I appreciate the fact that she is on the ground, safe and sound. And I
don't think she knows just how worried some of us were. When you have a fire in an aircraft, there's no place to go, exactly,
there's no--and you can't find any oxygen from outside the aircraft to
get in the aircraft, because the windows don't open. I don't know why
they don't do that. It's a real problem. So it's very dangerous. And she
was choking and rubbing her eyes. Fortunately, there was enough oxygen
for the pilot and copilot to make a safe landing in Denver. But she's
safe and sound.
- Mitt Romney, as quoted by Seema Mehta,
"Mitt Romney pulls in $6 million at Beverly Hills fundraiser"
Los Angeles Times, September 23rd, 2012.
I'm very glad Ms. Romney is safe and that in addition to not dying in a fire, nobody depressurized her airplane's cabin by rolling down a window, or (if the plane descended without fully repressurizing the passenger cabin and there was negative cabin pressure) set her on fire by flooding the cabin with oxygen by... um... rolling down a window.
I'm... really, I'm sort of speechless. I know lots of people will make fun of this all week while lots of other people complain that Joe Biden says dumb stuff all the time and it barely gets noticed (and that, ergo, this is an example of the left-wing media conspiracy and not an example of Mitt Romney being more newsworthy than Joe Biden; obviously, seeing as how Romney is running for President, we should just completely ignore him, and don't-I-wish).
But this is, like... I don't think I even realized there were adults supposedly familiar with airplanes who didn't have some kind of idea that the reason airplane windows don't open is that opening windows on an airplane is a problem. And the innocence and naïveté of the whole thing--"Fortunately, there was enough oxygen for the pilot and copilot to make a safe landing..."; almost a sense of wonder, there, that they have oxygen on airplanes.
If he's elected President, I reckon we get what we deserve and gods help us.
Comments
Actually, no. That's just me being snarky, which is fun but not constructive.
What bothers me about Romney's quote is the sheer thoughtlessness of it. I get it - he's upset about his wife being in danger, even after it is clear she is now safe, and he spoke without thinking. I can forgive him being upset. But this is just part of a long pattern of thoughtless statements on Romney's part that I find extremely troubling.
This is the guy who managed to create a diplomatic incident with our staunchest ally over a sporting event. This is the guy who attacked the sitting president during an ongoing terrorist attack. He does not think before he speaks.
If you're going to be President, you must weigh your words, because the weight of that office gives those words more impact than otherwise. Romney doesn't get this. I can't imagine he has no advisors telling him this - and still he doesn't get it.
Troubling.
Ahem.
Clearly, cream no longer rises to the top in the RNC.
I'm rather cynical about politics and politicians for that matter so I may be way off base. On the other hand, I think that Kim Campbell was made the first Canadian female Prime Minister by the conservative Progressive Conservative (not at all progressive) party so they could claim not to be sexist. Her campaign for re-election was so badly managed that I don't think you could come to any conclusion other than that the PC party knew they were going to lose the election and didn't really try t get her reelected.
[I used to be timb111, now I see I'm TimBo. Stay tuned for my new Single Grandpa blog! ;-]
Unfortunately for Romney (and fortunately for us), his complete disconnect with the majority of Americans (and scientific principles) is becoming all too clear these days.
Joe Biden may be gaffe prone, but from what I've seen, his gaffes still have some basis in reality - it's more about him being excited and not engaging his mental brake before engaging his mouth. And unlike Romney, he's cognizant enough about foreign policy that he does think before he speaks.
(I admit it, I like Joe Biden. He ain't perfect - I certainly don't agree with him about everything - but he's my kinda guy. Maybe because I tend to those sorts of gaffes myself...)
I won't go as far as Rachel Maddow did when she said Romney couldn't possibly be joking when talking about his wife being in danger or that if he was joking it says anything dubious about his character--I've been known to whistle past graveyards, myself. But I would have to say if Romney was joking, he demonstrated yet again that he can't tell a joke.
It's a further bad sign when you've been so prone to foot-in-mouth disease, nobody can tell when you're trying to be funny anymore.
You people amaze me sometimes at the lines you focus on. Really.
I guess that's just the audience here.
...
...'kaaaaaaaaaaaaay....
Well. Alrighty then. Hm. How about that? So. Okay, then.
(Dave, there are professionals who can totally help you with any issues you're having.)
But as a blog moderator I'm reluctant to delete responses which may reference those comments. It's a tough call, because I certainly respect someone's right to retract an ill-advised statement or to modify their position; on the other hand, I'm not a fan of the empty retraction or someone scrubbing the record (I'm not accusing you of that, Dave, I'm actually just trying to explain a position). I also wouldn't say there's an absolute rule--I can certainly imagine deleting a comments thread where everybody is just better off with the whole thing going down the memory hole. Then again, sometimes it's good to have those kinds of things around to remind us to be humble.
It's nothing personal, either way.