“Prevailed?”
He might have done the right thing, but prevailed means you are standing with your foot on the broken corpe of your enemy wiping the blood from your sword with the tattered remains of his flag. Not “allowed the airline crew to handle the incident”.
That could have meant the end of his presidential ambitions. Romney is too careful a fellow to fall for a provocation like that.
““Prevailed?”
He might have done the right thing, but prevailed means you are standing with your foot on the broken corpe of your enemy wiping the blood from your sword with the tattered remains of his flag. Not “allowed the airline crew to handle the incident”.”
Using your metaphor...Romney did prevail...he used the stewardess as his sword and won. He won without any loss to himself, indeed looks like he got favorable press and respect for his actions.