Posted on 06/27/2012 12:49:31 PM PDT by BarnacleCenturion
Jim Wilson, the peripatetic, profane, pipe-smoking volunteer for Mitt Romney whose ubiquitous pickup truck was destroyed in a fire last week, has a new set of wheels, donated by the campaign to which he has devoted a year of his life.
Mr. Romney himself will present Mr. Wilson, a 70-year-old Virginian, with a replacement vehicle during an event in Sterling, Va., on Wednesday, ensuring that, until Election Day, Mr. Wilson can keep popping up at campaign stops in a truck festooned with dozens of giant “Romney for President” posters and stickers.
...
Mr. Wilson, an anti-Obama Republican and former life insurance salesman, had devoted himself with the single-mindedness of a college-age groupie to following Mr. Romney around the country in a beat-up 1998 GMC, logging 40,000 miles, visiting 15 states and attending 150 campaign events. For his fanatical loyalty, he elicited unprintable jeers, tossed tomatoes, honked horns, thumbs-up gestures and letters placed under the windshield wipers from drivers across America.
In the process, Mr. Wilson has brought a humanizing (and humorous) dimension to a candidacy that, for all its organizational prowess and fund-raising might, has sometimes struggled to connect with ordinary voters. He has a penchant for Viagra jokes, carries a three-inch fishing knife and hugs every woman he meets.
Then, last week, his rolling Romney billboard caught fire on a Pennsylvania highway. The cause remains unknown..
(Excerpt) Read more at thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com ...
Hmm...
Nope.
Couldn’t do it.
Even for a free new truck.
Maybe for a Lear jet?
Whaddya say Mitt? Think of all the campaign stops I could make across the nation for you with a Lear? (And fuel, too please) Heck I could take a half dozen of your supporters with me.
We could really gin up some support.
That’s just nasty. I’m glad he’s getting anew truck. THat’s very decent of Mitt.
Yes, very nice....watch Obama do a one upper on Romney in the coming weeks....
He’ll probably buy a meal for some Veterans...Oh that’s right, he was going to...but skipped out on the bill...
Just think.....Romney could have had millions of horn tooting trucks emblazoned with his stickers on them, if he’d ever really stood on our side.
I think that most who will begrudgingly give him their vote, are too embarrassed to advertise the fact.
Yes, very nice....watch Obama do a one upper on Romney in the coming weeks....
Nah, he just has to figure out how to charge tax payers for it.
Very nice. If Romney were to come to my neck o’ the woods, I’d want to meet Wilson as much as I’d want to see Romney.
I actually saw this guy driving his old truck around the parking lot of a local Walmart here in central Virginia....it must have been a couple of months ago. I thought he was a kook and I felt embarrassed for him.
I’m glad he got a new truck, but I still think he’s a kook and I’m still embarrassed for him, LOL.
Sad to see this guy getting mocked by some. I remember the days when people were respected for their patriotism.
I’m sure Atty Gen Holder will investigate the cause of the fire, right? I mean this could be a hate crime or federal election law violation....
/s/s/s/s/s/s/s
One man’s kook is another man’s patriot.
Painters are quite famous for flipping the ashes out the window which then blow back into the bed of the truck where it sets the contents on fire.
That much fire in the bed makes me think it started there. JMHO
Man, that guy’s ON FIRE for Romney!
OK, just his truck.
True. But it’s hard for me to see patriotism in giving free ad space to a man who enabled abortion and who supports homosexuals.
There’s a chance Romney will do the right thing if he’s elected. We all know there’s NO chance 0bama will do the right thing.
I am thinking that the flags are laying in the grass because they had been hurriedly pulled out of the burning vehicle. That’s just my guess though.
I sure as heck hope he didn’t buy him a GM or dodge truck. A nice 2012 Ford F250 Super Duty Diesel would be the trick.
When Romney gave him the keys he should have said “Unfortunately, obama is going to collect a gift tax from you.”
What the guy got was a little newer GM pickup of the same model.
Hit send too soon. Anyway, clearly that’s a used truck; they don’t make that body style any more. With those headlights it’s an 03-06 Chevrolet Silverado; the badges say it’s a 4WD and the gray bumper says it’s not a higher level model. It doesn’t have much resale value, so Romney can’t be accused of being Mr. Moneybags; trucks like that in my area cost less than $12-15,000. Looks to be in good condition, though; it’d be a decent return on investment for advertising.
Also, bunch of errors in the original report. One that came to mind was their mention of the guy getting a hydrant from Romney. As the picture shows, that’s not a hydrant, that’s a fire extinguisher. A hydrant would make no sense.
This was the NY Times and yet the comments after the article were fairly scathing towards Obama. That’s encouraging.
US flags saved from the fire.
Were any Dateline NBC crews in the vicinity?
they love burning pickups.
He very well might, which would put him in the same league as any other politician presented with an opportunity to get some good PR.
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