Posted on 09/25/2012 4:35:40 AM PDT by Kaslin
Over the last few months, it has been absolutely stunning to see Mitt Romney, of all people, portrayed as some sort of greedy, ruthless, unfeeling corporate raider who plows over everyone who gets in his way so he can make a few dollars more. Of all the criticisms you could aim at Mitt Romney, there is none that has less validity than that one. In fact, the vast majority of people who read this column -- whether they're liberal, conservative, or moderate -- probably don't personally know a single person who has proven to be more generous and compassionate than Mitt Romney. Yes, really. It's okay if you're skeptical -- but, you won't be after you finish reading this column.
1) Mitt Romney saved the life of a 14 year old girl: Imagine what it would be like if we could have this kind of decisive people-centered leadership in the White House..
In 1998 the 14-year-old daughter of one of Romney's partners at Bain Capital, Robin Gay, had disappeared after attending a rave party in New York City. The distraught father was beside himself with terror of what may have happened to his little girl.Upon hearing of this, Romney stopped all operations at Bain and flew himself and all of the company's employees to New York to conduct the search. Using his contacts with establishments in New York that did business with Bain and an outlay of cash, Romney led a search for the girl from a command post he had set up in the LaGuardia Marriott that involved a private detective, Bain employees and customers putting up posters, handing out flyers, and interviewing prostitutes, drug addicts, and other street people in New York, and coordination with the New York Police.
A break came, after media publicity of the search, when a teenage boy called a tip line asking if there was a reward. He hung up, but not before the police traced the call to a home in New Jersey. The girl was found in the basement of the house undergoing withdraws from a hit of ecstasy.
Romney, through his efforts, had saved the girl's life.
2) Mitt Romney gave milk to a V.A. hospital: This is the kind of thing Mitt Romney has done for people in need who cross his path.
He shared a story of a V.A. hospital in Boston that Mitt Romney stopped at while on the campaign trail running against Ted Kennedy. Ted Kennedy had made a thirty minute stop at the same location a couple of weeks prior.After touring the V.A. hospital, Mitt asked to look at their books. After he spent forty minutes going through their books, he told them, “You run a very good place, very tight. Very good.” Romney asked to go on another tour of the hospital, and after spending an hour and forty minutes there, the last question he asked was, “So what… what do you -- what are you lacking? What do you need help with?”
The response? “Milk.”
Since the press was around, snapping photos and asking questions, Glenn explained that Romney did a really awkward joke where he said, “maybe we should teach everyone here how to milk a cow.”
Of course, that’s all the press cared to hear and ran with a story that claims “Mitt Romney says veterans should have to milk cows.”
“This is where it gets good,” Glenn started. “Romney calls him up the next morning.”
Romney first apologizes to the man who runs the hospital for any problems the attention from the press jumping on his words brought to the hospital. He next offers to help with the milk situation.
“Friday comes, and the milkman comes,” Glenn continues. “This is what the vets needed – they needed 7,000 pints of milk a week. Milkman shows up, 7,000 pints. The head of the V.A. hospital asks, ‘Where did all this come from?’ He [the milkman] said ‘an anonymous donor.’ Now, the guy didn’t put it together.”
Glenn explains that when the next week rolled around, the milkman shows up again, and continued to show up every week for two years. After two years of delivering 7,000 pints of milk a week to the hospital, as the milkman is retiring, the man finally gets him to reveal the anonymous donor.
It’s Mitt Romney.
“Mitt Romney was writing a personal check and didn’t want anybody to know for two years and provided the vets with all of their milk in Boston,” Glenn explained to listeners this morning.
When Romney became governor, he sent a bill through to help the V.A. hospital – it was down to the dollar.
3) Mitt Romney helped a dying 14 year old boy write his will: In a profession filled with people who steal the credit for every good thing that happens and pass the buck at every opportunity, Mitt Romney's humility -- which is a wonderful trait in a human being, but a maladaptive one in a politician -- has kept him from hammering home stories like this home in every swing state.
Pat Oparowski talks about the loving friendship Mitt Romney developed with her dying son David, remembering,"David, knowing Mitt had gone to law school at Harvard, asked Mitt if he would help him write a will. He had some prize possessions that he wanted to make sure were given to his closest friends and family. The next time Mitt went to the hospital, he was equipped with his yellow legal pad and pen. Together, they made David’s will. That is a task that no child should ever have to do. But it gave David peace of mind. So after David’s death, we were able to give his skateboard, his model rockets, and his fishing gear to his best friends. He also made it clear that his brother Peter should get his Ruger .22 rifle. How many men do you know who would take the time out of their busy lives to visit a terminally ill 14 year old and help him settle his affairs?"
David also helped us plan his funeral. He wanted to be buried in his Boy Scout uniform. He wanted Mitt to pronounce his eulogy, and Mitt was there to honor that request. We will be ever grateful to Mitt for his love and concern.”
Ted Oparowski summed it up nicely when he said,
"You cannot measure a man’s character based on the words he utters before adoring crowds during times that are happy. The true measure of a man is revealed in his actions during times of trouble — the quiet hospital room of a dying boy, with no cameras and no reporters."
4) At one point, Mitt Romney was doing 10-20 hours a week of volunteer church service: At the Republican National Convention, Mitt Romney's friend and fellow church member Grant Bennett talked about the work Mitt Romney did at their church.
While raising his family and pursuing his career, Mitt Romney served in our church, devoting 10, 15, and even 20 hours a week doing so. ...Drawing on the skills and resources of those in our congregation, Mitt provided food and housing, rides to the doctor, and companions to sit with those who were ill. He shoveled snow and raked leaves for the elderly. He took down tables and swept floors at church dinners. He was often the last to leave. Mitt challenged each of us to find our life by losing it in service to others. He issued that challenge again and again.
What do you think the chances are that the current occupant of the White House would voluntarily shovel snow and rake leaves for the elderly without any television cameras around?
5) Pam Finlayson talks about how Mitt Romney treated her family and her extremely ill child: Pam Finlayson gave one of the finest speeches at the Republican National Convention when she talked about how Mitt Romney had treated her child and her family.
Later, when Finlayson and her husband Grant had a baby girl born dangerously premature, the man who decades later would stand at the threshold of the presidency was a steady and supportive presence at the hospital.“Kate was so tiny and very sick,” Finlayson recalled. “Her lungs not yet ready to breathe, her heart unstable, and after suffering a severe brain hemorrhage at three days old, she was teetering on the very edge of life.”
“As I sat with her in intensive care, consumed with a mother’s worry and fear, dear Mitt came to visit and pray with me,” she continued, as the partisan crowd listened in rapt silence. “I will never forget that when he looked down tenderly at my daughter, his eyes filled with tears, and he reached out gently and stroked her tiny back.”
“I could tell immediately that he didn’t just see a tangle of plastic and tubes; he saw our beautiful little girl, and he was clearly overcome with compassion for her.”
The little girl was slated for surgery around Thanksgiving, and Finlayson recalled Romney and his sons showing up with a Thanksgiving feast for the preoccupied parents. Finlayson said she later learned from Ann Romney that the food had been prepared by her husband.
Kate Finlayson survived, and the two families remained close, said Finlayson, who even babysat for the five “rambunctious” Romney sons before the family moved from Boston.
Last year, Kate Finlayson died at age 26 from complications she’d battled from birth, her mom said. And although Romney was in the midst of preparing his bid for the presidency, they remembered their old friends in yet another hour of anguish.
“When they heard of Kate’s passing, both Mitt and Ann paused, to personally reach out to extend us sympathy, and express their love,” Finlayson said.
“When the world looks at Mitt Romney, they see him as the founder of a successful business, the leader of the Olympics, or a governor,” she said. “When I see Mitt, I know him to be a loving father, man of faith and caring and compassionate friend."
6) Mitt Romney and his sons saved a family and their dog from drowning: Mitt Romney saw people in trouble and he didn't wait for the government to save them, he made a REAL gutsy call, and did what he had to do to save their lives.
But way back in the summer of 2003, the then-Massachusetts governor made the news for a very different reason: He helped save a Tewksbury family from drowning in New Hampshire’s Lake Winnipesaukee.The Morrisseys of Tewksbury were motoring their vintage wooden boat through the large lake on July 4 weekend that year when, around sunset and about 300 yards from shore, the vessel began taking on water. Robert Morrissey attempted to dial 911 on his cell phone, only to lose the device in the water as the boat started sinking rapidly.
That’s when Romney, who owns a home on the shore of the lake, and two of his sons jumped on jet skis and rode out to assist the six people, along with the family dog, struggling in the water.
The Romneys took two of the passengers ashore, and others in the area helped the rest of the family—and the dog, too — make it back to land without injury.
7) Mitt Romney pays for the college education of two boys who were left as quadriplegics after a car wreck: As you read this, imagine how you'd feel about Mitt Romney if you were Mark and Sheryl Nixon. Americans would be fortunate to have someone like Mitt Romney doing his best to try to help them.
Mark and Sheryl Nixon, along with their sons Reed and Rob and their daughter Natalie, told of a car accident that left Reed and Rob quadriplegics. Although the Nixon family knew of Romney and Romney had served as their Mormon stake president, they weren't well acquainted.Reed and Rob returned home from rehab in the late fall, near Christmas, Mark said. Around that time, Romney called and said he'd like to do something for the two boys. So Romney, his wife Ann, and three of their sons brought Christmas gifts to the family.
While Romney later offered to pay for Reed and Rob's entire college education, that Christmas Eve visit stands out in Mark's mind, he said, because instead of vacationing in Utah, New England or the Caribbean, the Romney family was visiting the needy.
"That actually, to me, has been more important to me than the financial help he gave," Mark said.
"After the initial experience of showing up, he didn't check that off his list and say, 'I did my duty,'" Natalie added. "He has, year after year, shown up at 5K races to run the event and participate."
Utah's electoral votes are safely in the bag for Romney, that should be safe to assume.
Meanwhile, what have we got here? Elsie, just one more loveable harmless goofball, posting on FreeRepublic. Nothing to get upset over. Ok, he has a thing against Mormonism. He's not alone.
Nonetheless, I think folks here (who are here as much as anything because they DO hold strong political viewpoints) if they are in battleground States, will vote for the Republican nominee, regardless of the grumbling by a few of us here (including myself).
if the man does make it.. I would like to see some overturning of much of what Obama has done on an "Executive" basis. For example -- the Keystone XL pipeline extension. Identify the few trouble spots, do what is necessary to preclude possible harm to the groundwater tables in key areas, from potential future leaks ---even it meant double-walling certain sections with pipe big enough for an inspector to easily move around in--- then GET IT BUILT.
Take the "Dream Act" put into effect by Obama against the will of Congress, and require States to add a modifier or indicator on every driver license issued under the provision of the Act, that the holder of said license was not eligible to VOTE. Maybe force States to build a data-base of such individuals that both political parties can access compared to voter rolls. In the very least, something, anything that would work to preclude such driver's licenses and work permits to equal full citizenship "rights". related issue, food-for-thought FR thread Ease of getting voter IDs at the center of Commonwealth Court hearing
The list could go on. Another first item of business,(oil/energy policies again) would be to go through the EPA with a fine-toothed comb.FR thread "The EPA’s Arrogance and Incompetence Keeps America Dependent on Foreign Oil"
Critics of that sort of thing will undoubtedly say it would be done for political reasons. Answer them, "yes, that's right. It's being done to take the politics OUT of the science, and move towards actually science neutrality. Moving this nation towards energy independence is absolutely crucial for it's economic and security interests." Period.
Would Romney Move on such things, and other issues? Maybe, but he has a record of making too nice with the likes of the environmental lobby, folding his tent too soon, in an apparent(?) effort to "be liked".
Perhaps there are some close-to-Romney, Mormon MoFo's out there, snooping on pathetic FR threads. Am I singing to the choir? (on energy issues). If so, light a fire under your boy's butt, would you?
“Fricking embarrassing.”
You know what is embarrassing.
A dishonest thug from Chicago is slandering a decent man and nobody stands up to it.
It’s good to see some reporting on the real Mitt Romney.
“I have no doubt that Mitt is personally a caring human being.
But being nice is not what America needs today. What we need is a President who will take away the government “sugar tit” from millions. Millions who will cry their despair with the full support of the media.
Is Mitt capable of doing that?? “
The infamous ‘47% video’ shows he knows its a problem.
The Ryan plan is a solution to getting us to balance.
No President can do it alone, but Obama wants to march off the fiscal cliff and he is a lot better.
Apparently they dug it out of a book that I never heard of and which the Obama-media has never bothered to read, share or report on.
I recall the WashPost going into detail over a high school prank but NOT ONCE reporting on any of these seven rather remarkable stories.
the lib-media is puke-worthy.
Just skimming the list, we know that numbers 1 and number 6 are blatant lies.
Ridiculous, obscene lies that are embarassments in their level of lying.
It looks like you almost know a LITTLE bit of Scripture.
The ACTUAL story goes like this:
Matthew 7:15-20
15 Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
16 Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?
17 Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.
18 A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
19 Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
20 Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.
You insult a lot and make accusations.
Do you have any EVIDENCE you'd like to present before the court?
Aren't YOU the demanding one!
HMMMmmm...
I doubt this will happen.
Neither one of the two MAIN presidential candidates are going to be doing much singing to the choir.
The SATBs had their minds made up LONG ago!
What you'll hear until November will be deception, lies, promises, and propaganda from BOTH sides to try to influence the UNDECIDEDs who slither among us.
And you was a witness, that this did not happen? I suppose you will jump for joy if that arrogant pos occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave Gets reelected and finishes the destruction of this great nation
That was a strange response, the stories are false, and rather than ask for what really happened, you launch into a personal attack against the poster.
Do you want the truth about this ridiculous claim of an heroic Mitt saying lives as described in 1 and 6?
It’s not an unreasonable request, is it? What do you propose that we do about it? Even if the answer is nothing, give me an answer.
I don’t like Mormonism any more than you do, but it’s getting fairly tiresome to see you doing nothing but kvetch about it without offering any kind of solution, and for that matter hijacking non-religion threads in order to do so.
So now I want to know what your mind is on this issue. I’m not trying to get your vote, but if you hate Mormonism so much, what is your opinion on what a good Christian ought to do regarding the election?
FALSE—1) Mitt Romney saved the life of a 14 year old girl
This one time effort for a powerful, wealthy fellow Mormon leader and executive has never been done again by Mormon Bishop Romney, it was Mormon insider stuff by the elites, way over the top for a teen girl that went to a rave and stayed with her friends for a couple of days, like so much related to Romney, this reveals a darker, single minded devotion to the Mormon cult.
Mormon Bishop, Robert Gay, the Bain executive is at the top among Mormon leaders, On March 31, 2012, he became a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy.
“But several acquaintances of the teen who knew her well at the time and have not spoken publicly before told The Daily a different story: one of a rebellious adolescent in a moment of high-spirited escapism who hid from her parents in relative safety in an upscale New Jersey town.
And they credited the group of new friends she made during her disappearance, including a boyfriend, as the ones who ultimately encouraged Melissa Gay — daughter of Romney’s colleague at private equity firm Bain Capital — to head home to her panicked family.”
“Did Mitt Romney ‘save’ this girl? No,” said Doug Becker, the then-boyfriend and now a 32-year-old pastor in the same town of Rockaway, N.J. “But I do think what spurred her going home was the kind of coverage it was getting, and I think [Romney] was pretty responsible for that.”
“Another childhood friend, speaking anonymously, was more blunt. “I think the ad is incredibly misleading. Dishonest is the word for it,” the friend said. “She wasn’t saved, she ran away to go to a rave, and got lost and wound up in New Jersey. She paged a friend to come get her.”
Evidently the only teen in America to runaway for a few days, that stirred Mitt’s expensive, and heroic, attentions, just happened to be a wealthy and powerful Mormon leader, and Bain executive.
Make ads creating a Romney mythology, like this?
“”Since 2002, in the early years of Romney’s entrance into public life, three of his campaigns — one gubernatorial and two presidential — have floated the story to demonstrate his crisis management skills and, more importantly, his human side. But each time the basic facts have become more blurred.
During his 2002 gubernatorial bid, for example, a Boston Globe profile of Romney described Melissa as near death, found in Montauk, N.Y., where she was “shivering through detox after a massive dose of ecstasy.” Robert Gay had been told by doctors, according to the story, that his daughter “might not have lived another day.”
Other more recent news stories have even claimed that Melissa was kidnapped. She wasn’t.
The source of these details is unclear, but the spirit of these tellings — that Romney’s know-how rescued a teen who was just hours away from death — has gone uncorrected and unchallenged.
In 2007, in Romney’s first bid for the presidency, his campaign ran a TV ad by the name of “Searched.” In the 30-second spot, sirens wail as newspaper clippings dissolve into ominous skyscraper images and Robert Gay tearfully speaks.
“Mitt’s done a lot of things that are nearly impossible, but for me the most important thing he’s ever done was to help save my daughter,” Gay told prospective voters.
Earlier this year, the pro-Romney PAC “Restore Our Future” ran the spot again under the title “Saved.”””
I read the book this past summer....it was easy to find at the library, right out in front of the new book section.
The media is so corrupt....winning elections will be hell from now on, due in large part to them.
Else, get a life! We are not electing a Pope, we are trying to elect a president. I know that taxes your mental acuity, but that’s what this is about. I guess you can vote for Obama if you really hate Mitt Romney that much. From the way you think, my guess is that you are a closet Marxist anyway!
First things; quite tearing into other freepers over the Romney candidacy. Save the getting personal nastiness (if there be any) for real enemies, not past allies, and/or potential future friends.
Regardless of which way the election goes, we are going to need more conservative firepower. Wasting it in circular firing squads doesn't help much.
Otherwise, I've already given some info on "where to start", or at least the sort of things we should agitate for...though I reckon others might be able to serve up the same or somewhat different, with better detail and organization.
Now as to this;
I’m not trying to get your vote, but if you hate Mormonism so much, what is your opinion on what a good Christian ought to do regarding the election?
I never said "I hate Mormonism" much less "so much".
There is no real need to go about revising and extending MY own comments, thank you. I'd much rather reserve that privilege for myself, if you don't mind too much.
I'm not sure what the future will hold, or how long it will "hold", for that matter.
What does seem plain is that we will need some form of coalition(s) which can exert pressure and influence in an effective way.
Tearing new holes in each others' hides while investigating and discussing the issues, I seriously doubt will help us focus on the facts, and those things we can influence. In the past, the TEA Party made it's presence known. Became hated by many establishment types, lied about and mis-characterized in the press.
Stand by to be opposed like that some more, but keep your cool. It would help if we could somehow put real stories behind that bunch of malcontented voters (that would be us) publicized, to humanize the crowd, showing average but informed citizens (which makes them above average in a way) that are united in the view that we must live within our means as a nation -- or at the very least begin to start taking steps towards doing so.
Energy independence... I already mentioned. It's part of a national security issue, even though I'd prefer the future to be such that it turned out to be much more, basically an economic issue, than not.
Have you ever noticed that each of our last few Democrat presidents dipped into the Strategic Oil Reserve as a token salve for domestic price increases --- but Republican presidents always had to come along behind them and work to refill the dang thing, at prices higher than the DemoDumDUms tapped it at? What part of the word "strategic" do they not understand. Give me few hours alone with any of them in a locked room for a few hours, and I assure you I could get them to see the light.
I do apologize. The post was addressed to Elise; I copied you because you had put your two cents in and I thought you deserved the courtesy to see the response.
And I agree completely, energy independence should be one of the top priorities of the new administration (and if it’s not, we ‘little people’ should force it on them). Boy, would it be nice not to have to depend on dictators to make the country go.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.