) operation. In other words, it seems to me that the basic plan essentially ruled out routine bathroom breaks. But no dog should ever be stuck in a crate for 12 hours, so finally it decided it just had to go. Only a dog in great distress will ever poop in its own crate.
So aside from being scared by the circumstances of the confinement, there was a basic problem with the duration of the confinement.
No matter how you look at it, what Mitt did wasn’t just cruel, it was dumb. And it was unnecessary; we know, by definition, that the dog could have fit inside the car, because the crate could have been packed with luggage, equal to the volume that the dog required.
Sometimes “educated” people lack common sense.
You sick conservative bastards. No person, or animal means a damn thing to you. Mit could have cared less about the beloved family pet. If the bastard you support will espouse your agenda you don’t care who or what is hurt. I hope Americans wake up and see political conservatism for what it really is. A cold, heartless attack on anything that gets in the way of their agenda. They have no true ideas; rather they’ve taken nice sounding truisms and twisted them enough to hide their true intent. To take away kindness and empathy from our Great Country.
It doesn’t actually strike me as that big of a deal necessarily – it would be a fact intensive question. However, it is a real clunker to use as campaign material. I personally witnessed a way better example that he should have used instead. I was in Salt Lake at the time of the Olympics and downtown one day I got caught up in a traffic snarl near one of the security checkpoints. Romney, who had been brought in to replace the CEO, jumped out of a limo and started directing traffic. If it was my resume, I would have used THAT anecdote.
Really, cfoster, not that big of a deal? Making a dog shit itself in distress is no big deal? Torturing a dog for 12 hours (one way) is a pretty good indicator of Romney’s opinion on torturing humans, as we have seen.
Yeah, I guess I understand who will vote for this moron. Thank you for clarifying.
Just struck me…Romney directed traffic. Let’s all forgive him for torturing a dog.
Let’s get to the Olympics on time. Traffic trumps animal cruelty as a problem. Romney is a hero if he got people to their events on time. Absolutely. And I’m sure that’s not just the opinion of an idiot neocon…
You’re missing the point Turkey. Had Mitt used MY anecdote, he wouldn’t have to be asking your forgiveness now for whatever you think it is he did to his dog.
I won’t vote for Hillary either, and I’m a proud liberal.
I consider Hillary a moderate member of the REPUBLIKLAN party.
Well…. IN ROMNEY’S OWN WORDS,
just WAIT til he “Gets his hands on the government”!
(Read, MITTS on the gov!)
The Dems ought to keep playing THAT one during the entire campaign.
My hunch: Mitt is just the convenient FACE-MAN
for a run with JEBBY as Vice A La Cheney!
So, in other words, cfoster, you just find it unfortunate that this story got out, not that it happened. It’s just too bad that the public was given a window into this idiot’s psyche. The problem to you is that he got caught (or rather accidentally turned himself in), not that he committed the act of cruelty. Very nice.
You are STILL missing my point. It’s not unfortunate for me that the story got out. I don’t care. What I said was it was a weird story to put on a political resume and I personally witnessed a way better one. Don’t try to lard it up with meaning.
Why aren’t any of Romney’s sons fighting in the war? I’ve lost two family members in Iraq. Cost to our family cannot be measured. I hadn’t thought about it before, but Romney’s got five healthy sons, why on earth isn’t even one of them doing right by America?