Blue Mass Group

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Romney: it’s OK for my sons not to serve in the military — they’re helping me get elected! w/poll

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Much to the dismay of political satirists around the country, it is simply becoming impossible to lampoon Mitt Romney.  He’s taking care of that all by his lonesome.

Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney on Wednesday defended his five sons’ decision not to enlist in the military, saying they’re showing their support for the country by “helping me get elected.” Romney, who did not serve in Vietnam due to his Mormon missionary work and a high draft lottery number, was asked the question by an anti-war activist after a speech in which he called for “a surge of support” for U.S. forces in Iraq….

“The good news is that we have a volunteer Army and that’s the way we’re going to keep it,” Romney told some 200 people gathered in an abbey near the Mississippi River that had been converted into a hotel. “My sons are all adults and they’ve made decisions about their careers and they’ve chosen not to serve in the military and active duty and I respect their decision in that regard.”

He added: “One of the ways my sons are showing support for our nation is helping me get elected because they think I’d be a great president.” … Romney noted that his middle son, 36-year-old Josh, was completing a recreational vehicle tour of all 99 Iowa counties on Wednesday and said, “I respect that and respect all those and the way they serve this great country.”

I think we should start a new gameshow.  We’ll call it “Laugh, Cry, or Puke,” and we’ll just play Romney quotes and let the contestants decide which is the correct response.  The poll after the flip starts us off.

POLL UPDATE: “Laugh” had an early edge, but “Puke” has now vaulted into the lead.  Have your say!

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  1. But I should add that my laugh came after I heard Jon Stewart’s take on this last night.

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    I think the question was a teensy bit unfair, given that we have a volunteer army.

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    But don’t worry, David — if Mitt wins those kids will be working hard at Romney’s new, doubled Guantanamo.

    • If you haven’t seen it already, check out the Five Brothers blog, on which the brothers Romney document the sacrifices they make for their dad country.

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      Yesterday, Josh posed in front of a gigantic fake bull.

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      Don’t forget to savor the fawning comments.

      • If you want to comment on a Five Brothers post, you have to answer a basic math problem!  It’s like the 4th grade MCAS goes national for Romney supporters.

        • I submitted a post stating just that.

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          Oh… 7 + 2 = 9, even for very small cases of 2.

    • But will change my vote to cry and puke if 50.1% of Americans are dumb enough to vote for that twit.

  2. From Raw Story w/video:

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    That they’re willing to give up all five of their boys for the Romney campaign.  Who knows what kind of post-traumatic care these boys will need after the election? I guess the only good news is that if something happens to four of the boys, the fifth will be allowed to go home and just do phone bank.

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    Biden interview:

    Are you willing to announce that you are willing to have your son leave the National Guard and come support America by working for Mitt Romney?

  3. From Raw Story w/video:

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    That they’re willing to give up all five of their boys for the Romney campaign.  Who knows what kind of post-traumatic care these boys will need after the election? I guess the only good news is that if something happens to four of the boys, the fifth will be allowed to go home and just do phone bank.

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    Biden interview:

    Are you willing to announce that you are willing to have your son leave the National Guard and come support America by working for Mitt Romney?

  4. i laughed so hard i puked, which made me cry.

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    would willard’s ego even fit in the oval office?  maybe there’s a good reason he keeps his noggin so well greased!

  6. Why would that be different if one of my parents was running for president?

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    This whole “you can’t be for the war if your kids don’t enlist” is retarded.  The politician’s child chooses if he or she enlists, not politico mom or dad.  To suggest otherwise ignores that the young adult gets to choose for himself.

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    I don’t know why Mitt or anyone else simply says: it was his choice, it’s a personal matter, and not relevant to my candidacy.

      • …but kept on goin’.  Should have stopped where he said his sons were all adults, but wanted to talk on about how people find different ways to serve,etc.

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        Needs to understand that he will be edited and contexted to death.

        • Succinctly put, Mittens had diarrhea of the mouth and constipation of the brain. 

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          He should have stopped with the idea that his sons are adults, and thus could make their own choices.  Mittens isn’t responsible for their choices.

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          ON THE OTHER HAND, a question arises.  Did he encourage his sons to enlist, discourage them from enlisting, or did he remain silent to them on the issue?  That is the issue, since Mittens is apparently such a big supporter of the war on Iraq.  It isn’t an issue about the children, it is an issue about Mittens.  It is important not to get side-tracked from what the real issue is.

    • Especially when Romney keeps pushing for the surge.  These men and women are doing above and beyond what was expected of them and to have some schmo talk about keeping them over there it’s important to know what he’s doing to support the war other than mouthing off about it.

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      It’s a poor person’s army. 

      • Mitt can’t enlist his son.  His son may not share Mitt’s views on the surge.

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        So, to whom is the question fair?

        • they’re campaigning for him, and he supports the surge, so it stands to reason that they do too.  I mean, would you campaign for someone you disagreed with on such a major issue?  Even if it was a family member?

          • and I disagreed with them on everything, I’d still work for them.

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            In my family, you always publicly support family.

            • I wouldn’t necessarily work against them, but I also wouldn’t make it my job to get them elected either, like the Romney boys are doing.

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              My point was, I think it’s safe to say that they probably support Willard’s position on the war.

    • He supports the surge, etc.  He’s encouraging other Americans to join up.

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      Why not start at home? If they say no, hey, that’s great — their choice.  But he has refused even to bring it up with them.

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      And this business that they’re serving their country by driving around in an RV stumping for him is nothing short of insulting.

      • which is why I don’t understand why these politicos don’t give the short, clean, and correct answer.  Go figger.

    • he didn’t say that, which would have been the reasonable response.  instead, he actually played into the idea that his kids choices do reflect on his candidacy, because he made that idiotic response of “they’re serving the country by helping make me president”. 

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      it’s fair to argue that he shouldn’t have been asked the question in the first place, since it is predicated on a disrespect for his kids as individuals.  however, now that i’ve heard his interesting answer, i’m glad it was asked.  he revealed a lot more about himself in that one answer than i think he realizes.

      • After reading yesterdays Globe article about the decaying state of care for veterans coming back from this war and many others it has become quite clear that we have a remote, distant, elitist class of policy makers and a class of warriors. The whole concept of citizen soldier is dead, we have what is essentially a mercenery army “a professional” army that flies smack in the face of the framers intent. Most other countries have some form of mandatory service so that those voting to go to war understand what its like, most Congressmen and women would have thought twice before sending their sons off. While I disagree with McCains stance on the surge I respect it a whole lot more than Romneys because he voted to send his own son into that surge which must have been a painful decision.

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        Currently are soldiers are sent out, chewed up in foreign misdaventures, and then spit back out onto our streets where they are promptly forgotten. Its a shameful waste.
        And the concept of a professional standing army flies smack in the face of what our country used to be, even when we had an army before WWII it was a barebones operation. In every major war Revolutionary War, Civil War, WWI, WWII Armies were called up by Congress as they should have been to defend the country. Volunteers were called up. Granted we had to resort to drafts as well but they were for a worthy cause, and only needed when the first crop of volunteers saw how hellish war really was.

        • This volunteer Army (so called) was /is a bad bad idea. Thank you Edward Moore Kennedy. Having a singular group of people who are NOT representative of a broad cross section of America could have grave tidings. If the citizens of this country think that the US military is incapable of a coup d’etat they they had better start doing some serious reading. I know of one US Army colonel who was very, very, odd and he enjoyed a worldwide cult following of many officers and enlisted folks. When Richard Nixon was walking the rocky road, the joint chiefs made preparations for bringing the 82nd Airborne into DC in the event that Nixon attempted to use the US marine Corps in an improper and unlawful manner..

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          Mitt Romney just lost his attempt at the nomination. personally, I have no respect for any able bodied American male who did not at least attempt to join the military. The present crop of panty waists that are purportedly American males is a joke. They’d soil themselves in a life threatening situation. This country is now almost to the point where it is indefensible.

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          Show of hands—-how many veterans—former service men/women here? I thought not.

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          Semper Fi 

        • but I disagree with the substance of some of your post.

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          Here is where I disagree with you.  You wrote

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          Most other countries have some form of mandatory service so that those voting to go to war understand what its like, most Congressmen and women would have thought twice before sending their sons off.

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          As to the second part, no, that was not what happened in the Vietnam Krieg.  The Congress was very willing to send–if not their sons, then somebodies’ sons–off to the Vietnam Krieg.  Of course, via draft exemptions and so forth, the people who were sent off were probably not their sons.

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          As to the first part, Germany has conscription.  (Apologies to those that don’t like the fact that I keep referring to Germany, but that is the non-US country that I know best.)  But they allow the conscripts to select civil service instead of military service as part of the Pflicht–duty.  The US constitution does not provide for conscription for civil service.

    • When people thought that protecting the Spanish Republic from Franco’s onslaught was a vital part of stopping fascism in Europe, they volunteered to fight with the Republicans and urged others to do the same.

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      When the Bush Followers say that Iraq is the Central Front on the War on Terrorism, you get — silence. Their ranks do not swell from College Republican groups, Giuliani and Romney do not urge idealistic young conservatives to enlist en masse. As a group, children of prominent conservative politicians do not include scores of enlistees and the Romney family sample is pretty large.

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      So on one level, STomV’s point is right. It’s retarded to say that if you don’t enlist, you should shut up, but it’s also very strange to say this war is so extremely important and to be silent about enlistment.

      • There are women in the US military at this moment who have a bigger set of balls than most 20 year old men.

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        Ain’t that just nice. Speaks volumes!

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        Jessica Lynch, even though she couldn’t fend off a pissed off ten year old, had the balls to enlist and go to iraq. Cours she was from W. Virginia and not close proximity to the effete’s here in the bastion of elitist enlightenment.

        • Wow, what a homophobic and sexist rant!  Men AND women should be called to duty.  Almost every country on the planet enlists both men AND women AND gays and lesbians.  What’s with the “men are the end all and be all of protection”?

      • …Hemingway and his band of mighty men in the Abe Lincoln brigades were volunteers.  They were not conscripts.  They did what they did because they wanted to, not because they were required to.  And therein lies the difference.  Particularly with those conscripted to fight in the Vietnam Krieg.

        • Vietnamkrieg not Vietnam Krieg. English is unusual in its use of noun modifiers. Romance languages use prepositions (French: Guerre du Viêt Nam). German and Dutch concatenate.

    • I never thought I would see that word used this way on BMG. Next someone will be saying “that’s so gay”

  7. Those Republicans do like sending young men and women out on impossible missions, don’t they?  Can we expect to see a “mission accomplished” banner in the Manchester ballroom after the NH primary, and days before he craters in SC?

  8. The Romney boys’ raw, physical Courage to Campaign brings back fond memories of Jack Thomas?s October 20, 1994 interview with Ann in the Globe.

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    Excerpts:

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    The We-Can-Relate-Because-We?ve-Been-There quote:

    After a honeymoon in Hawaii, Ann returned to studies at Brigham Young University, and Mitt joined her for a semester, fell in love with BYU and transferred from Stanford.
    “They were not easy years. You have to understand, I was raised in a lovely neighborhood, as was Mitt, and at BYU, we moved into a $62-a-month basement apartment with a cement floor and lived there two years as students with no income.
    “It was tiny. And I didn’t have money to carpet the floor. But you can get remnants, samples, so I glued them together, all different colors. It looked awful, but it was carpeting.
    “We were happy, studying hard. Neither one of us had a job, because Mitt had enough of an investment from stock that we could sell off a little at a time.
    “The stock came from Mitt’s father. When he took over American Motors, the stock was worth nothing. But he invested Mitt’s birthday money year to year — it wasn’t much, a few thousand, but he put it into American Motors because he believed in himself. Five years later, stock that had been $6 a share was $96 and Mitt cashed it so we could live and pay for education.
    “Mitt and I walked to class together, shared housekeeping, had a lot of pasta and tuna fish and learned hard lessons.

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    And the Empathy-for-Roxbury quote

    The topic turns to the poverty that pervades American cities.
    “There are a lot of Reagan Democrats in Roxbury and Dorchester, and they’re very much interested in Mitt’s campaign. We get a very warm response.”
    –But what about the slums that scar every American city?
    “You know, it’s just another part of the city. I mean, people live there, they have their lives, they have concerns.”
    –Have you been to Roxbury?
    “Yes, and there’s parts of Roxbury that are, you know, there’s West Roxbury, of course, which is fine, but you’re talking about the real rough parts.”
    –Yes.
    “Well, you know, it’s always sad and you always want everyone to have the same kind of opportunities. You know that every light that shines in every person is just as bright at some point, you know, and you just, it’s just sad that they can’t have the potential and can’t reach the potential everyone deserves. In many ways, they’re cheated out of opportunity.”
    –Does government have a role in helping restructure lives of people trapped in poverty?
    “Yes, definitely.”
    –But isn’t it true that Republicans have a reputation for being less sensitive to issues of race and poverty?
    “Right, and for Mitt — he feels strongly about this — about re-engaging people left out of the American dream. He sees our country divided between haves and have-nots. He sees it as very explosive, and he is most concerned about bringing these people back into the American system because they really have no hope. They are without hope, and it’s very sad.

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