Yes, this.

[giandujakiss]

Mitt Romney's real NASCAR gaffe: mocking ponchos as "fancy raincoats"

At the Daytona 500 on Sunday, Mitt Romney's humanity-mimicking A.I. software malfunctioned yet again. The GOP front-runner told the Associated Press that he doesn't follow NASCAR "as closely as some of the most ardent fans, but I have some great friends who are NASCAR team owners." (Mitt Romney! He has friends! Just like us!)

The comment, which came days after informing Detroit voters that his wife "drives a couple of Cadillacs," instantly sent Twitter into overdrive, so to speak. But another Romney comment from Daytona — reported by the New York Times — gained far less viral attention:

[T]he crowd initially booed Mr. Romney, who occasionally struck a discordant note, as when he approached a group of fans wearing plastic ponchos. “I like those fancy raincoats you bought,” he said. “Really sprung for the big bucks.”

It's one thing to absent-mindedly boast about your wealth and connections, but ribbing people for their inexpensive rain gear just seems... um... dickish? Beyond the terrible 1% vs. 99% optics, it's plain bad manners. Hey, money can't buy you class.

Exactly. I mean, I laughed with everyone else about the NASCAR team owner friends, and puzzled over the Cadillacs comment (My first thought: "At the same time?"). But the raincoat thing made me recoil in horror at the rudeness, the arrogance of it, and the shocking degree of privilege embedded in the assumption that the attendees had money to burn on more expensive rain gear. Was he raised by wolves?

Comments

[hey_legousa]

But really, shouldn't we feel sorry for Mitt Romney in this situation? All that money, and yet he can't use it to keep the poor people far away enough to not offend his eyes with their dirty, unkempt, poor-looking ways. Is that the kind of country we want to build for our children? And really, if you can't hire your own personal servant to lift the umbrella over your head at outdoor sporting events, do you really deserve to be there? Maybe if they saved their money and only spent it on useful things, they could be millionaires like Romney one day.

[giandujakiss]

Maybe it's because I feel so very bad for Romney that I'm finding it painful to think about these stories.

[schemingreader]

Jon Stewart put up footage of him singing and I had to turn it off. He is so teeth-grindingly ridiculously awkward. I don't even know how anyone could be that awkward. Is it just me, or do the Republicans always wind up running guys who seem like they don't like to be around people very much?

This is aside from political opinions and policies or intelligence and ability--just his ability to get along with people is so weak.

[laceblade]

I think this inability to identify with people who aren't the 1% is what's going to kill him in the general election.

That said, I hope that journalists keep coming up with lines like Mitt Romney's humanity-mimicking A.I. software because that was amazing.

[vickita]

Okay, I have to say it. It'll lodge in my throat and choke me in my sleep if I don't.

Was he raised by wolves?

No, he was raised by Republicans.

::walks away chuckling::

[rivkat]

He is beginning to trigger my embarrassment squick. Which just goes to show that my squick isn't correlated with sympathy for a character at all.

[giandujakiss]

I KNOW! I can't even really bear to think about the raincoat thing - it's too painful.

[twistedchick]

Was he raised by wolves?

No. Wolves have far better company manners.

[litotease]

OK, I was going to make a "raised by wolves" crack, but between vikita and twistedchick everything that should be said, has.

I also found the raincoat line more offensive many of his other cracks, because I've been standing in a Drug Store pricing plastic ponchos while fuming because I couldn't afford an actual raincoat more than once in my life.

[jadelennox]

This! Springing for decent rain gear was one of those markers of success I identified for myself, and it came very late in life. Good raincoats that actually keep the rain off are expensive.

[metaphortunate]

I cannot believe that this is the guy I have to hope wins the Republican nomination. Jesus wept.

[amadi]

I'm at a point where I don't know if he's worse, Santorum is worse, or if I should just be hoping for Ragnarok because either, one of these vile sacks of sick is going to garner the vote of nearly 1/2 of voting Americans come November.