Mutt Romney
The GOP presidential candidates for 2008 are indeed a motley crew, half of them having some scandal or other in their past and the other half being just... insane for lack of a better word. Of the frontrunners, only Mitt Romney has so far been fairly untouched by negative publicity... until last week, when the spectre of Animal Cruelty was discovered looming in Romney's past.
Back in 1983 the Romney family put their Irish Setter ("iSetter") in a cage which was then tied to the roof of the car and took off on a 12-hour Boston-to-Ontario road trip. Woohoo! Vacation! Everyone was happy but Seamus, who was in such gut-wrenching fear that he shat all over the roof of the car.
When I take my dog for a ride in the back of my pickup, I adjust my driving to accomodate her: keep the speed down, no 2-wheeled cornering, and especially no sudden stops or starts. Why? Because it's pretty easy to imagine what would happen if I slammed on the brakes at speed: whatever was in the back (and I do mean "was") would take off like a 747. You have to wonder why Romney couldn't anticipate something as obvious as the terror of hurtling through space in an open cage at 80mph -- for 12 hours straight! I'd shit myself dry, which poor Seamus apparently did.
"The incident: dog excrement found on the roof and windows of the Romney station wagon. How it got there: Romney strapped a dog carrier — with the family dog Seamus, an Irish Setter, in it — to the roof of the family station wagon for a twelve hour drive from Boston to Ontario, which the family apparently completed, despite Seamus's rather visceral protest."
If a guy can't empathize with his own dog enough to imagine (or care?) that a situation might be horrific for him, one has to question his judgment on issues like torture, which thanks to the Bush administration is now something Americans actually have to consider when analyzing candidates. It kind of lowers the bar on what one could assume Romney might consider acceptable interrogation techniques.
When I take my dog for a ride in the back of my pickup, I adjust my driving to accomodate her: keep the speed down, no 2-wheeled cornering, and especially no sudden stops or starts. Why? Because it's pretty easy to imagine what would happen if I slammed on the brakes at speed: whatever was in the back (and I do mean "was") would take off like a 747. You have to wonder why Romney couldn't anticipate something as obvious as the terror of hurtling through space in an open cage at 80mph -- for 12 hours straight! I'd shit myself dry, which poor Seamus apparently did.
"The incident: dog excrement found on the roof and windows of the Romney station wagon. How it got there: Romney strapped a dog carrier — with the family dog Seamus, an Irish Setter, in it — to the roof of the family station wagon for a twelve hour drive from Boston to Ontario, which the family apparently completed, despite Seamus's rather visceral protest."
If a guy can't empathize with his own dog enough to imagine (or care?) that a situation might be horrific for him, one has to question his judgment on issues like torture, which thanks to the Bush administration is now something Americans actually have to consider when analyzing candidates. It kind of lowers the bar on what one could assume Romney might consider acceptable interrogation techniques.
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