Mitt Romney recalls 'humorous' story about his father closing a factory

[Bowfinger]

Romney's tone deftness is not because he's rich. It's because he's always been rich and he doesn't know anything different and he is unable to act in any other way. He acts out of touch because he is out of touch. It doesn't necessarily speak ill of his economic policies, which should stand on their own merits. But it does not bode well for him in the election.

The "elitism" that conservatives are talking about, incidentally, is different from this. They mean intellectual elites, not wealthy elites. Each side has its own stereotype of the "elite" of the other side.

This. For all of Bush's flaws, he was certainly good at connecting with average Americans. Romney seems completely incapable of it, and the more he tries to fake it the more apparent it becomes.

 

[Atreus21]

Romney's tone deftness is not because he's rich. It's because he's always been rich and he doesn't know anything different and he is unable to act in any other way. He acts out of touch because he is out of touch. It doesn't necessarily speak ill of his economic policies, which should stand on their own merits. But it does not bode well for him in the election.

The "elitism" that conservatives are talking about, incidentally, is different from this. They mean intellectual elites, not wealthy elites. Each side has its own stereotype of the "elite" of the other side.

Woolfe, your dead wrong. It's tone-deafness.

 

[Ninjahedge]

This. For all of Bush's flaws, he was certainly good at connecting with average Americans. Romney seems completely incapable of it, and the more he tries to fake it the more apparent it becomes.

That's because Bush was a popular party boy.

He never had problems making friends. Absolute gold for a politician.

 

[DominionSeraph]

Leave it to a troll to completely miss the funny part of his story.

Leave it to a shill to do nothing but identify with the person he's shilling for.

It is funny if you are identifying with his 1%er father. The problem is that Romney isn't running for President of the 1%. The 99% who the 1% shits on are going to be making up the majority of the voters. Romney is expecting them to cross over into his world and laugh at the ultra- first world problems of the 1% instead of him crossing over into their world and understanding their problems.

To a Michigan autoworker who is now stuck making $9/hr after recession concessions, the embarrassment/concerns of George Romney's campaign staff over the song being played at a fucking private parade does not top his list of concerns.

 

[Atomic Playboy]

Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you fall into an open sewer and die.
-Mel Brooks

One of the most important principles in comedy is to know your audience. Someone's experiences will directly relate to how they perceive anything, including jokes. I thought the episode of South Park about breast cancer was hilarious and poignant; my mother heard a quote from it, got furious and burst into tears because her partner died of breast cancer. And knowing her situation, that reaction seems perfectly understandable; she was reminded of a painful experience and reacted accordingly.

Now let's imagine that you're an auto worker that got laid off during one of the many rounds of layoffs in the past few decades as the US auto industry declined. When you hear Romney making a joke predicated around a plant closing, how does that feel? It reminds you of a terrible time in your life. Regardless of the context of the joke, the setup is based around an action that left you unemployed. That's hard to see the humor in if you were personally affected by it.

Know your audience. Romney seems to have trouble with that. That's why people keep bringing up situations like this; it shows a distressing lack of understanding or common ground between Romney and lower or middle class people in America.

 

[woolfe9999]

Woolfe, your dead wrong. It's tone-deafness.

It's "you're dead wrong" not "your dead wrong." Touches all around.

 

[xBiffx]

It's "you're dead wrong" not "your dead wrong." Touches all around.

Touchés. Sorry couldn't resist.

 

[Jhhnn]

By the way, Obama has his own version of that. Raised mostly outside of the country by very left wing people, middle America would be as foreign to him as Indonesia would be to us.

Making up your own "facts", I see. Obama lived in Indonesia from the age of 6 to the age of 10, and spent many of his formative years living with his grandparents, who aren't what any rational person would call "leftists".

Sheesh. Dunno what kind of propaganda you've absorbed to make such attributions with a straight face, because they're utterly wrong, and very easily verified as wrong-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama

 

[ky54]

Unfortunately lost in all the party fanboy chest thumping is we are so seriously fucked regardless of who wins. Anyone think Obama doesn't suck any corporate dick? Are you kidding? He's the bankers number one whore. Jesus, look at his cabinet. And the gall of his backers to say Romney is any different? Really? Neither are anything other than a shill for the banks and insurance companies... BTW - who's the biggest winner if Obama gets to mandate everyone have insurance... oh.. THE FUCKING INSURANCE COMPANIES. I bet that came as a surprise to Him, right???

 

[Throckmorton]

Unfortunately lost in all the party fanboy chest thumping is we are so seriously fucked regardless of who wins. Anyone think Obama doesn't suck any corporate dick? Are you kidding? He's the bankers number one whore. Jesus, look at his cabinet. And the gall of his backers to say Romney is any different? Really? Neither are anything other than a shill for the banks and insurance companies... BTW - who's the biggest winner if Obama gets to mandate everyone have insurance... oh.. THE FUCKING INSURANCE COMPANIES. I bet that came as a surprise to Him, right???

Wait, so now banks and insurance companies are inherently evil?


Interesting how libertarians (just guessing) are the most anti-business.

 

[Jhhnn]

Unfortunately lost in all the party fanboy chest thumping is we are so seriously fucked regardless of who wins. Anyone think Obama doesn't suck any corporate dick? Are you kidding? He's the bankers number one whore. Jesus, look at his cabinet. And the gall of his backers to say Romney is any different? Really? Neither are anything other than a shill for the banks and insurance companies... BTW - who's the biggest winner if Obama gets to mandate everyone have insurance... oh.. THE FUCKING INSURANCE COMPANIES. I bet that came as a surprise to Him, right???

Wait, so now banks and insurance companies are inherently evil?


Interesting how libertarians (just guessing) are the most anti-business.

Not exactly- it's just that Obama is *Wrong*, whatever he does. It doesn't matter what- it's just wrong because he's doing it.

It's all Obama's fault- everything.

 

[werepossum]

Making up your own "facts", I see. Obama lived in Indonesia from the age of 6 to the age of 10, and spent many of his formative years living with his grandparents, who aren't what any rational person would call "leftists".

Sheesh. Dunno what kind of propaganda you've absorbed to make such attributions with a straight face, because they're utterly wrong, and very easily verified as wrong-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama

Okay, you got me - Hawaii is not outside of America, being a state. It is however the only state where white Europeans are a distinct (and generally not liked) minority. Blacks and Hispanics are likewise very small minorities, nothing at all like most American states. Hawaii is also our least Christian state; less than a quarter of Hawaiians identify as Christian versus over three quarters of all Americans. Even the least religious states like Oregon and Vermont are well over twice as Christian as is Hawaii. Note that I'm not saying these things are bad, I'm saying they are different.

Point is, Hawaiian culture is atypical to the rest of the nation; mainland America is more foreign to a native Hawaiian than to a native Canadian. Where Obama sees bitter people clinging to their guns and Bibles - not an unreasonable thing from an Indonesian and/or Hawaiian cultural background - the rest of us see typical Americans just trying to get by. In a different way, Obama is as alien to the common American as is Romney.

 

[Ninjahedge]

Wait, so now banks and insurance companies are inherently evil?


Interesting how libertarians (just guessing) are the most anti-business.

Why does this post sound so.... familiar.........


I knew I should have taken the other pill.....

 

[Thump553]

Okay, you got me - Hawaii is not outside of America, being a state. It is however the only state where white Europeans are a distinct (and generally not liked) minority. Blacks and Hispanics are likewise very small minorities, nothing at all like most American states. Hawaii is also our least Christian state; less than a quarter of Hawaiians identify as Christian versus over three quarters of all Americans. Even the least religious states like Oregon and Vermont are well over twice as Christian as is Hawaii. Note that I'm not saying these things are bad, I'm saying they are different.

Point is, Hawaiian culture is atypical to the rest of the nation; mainland America is more foreign to a native Hawaiian than to a native Canadian. Where Obama sees bitter people clinging to their guns and Bibles - not an unreasonable thing from an Indonesian and/or Hawaiian cultural background - the rest of us see typical Americans just trying to get by. In a different way, Obama is as alien to the common American as is Romney.

That's seriously misguided and frankly, unamerican. The whole concept of the USA is to celebrate the differences in our states-each is like an experimental laboratory for the others to observe and possibly copy, not to shun those who stray from the path of self-professed true Christians. I'm disappointed you hold such beliefs.

 

[Ninjahedge]

There is also one important difference here.

Obama, whether he is intimately familiar with the "common man" or not, is better at SPEAKING TO THE GENERAL AUDIENCE. He really does not make gaffs like that. The best we have heard is him telling the Russian President, OFF THE RECORD, "Hey, just chill until after the election and I will have a bit more freedom to talk with you about this", which, although absolutely 100% true, people did not want to HEAR (even though it was picked up by means that were a BIT unscrupulous... one step away from lip reading IMHO....).

Mit is just a bit off, and he keeps screwing up with it. He should just BE WHO HE IS and screw the theatrics. If we keep nominating (and by "we" I mean the American People, not one party or another), if we keep nominating the person who puts on the best act and not the person that genuinely represents the person that best represents our nation, then we will only get Sheisters and Shills as "leaders".

 

[WhipperSnapper]

You mean like this? http://www.flickr.com/photos/bsmileart/3050354749/

That's exactly what I had in mind.

 

[sportage]

Do republicans share this eerie feeling of doom?
That feeling one has when glancing out the window and catching a glimpse of dark threatening clouds on the horizon?
Or that eerie feeling when things are just "too" quiet outside?
That heart stopping sense that Mitt Romney "will" actually get the nomination?
That this entire process is about to come to an end?
And the result will be final?
Have republicans began sensing that feeling of doomed yet...???