Posted on 05/16/2012 8:26:24 AM PDT by greyfoxx39
Democrats are weaving together a string of anecdotes about Mitt Romney to argue he lacks compassion, and the former Massachusetts governor might have to fight back using something he doesn’t like to talk about— his Mormon religion.
The tales about Romney range from the trivial to the traumatic, from the political to the personal. But the Obama campaign’s hope is that they create a synergistic, decidedly negative portrait of a candidate who is still largely unknown to many voters.
Romney’s sins, according to Democrats: He once strapped his dog, Seamus, to the roof of his car during a family vacation; he reportedly bullied a fellow high school student who was gay; and he helped ship jobs overseas while working at the investment firm Bain Capital.
They’ve also pointed to various Romney statements, such as that he “likes to fire people” and he’s “not concerned about the very poor,” to suggest a political myopia for a man who wants to be president.
The veracity of the stories and statements has been debated but, whatever their merit, all are intended to buttress the notion that Romney is missing a compassion gene.
Will it work?
So far, it looks like Democrats are barking up the right tree.
An AP poll this month showed that voters thought President Obama understood their problems better than Romney, 51 percent to 33. The most recent NBC/Wall Street Journal poll showed Obama beating Romney by 30 points on “caring about average people” and 29 points on “being compassionate enough to understand average people.”
And in Quinnipiac’s most recent poll, only 44 percent said Romney cared about the problems and needs of people like them, while 57 percent said the same about Obama.
So the evidence is clear: A compassion gap exists, and Romney needs to figure out how to cut into it.
There’s no shortage of anecdotes about Romney’s compassion and kindness on a personal level — many of them recounted in Michael Kranish and Scott Helman’s biography, The Real Romney. But there’s a distinct danger in regaling voters with these stories. Many of Romney’s acts of kindness were toward Mormon families, and so any discussion about those tales also raises the prospect of a less welcome discussion of Romney’s religion.
Romney himself has made it clear that he’s not interested in veering into theological discussions during the campaign, and it’s not hard to see why. Mormon doctrine remains a mystery to many Americans, and the Romney campaign would rather litigate Obama’s record, not Joseph Smith’s.
Thus, it’s easy to see why the campaign might be reluctant to talk about Romney’s many acts of kindness. That hesitation seems to be born nearly entirely of religion and not a sense of personal modesty, as the following story suggests.
In 1996, the teenage daughter of one of Romney’s co-workers at Bain Capital went missing for three days. When the police struggled to find her, Romney temporarily shut down his Boston-based company and flew both himself and his employees to New York City to help find the girl, who was eventually located.
It’s a moving tale of compassion, but also politically instructive. When he ran for president in 2008, Romney cut a TV ad telling the story, and then four years later, a super-PAC supporting him, Restore Our Future, released a nearly identical version of the spot. As for Romney himself, The Associated Press notes that, although he hasn’t mentioned it frequently on the campaign trail, he has occasionally recounted the story.
What’s particularly noteworthy is why Romney and his allies would choose to focus on this particular tale of compassion over others, and the answer might very well be that it wasn’t related to Romney’s religion.
That’s not the only time Romney’s campaign has chosen to highlight a non-religious example of his compassion. After the allegation of Romney’s high-school bullying broke, one of his advisers went on TV to defend Romney as “deeply compassionate” and, oddly, pointed to a presidential debate during which Romney tried to help a stumbling Rick Perry collect his thoughts.
It was striking that the campaign chose to trot out that moment to defend the candidate’s “kind impulses,” and not the myriad stories detailing his charitable work with the Mormon Church.
Since delivering an address on Mormonism in his 2008 run, Romney has assiduously avoided a deeper personal discussion of his faith. Some pundits have suggested that he open up about the subject, and although that carries risks, it also brings opportunities. If Romney and his campaign were more comfortable talking about faith, they could also stress the compassionate anecdotes.
So far, it doesn’t look like Romney’s interested in indulging in a deeper look at either his faith or his role in the church, but the compassion gap between him and Obama is massive, and, at some point, Romney might put voters’ sympathy for religious tolerance to the test.
I"d imagine Obama looks back fondly on those dog nuggets eh.
Get a clue.
By Scott's account, Romney wasn't seeking approval or permission; he was telling the officials what he was going to do. Scott quotes a "senior church leader" saying Romney "didn't ask what his position should be, nor did he ask the brethren to endorse his position. He came to explain, and his explanation was consistent with church teachings and policies."
Convince me that if these leaders had told Mitt to forget about running, he would have disobeyed them. He did and still does need the complete backing of the mormon church. I don't think he has a chance to defeat Obama, but if he does payback time will roll around in Salt Lake City.
I mentioned his age because thats important since there are some in the threads who held it against Obama for eating dog...
Personally I dont see anything strange in it myself...
One of our New Zealand explorers had to eat his dog when he was lost in the bush...
He was a folk hero and we had a sports team named for him in elementry school...
As children we were sad for the faithful dog but understood the need ...
Thomas Brunner ate his dog because he was starving and would have died. That’s a tiny bit different.
Yes it was Brunner...has a town named for him etc
So how old was Barry ???
What difference does it make how old he was? His step-dad was an adult and an educated man. If Obama had remained in Indonesia he would still be eating dogs. Its cultural, not a life-saving emergency and I’m sure Obama didn’t regret it for the rest of his life. He laughed.
What difference does it make how old he was? His step-dad was an adult and an educated man.
_____________________________________________
1. It makes all the difference in the world since Barry was under 10 and someone else decided to cook and serve him dead dog meat...
Its not his fault that an adult chose to feed him that...he was just a little boy..
2. Willard Mitt Romney likewise was “an adult and an educated man” when he purposely abused and endangered the life of a dog by placing it on TOP of a car...
Who in their right mind does something like that to an animal ???
If Obama had done that to a dog youd be making long threads about it...
If Willard had eaten dog meat youd be exchanging recipes with the other RomneyBots...
Just point ing out the hypocracy...
I’m sure Obama didn’t regret it for the rest of his life. He laughed.
________________________________________
My father accidently killed my pet hen and plucked her thinking she was not Matilda..
Mum cooked her in a lovely stew...
Neither realized I had taught another hen to do one of Matildas tricks..(Sit down and be picked up and carried against my shoulder)
“Dont grab the one that sits down to be picked up. Thats Nanas hen”
So when Henrietta sat down when he came into the pen he thought “OK thats Nanas hen.” and he grabbed another one near him...Matilda was probably coming over to greet him...
When I got home from school and couldnt find my darling Matilda, I didnt shoot my father for doing that...
My mother excused me from the table that night...
When she had taken the carcass down from the line where Dad had tied it to bleed, it was just a plucked fat chicken ready for the pot...
Although I dont laugh about the tragedy now at least I dont cry anymore...
I think my parents were more brokenhearted than I was...
If Barrys mother was forced to feed him dog was it Barrys fault if he found it funny years later ???
I never thought this was a big deal, regardless of Obama's age. There are several Asian and African cultures which eat dog. Not appealing to me nor is it completely repulsive if you can divorce the meal from the visions of Spot, the puppy down the street. Some people like coffee made from beans picked from the poop of civets and monkeys. To each, their own. Of course, as a 10-year-old, Obama wouldn't really have a lot of choice.
Another element has been overlooked by a lot of people in this story. If Obama was in some radical madrasah in Indonesia, he wouldn't be allowed to eat dog. Dog is forbidden to Muslims like pork is because both are unclean animals.
Other than being a poor judgment call, I've never thought the dog on the roof of the car was a big deal, either. I don't believe that Mitt Romney would have deliberately put the dog in any danger.
I’m voting straight conservative party ticket. And to all those naysayers who claim a vote for a third party candidate is a vote for obama, well, it doesn’t hold water for all states.
No way I can see NY NOT going to bambi, but even if I though my vote might actually make a difference in the presidential election, I’ve reached the point of no return in the *hold my nose and vote for the RINO*. It isn’t happening.
The best we NYers can hope for is getting more seats in the House. The Senators have sold their souls and I don’t see a snowball’s chance of getting anyone but a Dem in the Senate. But we CAN do something about Upstate NY for the house.
My grandfather raised a baby steer for 4H and the county fair. After he won the Grand Prize he came home from school to find the bull's head on a little hill by the house. His Dad had butchered it for the winter and couldn't understand the big deal. Grandpa never got over it.
I don't think the dog Obama ate was his pet. Its part of the Indonesian culture and is sold by street vendors. The story is only useful to blunt the stupid "dog on the roof" story that was used against Romney. Otherwise, I couldn't care less.
The story is only useful to blunt the stupid “dog on the roof” story that was used against Romney.
_______________________________________
But it doesnt blunt the Seamus story at all...
Just the opposite...
and why would there be a need to “blunt” the dog-on-car-roof” story ???
Is it worse than just an example of Romneys lack of intelligent planning ???
or just one of his lifelong series of incredibly stupid judgements ???
Does he even have the clear thinking required to be POTUS ???
NY and CA, both going for BHO, so I get to vote for whom I want, which is a good thing because I would not be able to vote for Romney.
Except for the coastal area CA is more conservative than the perception, unfortunately the way district maps are drawn liberal dominate in highly populated areas and control the state.
The dog was in a carrier and lived to a ripe old age.
________________________________________
Actually we dont know what Seamus was in...
nor at what age he died..
and he was “lost” in Canada somewhere...
However there is that story that he was left with friends up there...
Oh, please, give it a rest.
__________________________________
Finally...
Yes lets do get back to the subject of the thread...
The Hunt for Red Romney’s Compassion...
So he had “compassion” on the julvenile delinquent daughter of a high Mormon religious leader when he helped some other men hunt for her to avoid the embarrassment of the story getting out...
OK
So what about any compassion on the little girls who are aborted ???
and what about any compassion on the little girls who are adopted by homosexuals ???
and
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
wait for it
.
.
.
what about any compassion on the little girls who are forced to act in the porn movies he sells at the Mormon owned Marriott hotels ???
You have truly lost your mind.
But, as you’ve said, dog-eating isn’t a problem for you because in the 1800s an explorer ate a dog to save his life.
______________________________________________
NOOOOOOOOOOO
I didnt say that...
I said Obama was not even 10 years old...just a little boy...
He cant be faulted for the decisions of the adults who are responsible to feed him...
He laughed about it as a grownupp but I dont think he has eaten dog since age 10...
Meanwhile Willie Mitty was about 40...an adult and an educated man” when he purposely abused and endangered the life of a dog by placing it on TOP of a car...
all the children in the world eating dog that their Mommys gave them in a curry wont excuse that cruel activity...
Better my mind than my soul...
Willard Mitt Romney is a lifelong abortionist,
Hes made same sex marriage legal in MASS
Hes pushed for homosexual adoptions
He has for many years sat on the board of the Mormon owned Marriott hotels which has for many years had in room pay-per-view porn movies...
Willard (named for Willard Marriott) has been paid for that board position and has had influence over the running of the hotels...
BUT
in all those years he not once has tried to stop the porn industry at the Marriott hotels from which he has been very comfortable compensated financially, socially and politically...
“compensated...”
“compensation”
oh we were looking for “compassion” werent we ???
Did we ever find any in the cold dead liberal heart of Willard Mitt Romney ???
NAH I guess not ...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.