The Romney Boys in Iowa: “Craig got the strawberry rhubarb, Josh and I got the cherry.”
From the Five Brothers blog: “Craig, Josh and I had about as much fun as allowed on a campaign last weekend in Iowa. Road trips and bike rides are very low key ways to get out and stump for the old man…We laughed a lot that weekend, especially when Craig started getting desperate for food halfway through the ride. At one point I remember turning to him and saying, “Isn’t this fun?”, to which he gruffly replied: ‘I’m seriously grumpy right now. We have to get food NOW!!’ …we finally found a farm that was selling homemade cookies, pies and ice cream…Craig got the strawberry rhubarb, Josh and I got the cherry.”
Columnist Froma Harrop got right to the heart of what was wrong with Mitt Romney equating his sons’ participation in his campaign with serving in Iraq. Supporters of the former Massachusetts governor and forever Mormon later characterized the question about why his sons aren’t serving in Iraq as “rude.”
We know that the armed forces are all-volunteer (”the good news,” Mitt said) and that few children of the rich have much to do with it. If military service were a prerequisite for becoming president, most of the current contenders would be out of the running. The only candidates making the cut would be Arizona Sen. John McCain, California Rep. Duncan Hunter and Texas Rep. Ron Paul on the Republican side, and Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd and former Alaska Sen. Mike Gravel on the Democratic.
What’s crashingly offensive about Romney’s response isn’t a small set of ill-chosen words but the entire universe of assumptions behind them. Throughout the campaign, Romney has showcased his athletic boys, ages 26 to 37, as all that is good about America and himself. It apparently never occurred to him that anyone in the audience would place his five princes in the same thought as Sadr City.
The official Romney Website even features a “Five Brothers” blog — a youthful jaunt across a cloudless America that seems solar systems away from the Sunni Triangle. Son Craig talks about how he and brothers Josh and Matt participated in the Annual Great Bicycle Ride across Iowa. (Two of them had trained on a hotel’s stationary bikes, we are told.) Photos show the clan boating in New Hampshire, bonding after a volleyball match and enjoying a game at Boston’s Fenway Park.
And the boys’ day jobs? Ben attends medical school in Boston, Craig works for an ad agency in New York, Josh develops real estate in Salt Lake City, and Matt manages commercial properties in San Diego.
Tagg helps run his father’s campaign and gets a bit political on his blog. He writes that New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, the Democratic candidate, wants to “raise taxes, grow government, take over health care and run away from Iraq.”
So while the “chickenhawk” label could stick to most of the candidates, there’s something especially jarring about the Romney family portrait: six hunky males, all untouched by military service. (During the Vietnam War, Mitt obtained a draft deferment to do missionary work in France.)
As part of his answer to the “rude” question, Romney called for a “surge of support” for the troops. A more politically astute response would have been to propose a national program requiring everyone’s children, including his own, to serve their country in some fashion.
It’s a good bet that the idea never crossed his mind.
Give it a rest. No one “equated” working on the campaign with service in Iraq.
Read:
“One of the ways my sons are showing support for our nation is helping me get elected because they think I’d be a great president.”
See, “showing support for our nation” isn’t the same as saying “working on my campaign is just as good as serving in Iraq.”
Ryan, it is our policy not to let rightwingers lie in this site’s comments. You deliberately omitted the question Romney answered in the above quote. The question was:
Based on this context it is clear that Romney was very precisely equating working on his campaign to serving in Iraq.
These rhetorical dirty tricks only work on stupid people. Try the Free Republic.
- Editors.
[…] Wesley Clark Just Like Iraq? On the Campaign Trail with the Romney Boys » This Summary is from an article posted at Pensito Review on Thursday, August 23, 2007 This article’s contents are copywritten by the author of Pensito Review . Please click "View Original Article…" below to view the article. Summary Provided by Technorati.comView Original Article at Pensito Review » 10 Most Recent News Articles About Duncan Hunter […]
[…] Ward Burton Just Like Iraq? On the Campaign Trail with the Romney Boys » This Summary is from an article posted at Pensito Review on Thursday, August 23, 2007 This article’s contents are copywritten by the author of Pensito Review . Please click "View Original Article…" below to view the article. Summary Provided by Technorati.comView Original Article at Pensito Review » 10 Most Recent News Articles About Tony Stewart […]
The question is irrelevant. It’s obvious: Romney did not say that helping in his campaign is “the same” as serving in Iraq. He said that helping on his campaign–engaging in the political process–is “one of the ways” of showing support for the country. There are many ways to serve the country. It can hardly be argued that serving in the military might be the most noble way. Romney in no way tried to equate the two types of service.
The question itself was irrelevant because we have a volunteer military in this country. Romney’s answer was perfectly sound. If you can’t admit that, you’re just a lock-step, mindless drone like most of the modern liberal movement. You can go join the “stupid people” anytime. You’ll fit right in.
Ryan, you are lying again. The question is by definition relevant to the answer, as you know. Additionally, the fact that we have volunteer army was precisely the point of the question. The questioner was asking why his sons had not volunteered.
Ronald Reagan weeps in heaven when rightwingers lie, Ryan. If you can live with the fact that you’re making poor St. Ronnie cry, we certainly can.
You “editors” are geniuses, aren’t you?
What does Mitt Romney have to do with whether or not his sons volunteer for a volunteer military? Why didn’t the lady ask his sons that question? What does he have to do with it? What, because he’s their father he should have coerced them into the military? Isn’t that kind of parental coercion the source of the rebellion that led you into this brainless brand of liberalism to begin with?
Oh…now I get it. That’s what you’re after. You hope that if Romney forced (or coerced) his sons into the military, they’d rebel and become tantrum-throwing liberals like you. After all, with your diminutive numbers and attrition rates, you guys need all the converts you can dupe.
Yeah, we’re geniuses. What of it? Why do Republicans hate smart people?
It is clear that the truth doesn’t matter to you, Ryan, but for other readers, the fact is, the GOP is shrinking and the Democratic Party is growing, according to Pew:
Other studies show a precipitous drop is in young people who identify as members of the GOP, which indicates that the Republican Party is dying on the vine, as Newt might say. In this case, the weed killer is a Bush:
Seventeen percent! Now that’s dimunitive.
Since truth and reality don’t matter, Ryan, let’s debate the fact that the real reason Romney’s sons aren’t in the military is that all five of them are gay. That makes as much sense as your off the wall blather.
This is how you win all your debates against liberals, huh? Just make shit up?
Move along, sonny.
Typical liberals.
Who said anything about Democrats? I’m talking about you…liberals. This might surprise you, but not all Democrats are liberal. In fact, most are not.
see?
And who gives a crap about 18 - 37 year olds? They’re mostly still too young to have turned conservative, as most of them undoubtedly will by the time they actually start to matter in the world.
And you once again dodged the reality, just like good little drone liberals. You have no winnable argument, so you jump to polls. Well, as they say, polls are for strippers and Democrats. If you believed the 2004 polls and media reporting, Kerry was going to run away with the election. That didn’t really work out for you guys, did it?
Don’t even try to match intellects with me. You have to be able to count without using your fingers first.
This just in: Not only are the Romney brothers gay — they are all married to each other.
There you have it, folks. Romney “family values” — multiple same sex marriage.
Brilliant. Your intelligence is staggering.
Thanks to reader PS Lamb from Provincetown for the inside skinny on the Romney multiple same sex wedding. The ceremony, Lamb says, was on the beach near Truro at sunset. The brother-brides were all barefoot in white suits with lavender roses in their lapels.
In his remarks after the catered Polynesian-themed barbecue, Mitt appeared to be genuinely moved. He said his only regret was that his parents and grandparents, including his paternal grandfather’s five wives, couldn’t be there.
They were watching from Eternity, we’re sure.