Letters to the Editor
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emaydon
I guess you can read this two ways - either for Romney, faith is paramount, there is literally nothing more important than being a good Mormon. Or he simply regarded his life's calling as too important to fit in a deployment to Vietnam as well as missionary work.
No, because even once he was done with his missionary work in France and returned to the U.S., he applied for and obtained another deferrment, this one so that he could go to college at BYU.
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I guess it's immoral and evil for non-cops to have an opinion about cops
And non-doctors to have an opinion about doctors.
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"....and living in an America that vanished 50 to 150 years ago."
And that applies to the mayor also. I think what best characterizes the candidates Glenn has discussed recently is how they would lead the US in its interaction with the world. Both the mayor and the missionary are for dominating it. The libertarian would apply his fundamental principle to deny that there is any need for the government to interact beyond defending the borders.
Perhaps there is somebody with a better grasp of how to handle the global problems that the US, as the declining superpower, should at least recognize. Would contributing to the solutions, or even leaading the pack, be too much to ask?
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Lottery? What Lottery?
Sorry Mittster, but that line doesn't quite wash. The draft lottery didn't come in until 1970--I know because I was in it and I did pull a high number.
So what was Mitt's excuse for the previous years when he was waving the Book of Mormon around in the faces of bemused Parisians and there was no lottery?
Hmm?
The obvious parallel here is with Davey Stockman, who wangled a draft exemption by attending Harvard Divinity School during Nam and the minute the war ended decided that he wasn't "called" after all.
All this excess of patriotism just makes the heart go jingle-jangle-jingle...
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Romney and Giuliani, both warmongering chickenhawks
Well done, Mr. Greenwald. You gave these two armchair commandos, Romney and Giuliani, a good pasting.
God knows they deserve it, these warmongering scumbags.
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@Anon
I guess it's immoral and evil for non-cops to have an opinion about cops
And non-doctors to have an opinion about doctors.
--Anonymous
No one has written that Romney was "immoral" or "evil" for having avoided service. Hypocritical? Dishonest? You decide if the following paragraph about Romney, and quote by Romney, is about "having an opinion" about serving, or just blowing smoke about serving.
Mr. Romney, though, said that he sometimes had wished he were in Vietnam instead of France. "There were surely times on my mission when I was having a particularly difficult time accomplishing very little when I would have longed for the chance to be serving in the military," he said in an interview, "but that was not to be."
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Anonymous: Why can't Romney have an opion?
I guess it's immoral and evil for non-cops to have an opinion about cops
It isn't the opining that is at issue. It's the prancing around as "strong," courageous and tough in order to win an election -- all based on the fact that he wants to send other people off to war. It's the deceit that's at issue and the specific comments he has made.
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I agree with you, Glenn...
Though I evidently need to work on the **sarcasm** tag.
I actually missed a more obvious point, that Romney apparently moved from feeling guilty that he would avoid the draft by being a missionary, to relief that he would avoid the draft because of the lottery. After he got a student deferment.
Goodness, with that trifecta, how does Mitt live with the guilt?
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I guess it's immoral and evil for non-cops to have an opinion about cops
Yes, I guess everyone has a part to play. Some people to dodge bullets and avoid roadside bombs and others to make snide comments on message boards and make fun of anyone who suggests that the folks dodging bullets might be more comfortable at home with their families. These jobs are ALL important.
Without comments on message boards, the Islamofascists will have won.
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Well ok strong then.
which wars did FDR fight in, personally. See all this criticism of being 'tough talking' is misplaced. In fact your criticism would be the same if he had served, BECAUSE he had served. Which seems unfair.
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Mitt Romney: the dirty hippies were right!
From the NYT article:
“I was surprised,” Mr. Romney recalled, “when I heard my father, then running for president, say that we were wrong, that we had been told lies by our military, that the course of the war was not going as well as we thought it was and that we had been mistaken when we had entered the war. It obviously caused me to reconsider what I had previously thought.”
He added, “Ultimately, I came to believe that he was right.”
So, Mitt now admits that the dirty hippies were right?
I wonder how that’ll play among “the base” of the today’s GOP?
Why hasn’t that statement received more attention?
It certainly is at odds with much of the thinking of the pro-war crowd today who still believe we were “this close” to winning Vietnam and then the media lost the war by biased liberal reporting.
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The hollow men
Glenn, keep it up! Nothing disgusts me more than these scared little boys puffing themselves up & telling each other how tough they are -- by sending someone else off to fight & die for them.
It's the political equivalent of Richard Pryor & Gene Wilder sauntering along & saying, "That's right, we bad, we bad." Except that there's no humor in this ugly reality, unless it's in the sick joke of having others die to bolster their own sagging & insecure manhood.
And this is what passes for grown men today ...
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Romney: Mr. Macho Chickenhawk
Ah, yes. Mr. Romney is waxing macho and rattling sabers at America's enemies. He is a chickenhawk of the first magnitude. Here's why:
He has five sons...none of whom have ever put on a uniform and served the country that their Dad so wants to lead. What kind of pro-America bloviation has he made at home that would cause all five of his sons to eschew military service?
Typical Republicans: send other people's children off to war instead of their own.
Makes one want to hurl...
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Oh Dear...
Looks like the contributor Who Dare Not Speak His/Her/Its Name is still clinging to the notion that Mitt's not some kind of hypocrite.
FDR was Assistant Secretary of the Navy during WW1, not a combat unit of course but since he was already in his late 30s it's not likely he would have been put in one. After 1922 he wasn't in any shape to serve in any wars. Polio.
Besides, I don't recall anyone here calling John McCain a hypocrite about going to war and for a very good reason: He Did It. And paid for it.
But then for some of us hypocrisy--like honor--is a concept that just doesn't register on any mental radar screen at all.