I have nothing against Ann Romney at all. But, yeah, if you’re a surrogate and you do an interview with someone who makes 1/200 of what David Gregory makes, you better answer the fucking questions (via):
Anchor David Nelson: “Here in Iowa, as you know, same-sex marriage is legal. Do you believe a lesbian mother should be allowed to marry her partner?”
Ann Romney: “You know, I’m not going to talk about the specific issues. I’m going to let my husband speak on issues. I’m here to really just talk about my husband and what kind of husband and father he is and, you know, those are hot-button issues that distract from what the real voting issue is going to be at this election. That, it’s going to be about the economy and jobs.
[…]
Anchor David Nelson: “Do you believe that employer-provided health insurance should be required to cover birth control?”
Ann Romney: “Again, you’re asking me questions that are not about what this election is going to be about. This election is going to be about the economy and jobs.”
Anchor David Nelson: “Well, a Pew Research poll shows those issues are very important to women, ranking them either “important” or “very important.”
Ann Romney: “You know, but I personally believe, and this is what I’m hearing from women all across the country that they are going to look for the guy that’s going to pull them out of the weeds and get them job security and a brighter future for their children. That’s the message.
Let’s raise a glass to David Nelson and all the middle-class journalists who show up everyday and do their fucking jobs. And let not the high-priced fellatio of the Beltway gigolos reflect poorly on their honorable profession.
Quaker in a Basement
Ann Romney has already told you people all you need to know about this election.
arguingwithsignposts
Well, okay then.
the ability to pivot within such a small space is definitely some kind of talent.
Steve
Wait, let’s keep going…
Good interviewer. Not such a good interviewee. Here, tell you what, why don’t I hand you this campaign press release and you can just read it on the air.
dmsilev
Wow.
Among a host of issues with her statement, one jumped out at me. “Mitt Romney will bring job security”. Since when? His *entire* business career was all about upending companies and sucking out whatever profit was possible. What the fuck evidence is there that Mitt Romney cares about job security for anyone except (possibly) his immediate family?
Kirbster
The “Secret Weapon” misfires.
Urza
I’m pretty sure that guy is going to be fired for committing an act of journalism. I’m also pretty sure Ann would like to throw him in jail.
JPL
We’ll have an opportunity to watch the big boys this Sunday when they interview Ryan and Romney. hahahhahhaahhaha
azlib
Let them eat cake.
the Conster
Shorter Ann: You’re the help, know your place.
That’s not going to work with two months to go, though, and with everyone paying attention. Lady Ann needs a better script, but she’s too special to know it.
rollotomasi
David Gregory is a joke. Romey gets a 30 minute infomercial.
Anya
Raising a glass to David Nelson.
About Ann Romney, two theories: 1) she disagrees with the official campaign policy on this and she doesn’t want to lie to win votes, so she stays out of it; 2) she holds these bigoted and ignorant stands but she knows they’re a priority to the women she’s trying to attract so avoids it all together instead of alienating them.
PsiFighter37
Ann Romney is pretty freakin’ awful. Pretty sad that she was able to ‘humanize’ him in the GOP primary…says a lot about the clown show he was running against then.
Somewhat OT, but Obama’s now at 78.1% probability in Nate Silver’s forecast. Gallup definitely seems to be showing some kind of bounce for him (after virtually none for Romney). Lovin’ it, but can’t wait for Obama to make R-Money pound sand in the debates. I will be drinking and enjoying the schadenfreude those nights.
ETA @Anya: It’s #2. I don’t think I’ve really caught any glimpse of interesting independent thought coming from Ann’s beautiful mind over the past year+.
shoutingattherain
I’ll bet Michelle Obama would give the same inane, mindless answers….
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
freelancer
Really? I can’t stand her. I can’t figure out which Romney I dislike more, her or Mitt.
danah gaz
“I have nothing against Ann Romney at all.”
She has nothing against “you people” either, as long as you know your place.
ETA: In my haste, I jumped in before reading the comments. I see the thread has already been won, several times over.
FlipYrWhig
@freelancer: They’re both utterly repellent. They deserve each other.
different-church-lady
Worst… surrogate…. EVER.
joes527
@arguingwithsignposts: I’m not saying, I’m just saying…
FlipYrWhig
@Anya: You give her too much credit. She’s just repeating what the campaign people told her to say: “I’m just here to talk about X” and “I’m not going to get into Y because the election is about jobs and the economy.” So she went into a recursive loop from one to the other.
some guy
“You know, I’m not going to talk about the specific issues….I’m going to talk to you about the economy and about job creation.”
Thus, talking about the economy and about job creation is, logically, not a specific issue, but a vague and pointless theme.
got it.
JustRuss
The next time they hold an election for host of MTP, I’m voting for Nelson.
Anya
@PsiFighter37: I agree. Chekout the way she talks about what women are looking for in a potential president:
beltane
Well, we will have to disagree because I have a lot against Ann Romney. In a few week’s time she has gone from being a bland, boring nonentity to being a mean, imperious, entitled, condescending B-word. I especially can’t stand her view that American women are all poor damsels in distress who will be saved by Sir Mitt if only we give him our votes. Does this mean he plans to make every woman in this country a sister-wife? F*ck that sh*t.
encephalopath
Women who go to see Ann Romney and speak to her a pretty narrowly self-selected group.
What she hears from “the people” is not remotely the same as a real poll.
TaMara (BHF)
Interesting lecture today from my winger co-worker, with whom I often have to suppress the urge to beat him senseless with my Obama Born in the USA mug. According to him, Clinton was great, he loved him, but it was “clear he was lying about Obama, he hates him” you know.
The gymnastics of being a winger seems exhausting.
beltane
@rollotomasi: Mitt Romney will manage to turn a David Gregory infomercial into a disaster because he will be featured in that infomercial, smacking his lips and being the obnoxious fool he is.
Darkrose
@Anya: Interesting wording there: “what I’m hearing from women all across the country that they are going to look for the guy that’s going to pull them out of the weeds and get them job security…”
I don’t think she meant it that way, but it sure sounds a lot like, “What women want is to marry a rich guy so they’ll be set for life.”
RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist
That’s her story and she’s sticking to it. Her willingness to stonewall the press is impressive. Appalling but impressive.
freelancer
@Darkrose:
Well we can’t ALL be mafia wives, now can we?
beltane
@Darkrose: I think she did mean it that way because such an attitude is the only thing she’s been surrounded with from the day she was born.
Darkrose
I know they’re not actually running. But I’d pay real cash money to see Ann Romney have to be on stage with Michelle Obama. Her head might explode if she actually had to shake Michelle’s hand; they’d have to get the Black Advisory Council out to reassure Miss Ann that the black won’t rub off on her lily-white hands.
cmorenc
@the Conster:
Actually, shorter Ann is that she’s the one trying to keep WITHIN her place and not get lured out into saying anything on social issues that could either potentially get Mitt in hot water with the hard-right social conservatives in the GOP base or else create waves with moderate women voters who might still be bamboozled by economic anxiety into voting for Mitt. She’s trying to have her substantive surrogate speaking role cake and eat her traditional candidate-wife role cake too. That’s an awkward path to convincingly bring off without looking leashed to your husband like a cute pet rather than someone who’s her own woman.
Darkrose
@efgoldman:Hey, I’m trying to give her the benefit of the doubt, for some reason.
scav
I’d call her an Anndroid but there’s already one of those that I’m almost rather fond of. Ann-toinette.2 it is then.
Let them eat my talking points and nothing else.
Shit are those two a matched set.
NancyDarling
As a retired hygienist, I hope she sleeps in a bruxism night guard. Otherwise she’s going to wear her teeth down to nubs by November. I swear her masseter muscles have grown since January.
Anya
@Darkrose: Yes, it sounded like she was talking about marrying for money.
PsiFighter37
@Anya: I should clarify my point – I don’t think Anne is necessarily intentionally bigoted / snooty towards The Help / aka everyone else, but she’s lived a life of privilege her entire life. Her family was well off, she married into a wealthy family, she’s been a stay-at-home mother with no broader perspective or interests (and no, bullshit like horse dancing does NOT count).
She simply doesn’t know any better, so she bases her perspective off of her past experiences (hence the ‘You people’ lines, which shows a really bad sense of being stuck in a racially antiquated past) as well as whatever the campaign is programming to tell her. Combine that with what is an off-putting deference towards all things Mitt, and you have a hypothetical First Lady who may look pretty on teevee but, deep down, embodies…what?
lamh35
here’s the thing,
It just seems to me like this is just bad programming by the campaign. They just didn’t prepare her for anything but answering questions about jobs and economy. As if the local news wouldn’t ask her about other things too. Plus Michelle Obama has spoiled the way the media treats the FLOTUS, I think. Michelle Obama will attempt to answer whatever question and is saavy enough to just run circles around questions she knows are gotcha questions. And let’s not forget, that Ann Romney unlike some wives does have experience on the campaign trail. Her husbands been running for office since his Senate campaign. She’s not some novice to politics.
Quite Daft
Ann’s three favorite words
You People and You Know
WereBear
They would be, if they had to do this “thinking” themselves. But they just repeat what they have been told to say. It runs through their brains like a mag-lev, never touching actual thought or awareness.
I mean, he said Clinton was great, and he loved him? WTF to the 8 millionth power!
feebog
Shorter Ann Romney to the press: Softballs over the plate only please, no fastballs, curves or sinkers, cause I got nothin’.
Argon
It gets worse if you read the entire transcript. For example it starts with:
*********-
Anchor David Nelson: “What is your message to voters?”
Ann Romney: “My message, really was, ‘women, I hear your voices,’ and the interesting thing about this economy, this tough economy that we’re going through, is that women have been hit the hardest. And I wanted to make sure that women of America knew that we have been across this country for the last year and a half and we are very aware of how tough it is for them.
**********
So when did ‘women, I hear your voices’ morph into ‘I don’t want to talk about family planning and lesbian mothers’? Does the size of a family and legal issues which determine legal responsibilities for parents with children have no impact on the economic well-being of women?
Violet
I commented in the previous thread that this journalist did a great job. I wish our Village Elders would pay attention.
Villago Delenda Est
@TaMara (BHF):
They make Gabby Douglas look stiff and inflexible by comparison, they do.
Irving
It’s very obvious that Ann was badly prepared for being interviewed, and she doesn’t have the skills to drag a question back onto a favorable subject.
It’s almost like she’s never interviewed for anything – like, say, a job – in her entire life.
Why, bless her heart.
beltane
@lamh35: She’s also not an economist so I really am not interested in what she has to say about the economy. Asking Ann Romney about economic issues is like asking George W. Bush about literary theory.
hells littlest angel
Wow, Ann Romney is just as forthright, courageous and honest as her husband is.
gelfling545
@efgoldman: And be nothing but charming all the while!
Roger Moore
@Darkrose:
I think that’s pretty close to what she meant. What she meant is that women are damsels in distress who are waiting for knights in shining armor to ride to their rescue. She’s happy with Mitt because he was her knight in shining armor, so she thinks other women should like him, too. What she doesn’t understand is that Mitt is only able to support her in the style to which she’s become accustomed by keeping a lot of other damsels locked up in his dungeon to do her chores for her.
gvg
60″s harlequin romance, marry a rich guy mindset. I don’t think she has bothered to think since she was young. She is well preserved, from a time capsule. I don’t think she realizes she sounds…odd to most people. In the context of an election, when times are tough, this seems snobby, but it’s so consistant I think she is just frozen in the past. Whatever, I don’t want to elect a guy who is happy with this style of woman. It implies things about him.
You know since his mom ran for state office, she wasn’t like Anne. Why did he end up with a throwback?
maya
Wait! Back up there. Ann Romney is a “surrogate”? Who’s fetus is she carrying? That may not be a “real voting issue” but it sure would be a “hot-button” one.
Anya
@FlipYrWhig: I don’t think it’s because she doesn’t know the answer but it’s because she knows her place. Ann Romney is married to a Mormon bishop and as such she has to follow the official Mormon position on women “woman’s primary place is in the home, where she is to rear children and abide by the righteous counsel of her husband.” Those political views she’s spouting are Mitt’s views and she has to follow it, even if she disagrees with it.
freelancer
@WereBear:
Your imagery here made me LMAO.
Villago Delenda Est
@lamh35:
Then they are utterly and completely incompetent.
Of course, they do have to be prepared to spin whatever OvenMitt says at the drop of a hat, so they’re preoccupied.
Villago Delenda Est
@beltane:
Or military science, or economics, or comparative religions, or history.
Especially the latter, given that he majored in it at Yale.
PsiFighter37
@Villago Delenda Est: It’s not like Mitt is great at answering those questions either. I fully expect Obama to crush Romney on any non-economic questions that come up during the debates (and I’m sure there will be plenty of those).
It’s hard to come off as having a heart when you’re a stone-cold robot that lacks empathy.
TS
Ann Romney is the lead person in Romney’s campaign for women – the only women she seems to know are those who still pretend the life of a woman is lunch and shopping. She doesn’t even seem to be involved in any Charity events which is a usual haunt for those whose children have grown and flown. She needs to get out more and find out about “women’s issues”.
Meanwhile back at the ranch – I have read Andrew Sullivan for the last time – he gives the President’s convention bounce to Bill Clinton – you could map a plan under Sullivan’s nose and he still wouldn’t have a clue – his ONLY claim to fame was ranting about Sarah Palin – and everyone does that.
Villago Delenda Est
She’s no more a professional politician’s wife than OvenMitt is a professional politician.
Which OvenMitt will tell you repeatedly, even though he’s been running for some sort of office for two fucking decades, off and on
bemused
After ten years in politics, neither one is ready for prime time, not even close.
I’m waiting to hear how people in the military react to Romney saying they’re weren’t high on the priority list of even getting a mention in Tampa.
Violet
So Mitt is an awful candidate and running an awful campaign. His wife isn’t any better on the campaign trail. Republicans don’t like Mitt. The press doesn’t like Mitt. The press and Republicans used to like Ryan, but now he’s been found out to be a liar about everything and he’s a drag on the campaign too.
At what point will the Republicans start throwing Mitt and his campaign under the bus in enough of an obvious way that the press will feel free to pile on? Or, alternatively, will the press eventually say what is obvious to everyone else, that Mitt is incompetent and not ready to be president and start openly speculating about whether the Republicans should replace him?
Will any of this happen? If so, when?
MikeJ
@Darkrose:
I suppose being a prostitute is a job like any other. I just hope she tells them to join COYOTE, the sex workers union.
Hal
The thing I dislike about Ann Romney is that she induces in me this metal tick that constantly says; “Boy, if Michelle Obama said something like that…”
Commenting at Balloon Juice Since 1937
chicks just want some dude to provide for them. amirite?
jrg
Wait a second – wasn’t gay marriage the most important thing in the world to Republicans five minutes ago?
What a bunch of dumbass mooks. They’re told what to be concerned about, and can be expected to forget about it faster than a brain damaged tuna.
Narcissus
“I’m only going to talk about things I want to talk about. I’m Ann Romney.”
Roger Moore
@Argon:
It didn’t. It morphed more subtly from “women, I hear your voices” to “women, I hear you saying exactly what we want you to say”.
JWL
“Let’s raise a glass to David Nelson..” and all his honorable colleagues.
Right you are.
Cheers.
beltane
@Villago Delenda Est: Heh, I was just remembering a pre-9/11 NPR interview with Laura Bush and some literacy program she was involved with. She came across as likable and pleasant and was quite animated while discussing the various books she had read recently. And then the interviewer asked “What is your husband reading right now?” Silence. Crickets. And then “Well, he’s very busy and doesn’t have the time to read much.”
Ann Romney is too robotic to even cover for her husband in this way.
rb
@lamh35: It just seems to me like this is just bad programming by the campaign
Right, and the unfortunate lack of retail political skill possessed by Mitt or Ann Romney. Whenever you see a politician talking about “the message” it’s a bad sign. Bush I (“message: I care”) or Bush II (“staying on message to win”) were masters, so to speak, of this kind of mistake, but they at least had the ability to freelance a bit.
This interview reads like the campaign told Ann: just keep bringing it back to the economy. The message is jobs and the economy. So Ann goes out and literally says “Thanks for that question, but I am going to keep bringing it back to the economy. No matter what you say, the message is the economy.” I mean how much of a doofus do you have to be to actually say to a local reporter “if you want to pull me off the message, it’s not going to work”?
Only the likes of Dancin’ Dave Gregory will let this pass.
PsiFighter37
@Violet: Right after the last debate. By then, I fully expect that Obama will have a lead outside the MoE and cruising. There’s not going to be any October surprise on the economy (Mario Draghi basically promised to hold the euro together no matter what).
Election Day comes, Obama wins at least 332 electoral votes, and we never have to hear about a lousy 1-term governor from Massachusetts ever again, and we’ll all be better off because of it.
I forget when the recriminations started from the GOP in 2008, but there was plenty of internal sniping after Palin showed herself to be the complete rube she is.
Ed in NJ
@PsiFighter37:
Not only that, but after declaring no bounce yesterday before the convention was even over, Ipsos/Reuters embarassingly shows a +3 a day later in their 4-day rolling average, and Rasmussen is +3 today for Obama also, so the next couple of days should see continued movement upwards for Obama.
robertdsc-iPhone 4
@Villago Delenda Est:
I’m giving Ann the McKayla is not impressed face when I read about her. She sucks, and not in a good way.
Jibeaux
I just read it as a very ham-fisted rendition by a woman who has been told “don’t go off script, just parrot jobs and the economy” and doesn’t have the skills to do it gracefully. Also too I get the feeling she knows it’s good money after bad at this point and she’d really rather have a martini.
MikeJ
@beltane:
This is where you chuckle and say, “Briefing books mostly, he’s so busy all the time. On the rare occasions he has free time he loves biographies and books on American history.”
Emma
@TS: Respectfully disagree. Sullivan is also famous for pushing the Bell curve, calling those of us who opposed the Iraq war “a fifth column”, and hating anything with lady-parts who isn’t called Thatcher. And that’s just off the top of my head.
different-church-lady
The really amazing thing is whether it’s Mitt or Ann, the take away is the same: an unstated but utterly unmistakable resentment over the very idea that they have to answer questions at all.
Mary G
Like Ann Romney has been within a thousand yards of any woman not a Republican donor with money in the last twenty years.
The local reporters are bringing it; I wish I could think the Village was taking any notice. Buzzfeed has headlines from newspapers in swing states; most of them say something like “Obama Promises a Better Path.” Hah.
Jibeaux
It also would have been interesting to say, “okay, I’ll bite. What — specifically — would Mitt do about jobs and the economy, and does any of it not rhyme with fax nuts?”
ChrisNYC
@Jibeaux: I agree she knows it’s all but over. There was a reaction shot in Tampa after Clint but before Mitt. The only word to describe how she looked is stricken. Devastated would also work but stricken works best.
And I cannot think of anything better for Dems (and women!) than Ann and Mitt and Erick Erickson saying repeatedly, “The girly issues don’t matter.”
quannlace
Ugh, I always thought that was true. In campaigns, spouses and children are off-limits.
But if she’s going to put herself out there as a spokesman for her husband the candidate. Well, she better be prepared for a lot of justified criticism when she replies with crap like that. And sorry, Queen Ann. You don’t get to decree what the election is about. The American people do. And they certainly will in the voting booth.
TS
@Emma:
I was so incensed I was purely thinking of where he had shown any support for the election of President Obama – I had forgotten the warmongering and love of Thatcher – silly me – and many thanks for the reminders
Villago Delenda Est
@different-church-lady:
Precisely.
This is why their heads would look very good rolling around in a wicker basket at the Place de la Concorde.
Violet
@Mary G: I think the local reporters are pissed that the Villagers disgrace their profession and get paid so much for it. And they know that the longer the Village keeps it up, the more the journalism profession goes down the tubes. And they’re pissed about that, too. So they’re on offense, partly because they’re about saving their own jobs.
Villago Delenda Est
@MikeJ:
This was the utterly amazing thing to me about Katie Couric’s brutal interview of Sarah Palin.
The Quittah could not come up with an off the cuff answer that didn’t make her look like an airhead. Just not prepared, mentally, for the hail of softballs that Katie lobbed at her.
M. Bouffant
@beltane:
And then “Well, he’s very busy and doesn’t have the time to read much.”
Then once he was in office, he was having a competition w/ Karl Rove for number of books they could read.
Because that’s how to read.
cmorenc
@Darkrose:
Let’s be broadminded here and give Ann the benefit of LOTS of doubt. Bushels of it, maybe even acres of doubt, perhaps even oceans of doubt. Let’s be extra-generous and give her the whole Pacific Ocean of doubt, and not merely a piddly lake of doubt.
TS
@Villago Delenda Est:
GOP women are moving forward – Ann Romney speaks in sentences.
bago
@PsiFighter37: You saved me much typing. She’s never had to choose between milk or hamburger. The concept that you would have to choose is completely foreign. Some people just go to hospital, and some people look at that wound and hope that the bactine and bandaid will be enough. When you have never even had to consider the choice…
hueyplong
I think people should be subjected to lots and lots of Ann Romney being just like this. If it happened 20 times, I’d be annoyed it wasn’t 21.
And to think a right wing theme is that Michelle Obama is arrogant.
muddy
A guy to pull me out of the weeds, psh, I’d rather get one to pull the weeds themselves, I’m fine.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
The firsr time I read that, I thought she was saying that women want to find a husband to “pull them out of the weeds”. I still get a “selling Mitt as every woman’s ideal husband” vibe from her.
Rita R.
@Hal:
Oh my God, yes! That drives me crazy too. Not only statements like “It’s Mitt’s turn” and “you people” and that the country needs Mitt to save it, but the attacks she makes on President Obama that are *highly* unusual coming from a presidential candidate’s wife.
Calouste
@Urza:
FTFY. Have to keep Red Queen Ann in character.
Ed in NJ
OT, but Nielsen just published the final numbers for all three nights of the DNC. 35 million+ on the final night, down 3 mil from ’08. 87 million+ for the 3 nights. For the RNC, 30 mil+ for the last night, down 8 million from ’08. Total for 3 nights 74 million+. That’s a pretty big difference, and the DNC was competing with NFL football on night 2.
beltane
@M. Bouffant: Dear God Karl Rove may as well be a colostomy bag he is so full of crap in that article. He’s just pulling our leg with that one.
henrythefifth
Ann Romney is the blow-up doll version of a Stepford Wife.
Anoniminous
@Ed in NJ:
So far a minor bounce after the first night. Won’t really know the full story until next week but it looks good.
EFA: Edited for accuracy
Hill Dweller
@Ed in NJ: I don’t have proof, but I’d bet a lot more Dems watched our convention online.
Anya
This is so moving. I wish a lot of people listen to his speech.
aimai
@different-church-lady:
Except for Sununu.
aimai
Steve
@Anya: gasp!
lamh35
@efgoldman: come on he ran against Edward “Teddy” Kennedy…there was a heck of a lot of national press.
White Trash Liberal
A few things:
First, I would like an interviewer to ask her how reconciles her Multiple Sclerosis with her husband’s position which would deprive the poor of disability benefits to seek treatment if they suffered from a terminal debilitating illness. There is NO way she could dance her way out from under that question.
Second, Ann reminds me a lot of Barbara Bush. She displays the same flippant disregard for actual feminine reality in favor of accepting her lot as a successful recipient of the male gaze. Never mind that choice, family planning and health care are central to women’s empowerment and economic well-being; instead, just know that men are in charge of those pesky problems and don’t worry your pretty little head. Learn a hobby, master your household domain, and seek out your power in the domestic realm where you belong.
Third, as a member of the military, Romney’s answer was wonderfully honest. Of course he doesn’t care about me. Duh. He cares about the contractors who supply me and my brothers and sisters with exorbitant garbage. A strong military to his neoliberal mind is one where missiles cost half a billion because they can dance the rumba shortly before missing their target.
rikyrah
bitch, a woman being able to PLAN when she has children is an ECONOMIC ISSUE FOR 99.9999% of the women in the world. being in control of our REPRODUCTIVE CHOICES is an ECONOMIC ISSUE.
catclub
@Anya: “woman’s primary place is in the home, where she is to rear children and abide by the righteous counsel of her husband.”
Which of course means that she should not even be out there campaigning. But the Romney campaign is so bad that they need her out there as a surrogate, just like John Sununu.
My impression is that in many cases FLOTUS can keep doing her thing, meeting kids for “lets move”, or meeting soldiers and their families, and because she is so popular, she does not have to act like a surrogate/ hatchet man, as Ann Romney does.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@freelancer: I can;I actually dislike Ann more. But that could be because when I found out I had MS, I didn’t have $200M+ to fall back on for therapy and treatment – I had to struggle to fund the MRI for the diagnosis. So I’m (a bit more than) slightly insulted that she used her MS as p[roof that she knows “fear and suffering.” My ass she does.
dogwood
I just can’t get all up in arms over anything Ann Romney says or does. My impression of her is somewhat skewed by the fact I saw her at a forum for candidates wives in 2007. She appeared with Michelle Obama, Jeri Thompson, Elizabeth Edwards and Cindy McCain. In that forum she was just fine; in fact I liked her. I remember that she and Michelle were the most candid about their frustrations with having their husbands on the road. I’m sure it was forums like that that convinced the Romney campaign that she was an asset, but they never bothered to take into consideration that she doesn’t want to campaign 24-7 and isn’t that good at policy interviews or staying on message. She’s a smart woman who is being forced out of her comfort zone by that prick of a husband of hers. George Bush never asked that of Laura and many people thought she could have helped him more as a surrogate. But she got to stay home to read and smoke to her heart’s content. This is just further proof that Romney is a selfish and heartless man; he doesn’t care that his wife, who has MS by the way, is floundering out there. As long as he thinks it helps him, he’ll send her in front of the cameras.
Jay in Oregon
@Violet:
Never happen. They just officially nominated the guy!
They’re already starting to adjust expectations downward so when Romney crashes and burns, it will be because he was a horrible candidate, not a True Conservative(tm), etc.
Villago Delenda Est
@rikyrah:
DING DING DING DING DING
Exactly. But Queen Ann never had to face those kind of economic issues. It’s totally off her personal radar. I mean, why should she worry her beautiful mind thinking like she’s one of the proles, after all?
Mike in NC
I actually do have a lot against Ann Rmoney, filthy rich entitled twat that she is.
pseudonymous in nc
@rb:
See: Palin’s entire campaign for VP, especially the debate.
James Hare
I don’t know why people believe this woman is somehow likable. She comes across as even more wooden and nasty than Romney. My wife works 8 hours a day. She has chronic health conditions and has had to choose not to care for those conditions many times in her life because the money wasn’t there. She still works hard and she still wants to raise kids. She’s trying to help me to raise my daughter by another woman. Ann Romney is not any kind of everywoman. She’s a rich lady who thinks she has struggled in her life. She doesn’t know struggle. She knows what it’s like to have everything handed to you and still want more.
HRA
“Anchor David Nelson: “Here in Iowa, as you know, same-sex marriage is legal. Do you believe a lesbian mother should be allowed to marry her partner?””
This is a soft ball question. The first sentence would be the base for the answer. In addition, it’s legal in other states as well. Any one of us here in the comments would be able to do it. Even further, Sarah Palin would be able to answer it.
On more addition, if you are going on an interview, you have to know the interviewer asks the questions and you give the answers. Why do both Romneys find this so difficult?
arguingwithsignposts
@HRA:
All of them, David.
arguingwithsignposts
@efgoldman:
Ask the Giants.
gvg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenore_Romney
I just went and read on Mitt’s mom. She was a better speaker than Mitt is from the sound of it. It was interesting, wiki said George married up courting her, that her family was more assimilated into the Mormon church. Both she and George stood up for black civil rights. She lost her Senate campaign at least partly over blatent sexism and she had health issues all her life and did a lot of worthwhile IMO charity volunteerism.
She was too conservative for me, but sounds a lot nicer than Ann.
Betsy
@dogwood: I respect that answer, it displays a lot of female solidarity.and engages less of the rich-bitch hating type of misogyny. Let’s all remember that there area million ways to hate women.
Having said that, I don’t care for annromney as a person, male or female, at all,
Brachiator
As other posters have noted, Mrs Romney appears to be suggesting that Mittens is going to marry all the women of America, make them his sister wives, and bring forth a brood of male children. He will then set them all up with trust funds. The economy will be saved.
Of course, all the redundant men will be outsourced.
The Romneys certainly stick to the script. And it just naturally comes to them to insist that the little people only need to know what the Romney’s want them to know.
A Romney White House would be a disaster for the country.
cckids
@MikeJ:
This. I’m amazed, over & over how f*cking bad at basic Politics 101 the Romneys are. I’m an introverted homeschooler with a disabled kid who doesn’t get out of the house enough, and I could rattle this crap off in my sleep. It is just not that hard! Who gets to be an adult without the basic ability to bs on some safe subject for a few minutes? The mind boggles.
Lex
Oh, you mean how he tied the dog to the car roof and has been perfectly happy to let his base launch a war on women when he could put a stop to it in a hot minute, and the election is going to be about jobs when an Obama bill that would create 2 MILLION JOBS has been bottled up in a Republican congress FOR A FUCKING YEAR.
I used to think I had nothing against Ann Romney. She has changed my mind. Fuck her and the dancing horse she failed to medal on.