When this story came out, I said to my friend - this is not a policy issue of any substance but the story has legs. Why? America loves pets. America looooves pets. As a pet owner myself, I know how people think about their animals, and the idea that someone of public prominence is mean to a pet - even a long time ago - makes them look like a total ass.
Romney Accused of Mistreating Family Dog
An example of Mitt Romney’s crisis management skills has turned into something of a political problem for the Republican presidential contender.
Romney placed his family dog, an Irish setter named Seamus, into a kennel lashed to the top of his station wagon for a 12-hour family trip from Boston to Ontario in 1983. Despite being shielded by a wind screen the former Massachusetts governor erected, Seamus expressed his discomfort with a diarrhea attack.
Now the story, recounted this week in a Boston Globe profile of Romney, has touched off howls of outrage from bloggers and animal rights activists even though it was presented in the story as an example of Romney’s coolness under trying circumstances.
Stupid Mitt, Wallyworld is in California, not Ontario.
If you think the dog story is bad, wait til the story about what he did with his wife’s dead aunt on that Vacation.
What’s amazingly is that the Romney campaign offered this anecdote to the reporter as good example of his “emotion-free crisis management”.
Talk about tone-deaf. This may actually kill his campaign now that the AP has picked up the story and is distributing it nationwide. These are the sorts of impressions that can brand a candidate and disregard for an animal’s suffering is not a brand you’d want.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-On-the-2008-Trail.html
I am, as a liberal Democrat, biased of course but I just can’t wrap my mind around what kind of person does that to their pet? I mean seriously? For 12 hours?
It’s fucking sick. It should be the first and last thing anyone ever associates with Mitt Romney ever again. The conservatives would make this national news 24-7 if Hillary had done something this viscerally cruel.
He should have just pulled on his dog’s ears.
Gotta go with Oliver on this one. Proper dog box required or let him ride with you. The excuse seems lame. I mean he didn’t shit himself becuase he was, “So happy to ride there.” Mitt is rich so he can buy a proper box for his pickup or let the dog ride in the car. They normally do enjoy that.
Mike, I think LBJ was a great man, but there’s no question he was also a sadist and a bully. I think it’s good to keep those guys out of the White House as a general rule.
Taters, did happy hour arrive early this week?
So…Potato, are you saying the story WILL hurt Mitt’s chances, or that it WON’T hurt his chances?
Bush Derangement Syndrome to be replaced with Romney Derangement Syndrome.
The modern equivalents of Hitler Derangement Syndrome, Pol Pot Derangement Syndrome, Geoffrey Dahmer Derangement Syndrome, etc. etc.
Those god damn liberal wackoes can get so bent out of shape by murder, cannibalism, etc. What-ever!
So…this is presented as an example of cool head in trying circumstances. Which means that President Romney would be willing to calmly address the messes that occur when he MAKES CRUEL AND STUPID MISTAKES LIKE STRAPPING A DOG TO THE ROOF OF A CAR.
Well, how wonderful that Mitt is so even-keeled. I’d rather have somebody who would know better in the first place. We’ve already had almost five years of a President who is calm in the face of his irresponsible bloody errors, we don’t need another one of those.
I see the Oliver left-wing noise machine is gaining steam.
Do Mormom pets get to wear the magic underwear? Might have kept him warm, you never know.
So I take it the right wing sees nothing wrong with Romney’s actions?
Maybe if the dog had been a Halliburton executive we might see some compassion.
“Do Mormom pets get to wear the magic underwear? Might have kept him warm, you never know.”
Wipng laugh-strewn spittle off screen with clean shammy.
In all fairness to Mitt, the story provides very little context or details about the trip.
The reactions seem to point to a misunderstanding that the dog was physically lashed to the roof and left there for 12 straight hours.
Romney says the dog liked to hop on the roof of the car. I would suspect that the dog would not get in its kennel unless the kennel was perched atop the car. Maybe the dog cried when they tried to put the kennel inside the car. How many times did they stop for gas, food, potty, etc.? How many times did they let the dog out to run around? How many times did they feed it? How many times did they try to get the dog back in the car, or back in the kennel without it being perched atop the car?
If you are travelling with small children, your priority will be your children, not your dog.
We don’t really know what happened. Face it.
Stupid story anyway.
How many times did they stop for gas, food, potty, etc.?
One time too few, apparently.
Stupid story anyway.
It certainly is. It is, in fact, as trivial as stories about haircuts, earth tones, Love Story, poor singing voices, and where one attended school as an 8-year-old.
Get used to it. Our press corps lives for trivia.
We don’t really know what happened. Face it.
We do know that it was against the law.
Serious question: Does anyone reading this comment know personally another human who would do this to a dog?
It certainly seems to fail the objective “reasonable person” standard our law seems to love.
Either he’s evil or he’s stupid.
Note well that the disjunctive “or” in English is not per se an exclusive disjunctive; when we say he is evil or he is stupid, it leaves very much open that he is monumentally and pompously both vicious and idiotic.
Hell I don’t even like dogs, but he just got the Democratic nominee an army of ASCPA, PETA, etc. supporters for field work in the rain and the heat if Romney gets it.
Conversation in April 2008 at PETA in Pennsylvania:
PETA 1: Hillary irritates me.
PETA 2: But Romney will inflict genocide on animals.
PETA 1: OK, let’s canvass the entire state for Hillary until we drop dead. Your car?
PETA 2: No mine, I have a full tank.
At least he hasn’t said he’d send his dog to his newly-doubled Guantanamo. Or maybe that’s next?
Romney is a vapid, inspiid dildo (much like the current [technical] President). Indeed, this is not a significant story in the Big Picture (or shouldn’t be), but it does fit a well-established pattern of vapid, insipid dildolatry.
The most important thing to take away from this li’l anecdote is that it took place the same year that “National Lampoon’s Vacation” was released. That’s funny. And I know Funny.
Can you just imagine an army of Democratic activists “dogging” (pun intended) Romney with a dog version of the Kiss Float?
“…I just can’t wrap my mind around what kind of person does that to their pet? I mean seriously? For 12 hours?”
And then brags about it to a reporter. That’s fucked up.
“Bush Derangement Syndrome to be replaced with Romney Derangement Syndrome.”
The concept of BDS is one of the reasons why the Republicans were killed in ‘06. You honestly believe you would have to be deranged to dislike Bush, which is real sign of mental illness.
“Mitt Romney’s Dog Abuse Problem”
On a side note, I keep reading that as Drug Abuse Problem.
Aren’t we barking up the wrong tree with this story?
–|PW|–
Some posters here, like Romney himself, have a sociopathic blindspot to the wellbeing of dogs and cats. Putting a dog in a pet carrier lashed to the roof of a station wagon and driving for 12 hours from Mass. to Ontario is utterly insane. And that Romney hosed the dog down after the dog had diarrhea and kept driving shows Romney to be twice insane.
But like I said, many people have a sociopathic blindspot to the welfare of pets.
Crapulent Willis has a burger abuse problem.
Maybe you hang out with Al Bore Jr. too much.
Serious question: Does anyone reading this comment know personally another human who would do this to a dog?
Yes - I have seen hounds leashed to the roof of a pickup truck moving down the road - yes, the roof, not the bed. Some sort of a box was constructed on the roof of the pickup with a pole on the top where the 5 or 6 hounds were attached. I don’t know how far he travelled, but the dogs were standing. It was a bizarre sight - even on a secondary road - and it was only a couple years ago, not 24 years ago.
But I’m with the folks above - this belongs in the same trivia bag with haircuts, trophy wives and celebrities’ misfortunes.