Strange Quote Of The Day: Mitt Romney Edition

From The Los Angeles Times

Romney’s wife, Ann, was in attendance, and the candidate spoke of the concern he had for her when her plane had to make an emergency landing Friday en route to Santa Monica because of an electrical  malfunction.

“I appreciate the fact that she is on the ground, safe and sound. And I don’t think she knows just how worried some of us were,” Romney said. “When you have a fire in an aircraft, there’s no place to go, exactly, there’s no — and you can’t find any oxygen from outside the aircraft to get in the aircraft, because the windows don’t open. I don’t know why they don’t do that. It’s a real problem. So it’s very dangerous. And she was choking and rubbing her eyes. Fortunately, there was enough oxygen for the pilot and copilot to make a safe landing in Denver. But she’s safe and sound.”

I can think of a few reasons why airplane windows don’t open. Just sayin’.

FILED UNDER: 2012 Election, US Politics, , , ,
Doug Mataconis
About Doug Mataconis
Doug Mataconis held a B.A. in Political Science from Rutgers University and J.D. from George Mason University School of Law. He joined the staff of OTB in May 2010 and contributed a staggering 16,483 posts before his retirement in January 2020. He passed far too young in July 2021.

Comments

  1. pylon says:

    If only that darned FAA wouldn’t over-regulate aircraft, free enterprise would be free to exploit the market for open-air jet aircraft.

  2. J-Dub says:

    I love the wind in my hair at 30,000 feet.

  3. J-Dub says:

    I prefer this quote from Mittens though, seems he always has his head in the clouds…

    As Romney walked back to the plane to shake hands with the five individuals who drove vans in the motorcade, your pooler asked Romney if he was going to be campaigning a little harder from here on out.
    ”Ha ha. We’re in the stretch aren’t we? Look at those clouds. It’s beautiful,” he said, pointing to the sky. “Look at those things.”

  4. Fiona says:

    Mitt’s been on the campaign trail far too long. Exhaustion-induced stupidity is starting to set in.

  5. As if the guy couldn’t disqualify himself again … he proves it can be done.

    Compare and contrast to this q and a.

  6. grumpy realist says:

    WTF?!

    I guess this nitwit has never flown in an unpressurized airplane. Anyone got a Cessna? Or an Eclipse?

  7. Markey says:

    Gov Romney! Are you gonna modify your Jets windows so they can open at 30,000 feet? Will you fire the aircraft´s mechanics for poor service?

  8. mattb says:

    @Fiona:

    Mitt’s been on the campaign trail far too long. Exhaustion-induced stupidity is starting to set in.

    B-I-N-G-O

    This is the result of being expected to speak on anything at anytime at a moment’s notice.

    I hope conservative remember these sorts of exhaustion-induced stupidity moments before bringing up things like “Obama thinks there are 57 states.” Likewise, hopefully liberals will remember the “57 states” comment before making too much of this mistake.

  9. Gromitt Gunn says:

    Fans of The Amazing Race have a term for this sort of thing: Killer Fatigue. On TAR, it starts to affect teams usually around the 6th or 7th leg, generally when they are twenty days in and sleep deprived and trying to make their way through someplace like Mumbai or Bangkok with $5 in their pockets. I don’t really think he knows what he’s saying at this point.

  10. @mattb:

    Opening windows on jets is far worse than that. Question any institution that granted him a college degree.

  11. stonetools says:

    Well, Mitt is a Republican and Republicans aren’t up on this science stuff. Remember when Saint Ronnie assured us that trees cause more polllution than factories? And of course, Todd Akin and his ideas about female biology? Mitt’s view of the atmosphere fits right in with the evolution and climate change denying party of the not smart.

  12. @stonetools:

    The Ronnie thing is fun because it does have scientific basis. Pine smell, forest smell, is hydrocarbons in the air. Though saying they were worse than factories was over the top.

  13. Mr. Replica says:

    While this comment is a very strange one indeed. I clicked on the link to the article thinking it was going to be about this:

    http://www.forbes.com/sites/rickungar/2012/09/24/no-health-insurance-no-problem-romney-says-that-freeloading-in-the-er-is-now-all-good/

    When asked whether the nation has a responsibility to provide health care to the 50 million Americans who do not currently have coverage, the Governor responded;

    “Well, we do provide care for people who don’t have insurance. If someone has a heart attack, they don’t sit in their apartment and die. We pick them up in an ambulance, and take them to the hospital, and give them care. And different states have different ways of providing for that care.”

    (…)

    You see, it was the ‘other’ Mitt who said during a 2010 interview over at MSNBC—

    “It doesn’t make a lot of sense for us to have millions and millions of people who have no health insurance and yet who can go to the emergency room and get entirely free care for which they have no responsibility.”

    (…)

    And it was the ’other’ Mitt who told Glenn Beck in a 2007 interview—
    “When they show up at the hospital, they get care. They get free care paid for by you and me. If that’s not a form of socialism, I don’t know what is. ”

  14. Vast Variety says:

    Isn’t there a scene in teh movie Airplane where someone opens a window to toss out a cigarette?

  15. wr says:

    @Vast Variety: And in “Never Give A Sucker an Even Break,” WC Fields steps out for a drink on the plane’s open-air observation platform. And when he accidentally drops his flask over the side, he dives after it…

  16. Rafer Janders says:

    @pylon:

    If only that darned FAA wouldn’t over-regulate aircraft, free enterprise would be free to exploit the market for open-air jet aircraft.

    This is really something we should get the federal government out of and let the states regulate. Don’t like, say, California’s regulations on not being able to open the windows in your plane? Just fly over to Arizona and open ’em wide!

  17. Mr. Replica says:

    @Vast Variety:

    There are many scenes in many movies that include someone opening a door or breaking a window in an aircraft, which results in people being sucked out. Airplane is one. Probably a few instances of it happening in Bond movies.This one being one of my favorites.

    The death of Goldfinger.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHXevnoAciY

  18. Rafer Janders says:

    Mitt Romney does have a demonstrated fondness for lashing living beings to the roof of his vehicles while they’re travelling at high speed. Maybe he thinks it would have been more comfortable for Ann if she’d been travelling in a crate on top of the plane…..

  19. Rafer Janders says:

    @J-Dub:

    As Romney walked back to the plane to shake hands with the five individuals who drove vans in the motorcade, your pooler asked Romney if he was going to be campaigning a little harder from here on out. ”Ha ha. We’re in the stretch aren’t we? Look at those clouds. It’s beautiful,” he said, pointing to the sky. “Look at those things.”

    Those clouds are exactly the right size, and just the right height from the ground.

  20. sam says:

    Donald Trump would never fly again.

  21. legion says:

    @mattb:

    Likewise, hopefully liberals will remember the “57 states” comment before making too much of this mistake.

    I agree that this is a minor piece of foot-in-mouth, worthy of a momentary smirk, but it should be dropped for the next actual, substantive RomneyShamble.

    That said, Romney has never been able to back away from any misstatement, no matter how obviously broken. It’s very probable that he’ll double down on this & make “forcing the FAA to allow passenger-operated windows mandatory” a key part of his platform.

  22. Me Me Me says:

    Brain damage.

    If you embrace the theory that Romney suffered brain damage in his 1968 car accident, everything makes sense.

  23. ptfe says:

    Maybe there actually is an open window on his airplane. That would explain a lot of his behavior.

    Just for kicks, let’s add this quote to Mitt Romney’s Daily Stream of Consciousness:

    “I know in the coming six weeks [public opinion polls are] very unlikely to remain where they are today … I’ll either go up or I’ll go down. It’s unlikely that we’ll just stay the same.”

    Cover all the bases — just don’t get caught with an opinion. How very…Mitty.

  24. ernieyeball says:

    …this is a recognition of reality on the GOP’s part.

    Our lawmakers would do well to recognise reality on some other issues.
    Two that come to mind are immigration policy and the war on drugs.

  25. Pretty funny #RomneyPlaneFeatures on twitter.

  26. Lynda says:

    Several years ago I was a frequent traveler and spent a great deal of the time away from home exhausted and jetlagged. Sufficiently so I have
    1) Woken up thinking there was a strange man in bed with me and leapt up to grab the nearest object to hit the intruder with it – only to realize that it was my husband of multiple years (thankfully before impact of heavy object to his head)
    2) Forgotten my home telephone number for several hours.

    So I can truly understand that stress and tiredness can make you say and do really weird things.

    However, I cannot imagine any situation where I would say that airplanes should be fitted with electric windows so you could feel the breeze.

    Perhaps I should have drunk more.

  27. Fiona says:

    Apparently, Romney’s comments were meant as a joke:

    http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2012/09/mitt-romney-joke-joking-airplane-windows.html

    When someone’s as humorless as Romney, it’s pretty hard to imagine him joking. Hence a meme is born.