Romney is weird, because he is out of his element. He's trying to pander to the common folks, and he doesn't have any idea who these people are. He has no idea what they want. No idea what they need. His connection to them has been, and always has, "use these people as resources, and smile when they do things that you don't understand."

He has theory. He has stories told to him. He listens. He just doesn't process it, because it has nothing to do with his experience. In a room full of folks who is comfortable with, I'm sure that he's likable and personable. He's not comfortable with folks who didn't go to the same schools. Who don't have connections with the highest rungs of power. It's not weird, it's just foreign to him. It'd be the same if you rolled out a street bum into a party full of Skull and Bones alums. He's trying. He's making an effort, but the more he tries to put on the "Everyman" persona, the more he illustrates exactly how out of place he is.

Others have simply embraced their privilege. They didn't just acknowledge it, but used it to their advantage. To be fair, most tried to play off their service to others as a ding in that armor of privilege, but Mitt? He never imagined he'd ever need to serve anyone else--even when he left for Utah and the Olympics, that was to oversee a lot of other peoples' money.

Recently, he's gotten a bug under his bonnet about public service, but not in the sense of serving his community, but securing goodies for his buddies by getting into office. He is a bird dog at this point for cash and prizes, and those folks like the f*ck out of him, because he has a record of delivering on it, and he has made a fair amount of cash doing so.

That is the real secret to why Mitt runs. He's not in it to serve the public, but groups who are interested in having one of them driving the train. Tried and true.

They just keep forgetting, that Mitt, while flexible in his positions, just has no real appeal to anyone who doesn't have him in their own pockets.

bojon: hubiestubert: Romney is weird,
I am sure your insight is gleaned from years of personal experience with the man and his family.

Oddly enough, a bit.

Romney was involved with the UMaine system before he left for Utah. He helped install the temporary Chancellor while I was there, my own Univerity of Maine at Farmington's President, Mike Orrenduff, who received three No Confidence votes from the staff and faculty before he was replaced. Iron Mike went back to Farmington, and is still there to this day. It was during this period where I first had to deal with Romney in a Board position--I was involved with Student Government during those years, as well as an honor fraternity that I served as an officer for. My opinion of Romney was formed during those years, and we were glad to see him head off to Utah for the Olympics, because he spearheaded a lot of moves that put the UMaine system on some odd footing--a lot of projects were greenlighted for building, but oddly enough, few of the projects were actually built for any thought of future capacity, and only built to house current need, thus necessitating expansions later, that cost the UMaine system even more money, as opposed to simply building them with an eye to the future.

That is in part my trepidation for him as a resident in Massachusetts when he became Governor. His love for projects that necessitate continued spending long after he leaves is a hallmark of how he deals with other folks' money.

From personal experience from my University days, he was odd. Stilted, and none too comfortable with the public University folks, but he glad handed a lot, and kept a coterie of folks who would rubber stamp things for the Board close.

Romney and Iron Mike had a lot pull about how the UMaine system dealt with faculty, and the student relations. Neither of which were particularly good. The Board had very little patience for support from student organizations for things like LGBT issues on campuses, especially when organizations rallied with the LGBT community--radio stations, newspaper, and those pesky fraternities, as well as other clubs and organizations.

I spoke with the man on several occasions during those years, thanks to the involvement in that Student Government, and in my role as President of my Alpha Psi Omega chapter, and the fundraising we did for Special Olympics, as a DJ for our radio station, and as cartoonist for the newspaper.

He is an odd duck, and in no way, shape, or form do I want to see him anywhere near public monies. Both from that personal experience, and as a resident of Mass, and as a student in the UMaine system.

BunkyBrewman: .Sure we can do better. But do we really deserve better?

I may have given up my membership in the party, but there are still good people who are in. It's not easy in a climate that rewards idiocy over sane judgement or prudent planning--the leadership is doubling down on getting the backing of the zealots, homophobes, and folks who hate the taxman over their own futures, and who would rather pick fights across the globe, than folks pay attention to what is going on in our own backyards, though they seem quite content to wonder what's going on in other folks' bedrooms.

I understand the anger in the TEA Party. I sympathize with it even. Folks who were promised prosperity watched their retirement funds go belly up thanks to what amounted to gambling on rigged bets--bets that were designed to fail, and the smart folks took insurance out on them failing in the first place--and watched their sons and daughters head off to the Middle East to fight an enemy that they didn't really understand, but damned if they were scary.

I understand the confusion, because they had been told that the fight was for freedom. That it was for justice. And yet, it seemed to edge away each time they reached for that brass ring. And it was easier to blame the guys that they got pointed at, as opposed to questioning who was in charge when things went sour, who profited, and who led the charge to war, and blew up the budget to such levels, while they had been assured that cutting taxes would cause a boom...it was easier to just listen to the excuses, and take the bait, than realize that the folks who were pointing them at targets, might be pointing them away from themselves, because the mob might turn on them instead if they thought about it too hard. Easier then to chase after hot button issues and homilies.

I understand their anger and confusion, because it IS real. They are just pointed at perhaps the wrong folks, and conflating faith with sense.

That isn't the whole of the party, and even the Idiot Brigade that would rather wave flags than think too hard, if they had a better leadership, might actually turn some of their energy into something useful, as opposed to just being loud.

I was a Republican for most of my adult years. I worked on Olympia Snowe's campaign a few times, and I voted quite proudly to try get McCain on the 2000 ticket, because I thought he was the best man for the job.

There are good folks in the party. Hard working folks, sensible folks, and they deserve better than the leadership is giving them, and the lies that they're being fed, and more than a few are like myself, who have stayed in, to try to turn it.

I gave up this cycle. I can't do it anymore. I'm not a Democrat, but I cannot stomach what the leadership is doing to the country, or what they're doing to the party for that matter. There are races locally where Republicans will get my vote, but on the national level at this point, it's harder and harder to find sane candidates, and in this Presidential race, voting Romney is voting to mortgage my granddaughter's future, and my daughter is only 10. No thank you.

But that doesn't mean that the folks in the party don't deserve better. It may take losing a few cycles to get it through the heads of the leadership, or splitting the party, but the people certainly deserve better, and there are good Senators and Representatives, and more in the party who deserve support for their ideas. For their policies. Not their party affiliation, but what they are actually doing. Until we reward that, as opposed to just the simple R next to the name, we will have the cancer that riddles the party right now.

In that sense, we have the party we deserve now--because we let this happen to us--but as a nation, we deserve better than no tax, and increase spending idiots who think that "Job Creators" is some sort of magic phrase that is going to spur competition and the economy, as opposed to actual hard work...

EatTheWorld: hubiestubert: They just keep forgetting, that Mitt, while flexible in his positions, just has no real appeal to anyone who doesn't have him in their own pockets.

This is where you are so wrong. He appeals to me because he is now the only choice beside fartbongo. And fartbongo can kiss my ass.

In that case, you're an idiot. Choose a candidate you can believe in, instead of rewarding dickheads like this. If anything, you've illustrated exactly why the man is on this road today. He's not a good choice. He's not even a choice, he's a marketing ploy. If you're going to vote for someone, then vote your conscience, not simply because folks are telling you it's the only choice you have.

Framing this as either/or you have made folks jobs easy.

We can do better. We deserve better.

I hereby declare this "not a Mormon bashing thread." This is a Mitt Romney bashing thread. I know Mormons who are not complete assholes. Mitt Romney is a complete asshole.

To be fair, my kids are not borrowing from me. What I have is theirs. I expect no return. Mitt Romney is an asshole.

Tatsuma: Oh, and also apparently mormons can't drink or have cigarettes.

What's wrong with that exactly?

Would people in this thread criticizing him for not liking beer if he was a Muslim? I don't think so.

The article was about how Mitt has difficulty connecting with people, not so much his love or distaste for beer, and that is really the crux of the issue. He is an odd duck. Not because he's a Mormon--after my sojourn out West, I got to know a LOT of Mormons, and overall, they're good folks--but because he lacks any real point of reference to deal with people below a certain level of income and class. He tries to put on a folksy face, and while some folks can pull it off, Mitt has zero ability to understand what people unlike himself feel or do.

THAT worries me a bit. He can't understand folks, and he wants to represent them? That's not really going to happen. He will wind up representing what he might imagine people want, and he's willing to pander, badly, to try to convince them that he "feels their pain" but he just isn't wired for it. It's not that he's an inelegant speaker, but that he lacks the capability to understand other peoples' experiences, and that translates badly for an elected representative. In my mind, it actively disqualifies one for elected office. And Mitt keeps proving this, over and over again...

hubiestubert: bojon: hubiestubert: Romney is weird,
I am sure your insight is gleaned from years of personal experience with the man and his family.

Oddly enough, a bit.

Romney was involved with the UMaine system before he left for Utah. He helped install the temporary Chancellor while I was there, my own Univerity of Maine at Farmington's President, Mike Orrenduff, who received three No Confidence votes from the staff and faculty before he was replaced. Iron Mike went back to Farmington, and is still there to this day. It was during this period where I first had to deal with Romney in a Board position--I was involved with Student Government during those years, as well as an honor fraternity that I served as an officer for. My opinion of Romney was formed during those years, and we were glad to see him head off to Utah for the Olympics, because he spearheaded a lot of moves that put the UMaine system on some odd footing--a lot of projects were greenlighted for building, but oddly enough, few of the projects were actually built for any thought of future capacity, and only built to house current need, thus necessitating expansions later, that cost the UMaine system even more money, as opposed to simply building them with an eye to the future.

That is in part my trepidation for him as a resident in Massachusetts when he became Governor. His love for projects that necessitate continued spending long after he leaves is a hallmark of how he deals with other folks' money.

From personal experience from my University days, he was odd. Stilted, and none too comfortable with the public University folks, but he glad handed a lot, and kept a coterie of folks who would rubber stamp things for the Board close.

Romney and Iron Mike had a lot pull about how the UMaine system dealt with faculty, and the student relations. Neither of which were particularly good. The Board had very little patience for support from student organizations for things like LGBT issues on campuses, especially when o ...

You need to post that somewhere where a lot of normal people can see it. Tag it "Former GOP member explains distaste for Romney" or something like that. This says about as much about the Romneybot as anything I've seen here lately, and also about the reasons genuine conservatives are abandoning the Gutless Old Party in droves.

We're criticizing him because he does not have a farking clue what the rest of us are dealing with. "Borrow money from your parents" just will not fly when your parents are not Romneys. My kids are borrowing from me. They're borrowing from me for education, they're borrowing from me for health care. I'm old. I'm not rich. Mitt does not understand me, nor does he understand you.

themindiswatching: Does Mitt Romney have Asperger's Syndrome?

/may explain a few things

I don't think so-I really believe that it's just the result of growing up in a plutocratic bubble surrounded by like-bubbled people. He truly has no clue as to how the vast bulk of Americans live.

fracto73: hubiestubert: fracto73: I was a student in 2000, The President at the time was a woman named Theo. She is retiring this year.

To be fair, I was surprised when I Googled him, and the article stated he was still there. His term as Chancellor was just miserable, and he just seemed galled at returning to UMF after.


Maybe I looked in the wrong place and your google-fu is stronger.

When I was there we welcomed Mike with a dinner at Purington Hall--it was only half a floor of guys, and most upper classmen, and we were considered the party hall--and tried to establish good relations with the new President. He then turned around and cracked down on damn near everything, and wound up presiding over the first sit in protest on UMF grounds in years. One fella got booted for doing something stupid, and was given an hour to clear out and be off premises. No one argued his being removed from campus housing, but the time frame was ridiculous for setting off a fire extinguisher in the hall, and the word came down to the RAs to have his stuff put on the front steps while he was trying to file his appeal. It was not a good beginning to his time there. We almost cheered when he went off to be interim Chancellor, and then he wound up borking the whole system with idiocy and looking to slice faculty, resources, and more. Mike wound up driving a lot of folks to off campus housing, which was great for the apartment owners in town, but then the town realized that a lot of off campus housing meant a lot of off campus drinking, and his crackdown on on campus drinking forced even more problems onto the town. He ushered in a whole new low for relations between the University and the town--and on top of that, he ratcheted up tensions between on campus organizations by trying to defund the LGBT group on campus, while trying to defend the actions of some of the interfaith groups that wound up getting into hot water about charges of date rape. Man was just a pimple on the butt of the campus...

proteus_b: jso2897: Don't most churches express anti-American views? Indeed, is not the view that a man's soul and the fruits of his labor belong not to him, but to some invisible force in the sky, PROFOUNDLY anti-American?

i believe that churches whose pastors cheer on the violent deaths of american civilians as well deserved tend to be outside of the mainstream.

Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson weren't/aren't "mainstream", at least to the right wing?

Uh, so what?

Who can say truthfully that the first time they tasted beer, they thought 'awesome taste!'?

What's sad is, even the typical GOP white knights can't find any way to support this, so they're reduced to attacking liberals for not liking Romney. Just admit your guy is stupid, but he's the best you've got.

jjorsett: Unfortunately for the left,


It's cute that you think Democrats are "the left." The Dem Party is centrist. And that's why they will win the White House again.

Could the GOP have found a worse candidate to run in the current climate? The income gap is a huge issue, so you run an silver-spooned vulture capitalist who has NEVER known what it's like to be an average American. HE DOESN'T EVEN DRINK. The man has absolutely nothing in common with most of the country.

And still they'll call the black man who put himself through college and just finished paying off his student loans a few years ago the "elitist" in the race.

It will be fun watching Romney gaffe and twist his way through the general election. It'll be a damn circus.

I vote we start spreading this as widely as possible: Obama might want to take everyone's guns, but Romney wants to take everyone's beer.

Mitt is Al Gore without the charisma.

hubiestubert: bojon: hubiestubert: Romney is weird,
I am sure your insight is gleaned from years of personal experience with the man and his family.

Oddly enough, a bit.

Romney was involved with the UMaine system before he left for Utah. He helped install the temporary Chancellor while I was there, my own Univerity of Maine at Farmington's President, Mike Orrenduff, who received three No Confidence votes from the staff and faculty before he was replaced. Iron Mike went back to Farmington, and is still there to this day. It was during this period where I first had to deal with Romney in a Board position--I was involved with Student Government during those years, as well as an honor fraternity that I served as an officer for. My opinion of Romney was formed during those years, and we were glad to see him head off to Utah for the Olympics, because he spearheaded a lot of moves that put the UMaine system on some odd footing--a lot of projects were greenlighted for building, but oddly enough, few of the projects were actually built for any thought of future capacity, and only built to house current need, thus necessitating expansions later, that cost the UMaine system even more money, as opposed to simply building them with an eye to the future.

That is in part my trepidation for him as a resident in Massachusetts when he became Governor. His love for projects that necessitate continued spending long after he leaves is a hallmark of how he deals with other folks' money.

From personal experience from my University days, he was odd. Stilted, and none too comfortable with the public University folks, but he glad handed a lot, and kept a coterie of folks who would rubber stamp things for the Board close.

Romney and Iron Mike had a lot pull about how the UMaine system dealt with faculty, and the student relations. Neither of which were particularly good. The Board had very little patience for support from student organizations for things like LGBT issues on campuses, especially when o ...

Ohsnap.jpg

Somacandra: There are many legitimate reasons to oppose Gov.Romney's candidacy for President. His personal opinion regarding his personal intake policy of alcohol is not one of them. If he wanted to outlaw them for everyone else, that's one thing. But this is just his personal preference regarding observance of the Word of Wisdom. Its also says to eat mostly grains, some vegetables and fruits, with meats sparingly and to avoid illegal drug use. Should we crucify him for that as well?

You theists seem to get crucified a lot.

Does Mitt Romney have Asperger's Syndrome?

/may explain a few things

Damned if you do, and damned if you don't, eh, Mittsy? He can try and look somewhat human and sentient by having a casual beer with his buds, or he can appease the Mormons. There is no winning this one.