Reporter Hunter Walker in Politicker:
Mitt Romney may not have told the whole truth about the scandalous tale of his Irish Setter, Seamus, being strapped to the roof of his car during a 12-hour family road trip to Canada. According to a trusted Politicker tipster, two of Mr. Romney’s sons had an off-record conversation with reporters where they revealed the dog ran away when they reached their destination on that infamous journey in 1983.
Mr. Romney’s wife, Ann, has previously said Seamus survived the trip and went on to live to a “ripe old age.” As of this writing, Mr. Romney’s campaign has not responded to multiple requests for comment on this story.
The article also does a nice job of reviewing the various ways in which this story has dribbled down into the national consciousness:
The Globe initially presented the story as an example of Mr. Romney’s “emotion-free crisis management,” but the incident has enraged many animal lovers and caused many issues on the campaign trail. Seamus inspired an attack ad from Mr. Romney’s Republican rival Newt Gingrich, a “Google bomb” coining “Romney” as a verb meaning “to defecate in terror,” a mocking Tweet from President Barack Obama’s advisor, David Axelrod, and, of course, an angry statement from PETA.
Meanwhile, as noted earlier on this page, millions believe the man’s first name is “Mittens.” Dino Grandoni in The Atlantic on 3 January:
Quick: What’s Mitt Romney’s real first name? (No Googling!) If you didn’t guess “Willard,” you’re in the same boat as 94 percent of America that somehow still doesn’t know all that much about a guy who’s been running for president for five years. According a 60 Minutes/Vanity Fair poll, a 20 percent plurality of us thought that “Mitt” was his real name and not a glove-like nickname. 18 percent said “Mitchell”; 8 percent, Milton; and only 6 percent correctly said “Willard.” But the most important stat from the survey is that somehow, in some way, 2 percent of real-life adult voting Americans believe that his name is “Mittens.”
JHM says
the Mac’s and O’s on top for a change. But . . . well , . . .
Happy days.
–Paddy McTammany
Ryan says
that the dog ran away? Do that to any dog long and often enough and something like that’s to be expected, if the dog survive’s the trip.
This story is the perfect indication of the kind of man Mitt Romney is:
heartless, cruel and vindictive. He’s a horrible man who’s built a huge fortune off of ruining lives, shipping jobs overseas and pocketing his money in offshore accounts and playing other shenanigans so he pays half the tax rate of his secretaries and assistants.
John Tehan says
…but I do have to jump in with my favorite Mitt Limerick: