Posted on 11/01/2002 6:50:05 PM PST by Reaganesque
Mitt should be whomping foe - why isn't he?
by Margery Eagan
Thursday, October 31, 2002
Mitt Romney should be whomping Shannon O'Brien.
He so outclassed her Tuesday night. He was even-keeled, commanding, unflappable, in control.
``Let me complete it, and then you can ask me, all right?'' Romney said barely 10 minutes into Tuesday night's debate when - yet again - O'Brien interrupted him mid-sentence. But it wasn't just her interrupting. It was how she did it.
She did it with an omnipresent smirk that was both odd and, to use Romney's much-discussed adjective, ``unbecoming,'' a word maiden-lady aunts used a million years ago.
When was the last time anybody heard ``unbecoming?'' But here's what it means: Beneath you, as in, you are better than that. And O'Brien is supposed to be better than that. She is tough, smart, totally qualified.
She got where she is on her own, not because she's somebody's daughter or widow or wife, like Hillary Rodham Clinton, whom O'Brien brought to town yesterday for a South End cute-kid-read-a-thon and fund-raiser. Although the sight of both on one stage - Hillary and Shannon, like the Doublemint twins - well, if you're not wild about either in the first place, the image just doubled your disdain.
When Shannon O'Brien beat her Democratic opponents this fall, many, including yours truly, saw her as a vindicator of her gender, a redeemer for the endlessly bungling Jane Swift. If O'Brien wins Tuesday, she may be. I'm ready. I'm rooting, sort of. Let's concede: It's still so much harder to run for office as a woman. There's so much more to nitpick.
But much enthusiasm is gone. Looking at Shannon O'Brien Tuesday, you felt this certain small-time, petty thing, a Beacon Hill aftertaste. You felt the tension of payroll patriots in big tough towns from Fall River to Worcester and Holyoke.
They'll be calling voters for Shannon tonight. On Tuesday, they'll be driving voters to polls. And you know what they look like from a thousand ``times'' at Jimmy's or Pier 4 or - the Holy of Holies of Boston political hoedowns - the annual St. Patrick's Day breakfast. Everybody's in scruffy wing tips and slightly frayed Milton's sports coats, the women a bit heavy on polyester. Shannon's people.
Democratic machines are, of course, a big reason why Romney is not whomping Shannon O'Brien. ``GOP candidates don't win here unless Democrats drive votes to them,'' says ex-state Senator George Bachrach, a Democrat.
The combustible John Silber drove votes to William F. Weld. The insular Scott Harshbarger, widely disliked within his own party, drove votes to lunch bucket Paul Cellucci. But cautious and scripted O'Brien has driven no votes to Romney and is likely, Bachrach said, ``to hold the suburban soccer moms who went to Weld.''
And let's not forget how inviting Weld made Democrats' desertions, at least at first. He was amused. So were we. Which brings us to the second reason why Romney - Olympic hero, corporate titan, beautifully sculpted gentleman - is not whomping the scrappy street fighter with the no-longer-hidden nasty streak. You can't warm up to the guy.
He's neither goofy like Weld, nor a brusque, burly, immovable force like Tom Menino, nor full of guile and blarney like the irritating but irrepressible Tom Finneran. Romney is cream of wheat. He's cardboard. He fits the now cliched but no less apt description of him: the Stepford Candidate.
People who know him say he's a regular-guy jokester in real life. Let's just say he disguises it too well. People who know him say it's not fair: He's a businessman taking a tempered Harvard Business School approach, but he's being judged by the the standards of a back-slapping pol. Unfortunately for Romney, he needs to be a pol now.
There are certain candidates voters fall in love with. One of them is John McCain, who campaigned with Romney yesterday. Half the nation has swooned over him. So has writer Peggy Noonan, once describing him as a bad-boy flyboy who'd pick up his date in an old jalopy, take her dancing in some seedy joint, ply her and himself with too many rum and Cokes and leave everyone hung over in the morning. How ``Right Stuff'' American. But when Romney's ``love story'' ads tried to create a little ``bad boy'' buzz for Mitt, they bombed.
Maybe Mitt Romney will win Tuesday. But here's one more reason why he'll never whomp O'Brien: Maybe in Utah. Maybe someplace else. But ``gee whiz'' Boy Scouts just don't have much appeal around here.
SPINTERPRETOR -> D*mocrats don't ever think before they vote...
Actually he is. I worked on his Senate campaign and during one meeting his Campaign Manager referred to Mitt as a person who is so squeaky clean that he has other people swear for him. Everyone laughed and Mitt turned to his assistant and said "Tom, tell him!" His family is just as cool. Frankly, MA doesn't deserve him.
Her campaign manager was calling up media outlets to say that it a joke and she does not have a tattoo.
I wonder when she got it? I wonder if its a rose, shammrock, "Billy was here", "Hillary was here", "Property of Hell's Angels", or "HIV+ or Bust"?
Did she take advantage of that federally funded tattoo removal program?
Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), Article 133, Conduct Unbecoming an Officer.
Of course, most Democrat politicians have no idea what the UCMJ is. Hard to find out when you are burning your draft card.
Polybius, when I heard that BS press statement(Crafted with Senator Clintons guidance.), I lost my lunch. My sister said the same thing as you, quoting the UCMJ and I was glad she knows what is going on.
The fact that he called her "Unbecoming" is a gender issue and made the front pages of the Mass Media made me sick.
The Democratic party has sunk so low that I feel they can never be redeemed. The fact that people CARE about this makes me sad. It means the Mass Electorate is a brain dead group of followers that can not distinguish reality from fantasy.
How could we ever imagine such garbage would actually make it to the FRONT PAGE!!!
JUst when I think Massachusetts can sink no lower, we have this. I am almost to the point of giving up...
I have my finances ready and I am set to move to NH in a moments notice. Mass HAD one good taxpayer in Arioch7, and they will replace me with 5 illegal immigrants that need subsidization.
NH is already suffering from the Moronic Human Plague. The idiots that move to NH to avoid Mass taxes and then create the same situation. FOOLS!!!
As for the "So-Called" Conservatives that would snub Sununuu(Whatever!) because Bob Smith lost. I hate you!!! They would actually let NH elect the first Democratic Senator in history represent NH because of hurt feelings!!!!
Talk about Conservative principles all they want but the bottom line is SHAHEEN! Shame on ALL of the Smith Supporters... ARE YOU INSANE?
Yeah, a moderate beat you, but do you want SHAHEEN in there!?!?!? Morons...
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