Mitt Romney addressed and it was a trainwreck. He was booed and openly heckled, applause was tepid and halting (Word is the Romney campaign made sure some supporters attended, maybe they were just too embarassed to clap at times). Funniest goddamn thing: At several points, after it was clear just how bad this would be, someone on the organ keyed dramatic notes in a sort of comedic pitch, the kind you hear when a bad guy wearing a black fedora is twirling his mustache. I can’t imagine who in the Romney campaign thought this was a good idea, but they were wrong.
Aside from that, the speech was full of the usual whoppers, main difference being Mittens wasn’t speaking to the indoctrinated ditto heads he typically enjoys. Politico has a recap of some of it here.
Actually, this might work rather well with his base, because they now have another excuse to demonize the NAACP and pretend their guy is being persecuted by liberal fascist PC thugs. All he did was talk, just like those poor put-upon Nazis who go to Jewish neighborhoods to preach the extermination of all Jews.
We need is more open “emperor has no clothes” mocking of the kinds of morally and economically bankrupt ideas he’s espousing, to jolt people into understanding that there’s nothing reasonable about what he wants to do. Good on them.
Mmmaaybe. Another possibility is it was just a good ole fashion campaign fuck up. I’m trying to get some viddy and text. Pretty sure he tread danger close to calling some black people welfare queens in the beginning.
I just finished reading a good article about it at HuffPo.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/11/mitt-romney-booed_n_1664900.html
I’m sharing with you my first reaction after reading it, along with a quote from the story.
Romney said. “Of course, one reason is that I hope to represent all Americans, of every race, creed or sexual orientation, from the poorest to the richest and everyone in between.”
(my reaction)
This is probably one of the biggest lies that Mitt has told yet. How can he say this with a straight face after the horrible things that his party and his church have said about the LGBT community? How can he say this after what his party has said about young immigrants who have been raised in this country? How can he say this after his party has been doing everything in its power to disenfranchise voters who are elderly or of color? How can he say this after the way his own business (Bain) has made so many Americans poor and then threw them under the bus? How can he say this while promising to destroy the last chance of hope for decent medical care for many poor people?
I’m fairly certain that this was done on purpose to be able to wheel it out when Romney supporters do something racist because then it will be a “both sides do it” moment for the press. It’s the kind of thing that the College Republicans I knew in college would think was a great way to operate, and those are the kinds of guys who are running campaigns for the GOP these days.
I also am fairly certain that it was a campaign screw-up.
These two ideas are not actually mutually exclusive.
It’s already started.
The first comment I saw on this story on a different (more conservative) site was “imagine if Obama had given this speech to an all white audience and received the same reaction, the speech wouldn’t be over before the media was crying racist.”
I suspect that was half the game plan going in, although to be fair the NAACP convention has had presidential candidates speak at it virtually every election year, it would have been a big story had Romney refused. So he was practically compelled to do it and hope the fallout wasn’t to bad, but I suspect the above was an alternative theme they’re pushing under the radar.
@1 Yup, exactly right. His audience wasn’t in that hall, it was the cheeto-stained wretches in basements all over America, who can now whip the Republican base into a frenzy of butthurt. “See? See how those people treat us? You try to be nice, and that’s what you get.”
He took too much LDS in the sixties.
feralboy12 @ 8
Or not enough!
Wait what is LDS?
anibisprime,
LSD is when you see golden tablets that aren’t there.
LDS is when you make other people see golden tablets that aren’t there.
^anubisprime
feralboy12@8
Best damned use of that quote I’ve ever heard! Two, no three Internets for you.
A witty trek and political-religious-delusional reference in eight words. Well done sir. I will probably have to steal that for a post title in the near future and pretend it is my own.
Oh wow I completely missed the STIV reference upon first reading. splendid.
Well gee, Mit you’re only a member of a party that wants to take away their right to vote and their equal treatment. Your party has basically told the African-American community that if they vote Republican they will be forced to become second class citizens again. Why does their well justified outrage surprise you so? http://s3.amazonaws.com/texasgop_pre/assets/original/2012Platform_Final.pdf
Tyrant@15
Yeah, but I still liked your LSD/LDS explanation.
At least he didn’t say, “Who let the dogs out?”
I’ve always thought that if you assume that Mittens was playing the part of a greedy and conniving mustache twisting villain, and had no real desire to be president, his speeches are ironic self parody. The extra organ notes, ostensibly timed to sell the drama, are high comedy.