[Vision2020] Dogging Mitt Romney

Thu Mar 8 10:36:06 PST 2012

The truth is we all have similar horror stories about car trips.  My husband
was an active duty Marine when we loaded our three daughters in our 68 Ford
van for a 1969 cross country trip.  Our youngest at the time was seven
months old and spent much of the trip in a makeshift car bed, i.e., a
cardboard box with lots of blankets for a mattress, on the floor of the van.
It is a matter of tremendous humiliation for me to look at photos of us
parked at Yellowstone Park with the van door open and Heather peeking over
the wall of her "bed".  Triple yikes.  It is however important to remember
our own past before we critique others for similar failings.

Rose Huskey

From: vision2020-bounces at moscow.com [mailto:vision2020-bounces at moscow.com]
On Behalf Of Jay Borden
Sent: Thursday, March 08, 2012 9:05 AM
To: Art Deco; vision2020 at moscow.com
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Dogging Mitt Romney

Well, Mitt Romney isn't exactly my favorite pseudo-conservative. and I
hadn't even heard of this story before this was posted here.

But the article asks:  "People, does any of this sound appealing?"

Yah, actually, it kinda does.

If Romney is in his mid 60's now. that means he was in his mid 30's back in
1983.  I can think of quite a few things I've done in my "early adult" years
that in retrospect I probably wouldn't do again.  

I can remember MY parents loading up the car to the gills with 4 of us kids
and driving (to who knows where)... and it would have been around that 1983
time frame.  2 of us kids were stashed in the ass-end of the stationwagon.
no seat belts. (hardly even seats. we just laid blankets and pillows down).
My brother and I were probably just a single rear-end collision away from
getting killed.

Horrifying by today's standards. and something I'm sure Dad shakes his head
at today. but at the time?  Nothing unusual or illegal about it.

"Emotion-free crisis management".  That's a plus.  *IF* Mitt gets the nod,
and *IF* he beats Obama. he'll be handed the keys to our nation.  What would
I rather have?  A guy that (I assume) calmly did what it took with the
situation at hand regarding the family dog and the current circumstance?  Or
a guy that became emotionally enraged, pointed his finger at someone else in
the car and shouted, "THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!!!"

Folks love to hold up little stories like this in an attempt to find a crack
in the form of a character flaw. even if it's an out-take from a family
vacation nearly 30 years ago.

I can't really "identify" with his wealth (though I would love to). I can't
really identify with his "liberal in conservative clothing" political
history.  

But a story recalling a minor disaster during a family road-trip?  Yah,
that's probably a topic many people could sit down and trade endless stories
about over a beer.

Jay

From: vision2020-bounces at moscow.com [mailto:vision2020-bounces at moscow.com]
On Behalf Of Art Deco
Sent: Thursday, March 08, 2012 8:01 AM
To: vision2020 at moscow.com
Subject: [Vision2020] Dogging Mitt Romney

Advertisement

Op-Ed Columnist

Dogging Mitt Romney

By GAIL COLLINS
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/opinion/editorialsandoped/oped/columnists/gai
lcollins/index.html?inline=nyt-per> 

Published: March 7, 2012 

I don't know if I've ever mentioned this, but Mitt Romney once drove to
Canada with the family Irish setter on the roof of the car. 

Seamus, the dog-on-the-roof, has become a kind of political icon. You cannot
go anywhere without running into him. There are Seamus T-shirts and endless
Web sites. This week, the story was a New Yorker cover, with Rick Santorum
playing the role of the Irish setter. 

Neil Swidey, the Boston Globe reporter who first broke the Seamus story in
2007, wrote recently that he had been avoiding a return to the topic for
fear that some day the dog would wind up in the lead of his obituary. 

Which I can totally understand. 

The story took place in 1983, when the Romney family made a 12-hour
pilgrimage from Boston to a vacation home in Canada. Romney, his wife, Ann,
and five sons were in the station wagon. Seamus was in a crate, or kennel,
on the roof. 

At some point - possibly in response to the excitement about being passed by
tractor-trailers while floating like a furry maraschino cherry on top of the
car, Seamus developed diarrhea. And Romney, who had designated all the
acceptable rest stops before beginning the trip, was forced to make an
unscheduled trip to a gas station. Where he kept the family in the car while
he hosed down the station wagon and the dog, then returned to the highway. 

"It was a tiny preview of a trait he would grow famous for in business:
emotion-free crisis management," Swidey wrote. 

People, does any of this sound appealing? Elect Mitt Romney and he will take
the nation on the road to the future. Some of us will be stuck on the roof.
The rest of us will be inside singing camp songs and waiting for the day
when the master plan lets us stop to visit the bathroom. Plus, anybody who
screws up on the way to the future gets the hose. 

Anyhow, we are now at a post-Super-Tuesday lull in the campaign, and I am
ready to answer Seamus questions. 

Haven't you brought this episode up like about 10 million times already? 

I've made a kind of game of trying to mention Seamus every time I write
about Mitt Romney. This is because the Republican primary campaign has been
an extremely long and depressing slog, and we need all the diversion we can
get. 

It's as though you're saying this is the most important fact about a
possible future president of the United States. 

You could argue that the Seamus story puts Romney in a more human context.
This is not just a quarter-billionaire with approximately the same gift for
the common touch as Scrooge McDuck. This is a real person. A person who once
drove to Canada with the family dog tied to the roof of the car. 

In a kennel, right? 

"This is a completely air-tight kennel, mounted on the top of our car. He
climbed up there regularly, enjoyed himself," Romney told Chris Wallace in a
Fox interview that began with Wallace, a dog owner, demanding: "What were
you thinking?" 

Wait a minute, if the kennel was air-tight, how did Seamus breathe? 

Excellent question. Also hard to envision the animal continually trying to
leap on top of the station wagon in order to enjoy its delights. 

So that's it from Romney? 

He did once suggest that the Seamus publicity was a plot by PETA to get even
with him for allowing rodeo performances at the Winter Olympics in Utah. 

I bet President Obama would never put Bo on top of a car. 

Yes, the Obama campaign has been eager to point this out. Although, really,
if you're the president of the United States, you can give the dog his own
helicopter if you want to. 

I should note that when it comes to presidents and dogs, Romney would have
to go a long way to match Lyndon Johnson, who once held up his beagles by
the ears for photographers. 

Is it even legal to drive around with a dog on top of your car? 

Chris Wallace did ask Romney if he knew that he was breaking a Massachusetts
law against cruelty to animals. Mitt did his heh-heh-heh thing and pleaded
ignorance. The law is actually kind of vague. But I will point out that a
member of a group called Dogs Against Romney drove to a protest in Colorado
with a model of Seamus on top of his car and was stopped by the police. 

I heard a rumor that when the family got to Canada, Seamus ran away. 

Seeking sanctuary? Mitt's sister, Jane, told Swidey that the dog developed a
tendency to wander, and that she took Seamus to her home in California where
there was more space. She also gave The Globe an extremely cute picture of
Seamus cuddling with some kittens. 

Does Romney have a dog now? I'm not sure I want to see Seamus II in the
White House. 

Romney occasionally says, "We love our pets. Heh. Heh. Heh." The Romney camp
hates talking about Seamus-related issues, but there's no evidence of an
actual family dog at the present. If there is one, I'd hate to think of how
it travels when they fly between campaign stops. 

A version of this op-ed appeared in print on March 8, 2012, on page A31 of
the New York edition with the headline: Dogging Mitt Romney.

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*	Karen Garcia
*	New Paltz, NY

*	Verified 

Ever since I heard the Seamus story and started watching Mitt on TV, I was
struck by the similarity to the National Lampoon "Vacation" movie, which
came out the same year (1983) as the Romneys' ill-fated road trip. (A few
bloggers have noticed the creepy coincidence too.) In the movie, Clark
Griswold (Chevy Chase) ties Dinky the dog to the rear bumper and then takes
off down the interstate with the pooch still attached to the car.
Accidentally on purpose, it would seem.

The actress who plays Griswold's wife bears an uncanny resemblance to Ann
Romney -- perfectly coiffed blond,an ultra-perky June Cleaver on steroids,
long-suffering and similarly tone-deaf. They have little sympathy for the
poor relations they encounter during their journey. When their old Aunt Edna
unexpectedly dies (of neglect?) during the road trip, Clark simply ties her
corpse to the roof of the station wagon and later dumps it in somebody's
back yard under cover of darkness. But not before they go through the old
lady's purse for whatever is left of her Social Security check.

The Romneys and the Griswolds are self-involved Questors of the good life,
running roughshod over everyone in their paths and caring not a whit about
the mess they leave behind, or even how they appear to others. If Mitt ever
does arrive at his Wally World White House, will he take us on a
merry-go-round to nowhere, or on a roller coaster ride through hell? One
thing's for sure: all the Aunt Ednas will be tossed over the side.

*	March 7, 2012 at 7:12 p.m.
<http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/08/opinion/collins-dogging-mitt-romney.html?
comments#permid=1> 
*	Recommended668

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*	lynninny
*	NY

Karen, thanks for the laugh today! That was priceless. 

*	March 8, 2012 at 6:42 a.m.
<http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/08/opinion/collins-dogging-mitt-romney.html?
comments#permid=1:15> 
*	Recommended8

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*	John Thomas
*	Rockville, MD

Following Marc from NYC (who suggested John Candy as Chris Christie), I
propose Ralph Fiennes as Eric Cantor and Robert Duvall as hapless John
Boehner (who really wants to be reasonable but doesn't dare admit it, even
to himself). 

To play Seamus, well, .... hmmmm... computer animation will most likely be
required.

*	March 8, 2012 at 6:42 a.m.
<http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/08/opinion/collins-dogging-mitt-romney.html?
comments#permid=1:16> 
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-- 
Art Deco (Wayne A. Fox)
art.deco.studios at gmail.com

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