Replies

tantiboh: Oooh, that’s a new one for me! Congratulations, you’ve actually come up with an original polemic against Romney!

Well it is pretty freaky what happened. Remember, my analysis may be wrong, but I always have source material. Here’s a repost of stuff from Deseret News, along with my comments:

Romney, what a family guy. Let’s look to the role model Mitt provides for dating:

[They had first gotten to know each other at a mutual friend’s birthday party in the late winter of 1965, when he spotted the wholesome beauty with light brown hair from across the room. Mitt had just turned 18, Ann was 15 — almost exactly the same ages his parents had been when they met. Ann attended Cranbrook’s sister school, called Kingswood, on the other side of campus.]

What a guy, dating a 15 year old.

[In the fall of 1965, Mitt Romney left behind Cranbrook, with its varsity sweaters and hand-delivered courtship letters, and moved across the country to San Francisco’s Bay area, which was fast becoming the capital of the counterculture movement. By the time he settled into his freshman dorm at Stanford University, the nearby campus of the University of California-Berkeley had been fully radicalized by the antiauthority Free Speech Movement. In San Francisco, Haight-Ashbury was emerging as an LSD-fueled mecca for free-loving hippies in peasant skirts and dashikis.]

So, Mitt’s a Stanford man dating a 15 year old. Pretty impressive.

[Throughout the year at Stanford University, Mitt talked endlessly about Ann. He once drove nonstop from California to Michigan, showing up at Ann’s home a sweaty mess, diving into her pool fully clothed. During his second semester, Ann accompanied Mitt’s parents on a visit to see him.]

Then he gets his missionary deferrment.

[Mitt’s own draft status was secure for the next few years. Although his friends would continue to benefit from the deferment for college students, Mitt had decided to leave Stanford after his freshman year and go on a 30-month mission to spread the LDS faith overseas. It was the same path his father, and generations of LDS men before him, had taken upon turning 19. As a missionary, Mitt was declared “a minister of religion” by the church and, under an agreement with the Selective Service, granted an exemption from the draft.]

So now, how to induce now 16 year old Ann to fall in step:

[In 1966, as Mitt struggled to adapt to his grueling first year as a missionary in France, two events that would change his life were happening back in Michigan, out of his view.

First, his father made the decision to run for president in earnest. Second, when he wasn’t crisscrossing the country, George Romney was guiding Ann Davies through her conversion into the LDS faith.

With Mitt away, Ann told George she was interested in attending LDS services. The governor headed straight for the Davies home. He asked Ann’s parents for permission to send some U.S.-based missionaries to meet with Ann. Her mother was an easy sell. But getting clearance from Ann’s father, whose rejection of organized religion ran deep, would be a much tougher challenge.

Ultimately, Edward Davies and George Romney shook hands on an agreement: George could send the missionaries, provided Ann’s mother sat in on the discussions. Ann’s younger brother, Jim Davies, says their father relented based on the trust he had in his daughter and the admiration he had for George Romney. Besides, the governor outranked him. In addition to being a self-made businessman, Edward Davies was the part-time mayor of Bloomfield Hills.

The missionaries came for six straight sessions, sitting with Ann in the family room on the lower level of the Davies’ split-level home, taking her through the LDS conversion process. Besides her mother, Ann’s friend Cindy Burton sat in on the lessons. Cindy also was the girlfriend of Ann’s older brother, Rod, who was doing a study-abroad year in England. Little brother Jim wanted to sit in as well, but his parents decided he was too young. So Jim stood outside the family room window, listening in.]

Six straight sessions from friends of the Governor/Presidential candidate. Gee, I wish I’d had that much help to brainwash - um, I mean impress my first date.

Yup, family values at their best. Grab em dumb and young and indoctrinate them right away, a model for all America to follow. Source, Deseret News:

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4188/is_20070701/ai_n19342537/pg_7

tantiboh: Tell me, I’m a 28-year-old single Mormon man (Virgo), seeking single Mormon woman in her 20’s for romantic walks on the temple grounds. Do you think I can find a good woman to brainwash? You know, since it’s so easy (6 days) and all?

Maybe if she is a 15 year old and your daddy can brainwash her.

I love it. Mother’s present for the missionary discussions; Mitt is on another continent; Ann has the permission and trust of her parents; and you call the Mormon Missionaries “friends of the Governor/Presidential candidate.” When Ann makes the decision independently to join the LDS Church, you call it “brainwashing.”

You do realize that you’re making a fool out of yourself, right? And you do realize that I’m going to throw this in your face many times in the future? Don’t worry, I’ll ping you every time.

*****

Serious political discourse according to FastCoyote:
“I don’t agree with Romney on the moral issues. For example, Mitt was 18 when he met his 15 year old wife to-be Ann, then he had his powerful father brainwash her into Mormonism in a 6 day indoctrination. Now maybe you want to uphold family values like brainwashing, but I don’t.”
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1927350/posts?page=297#297

*****

I’ll be copy-pasting that wherever I see you for the next few weeks. Fair warning.

Have a good evening!