ROMNEY: 'Not An Ardent Fan-But I have some friends who are NASCAR team OWNERS."

[kpete]

Asked if taking time to appear at Daytona was an indication of his level of confidence going into Tuesday's primary in Michigan, Romney said it wasn't.

"No, it's a sign of a guy who loves cars," Romney said. "And this has always been a place where American cars have shined. And a long history from Daytona being connected with Detroit, with Detroit cars, and with the spirit of America."

Romney was at Daytona last year and said he also has been to the track in New Hampshire. Does he follow the sport?

"Not as closely as some of the most ardent fans," he said. "But I have some friends who are NASCAR team owners."

more:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/02/26/1068569/-Romney-Crashes-and-Burns-Pandering-at-NASCAR-s-Daytona-500?via=siderec

[pinboy3niner]

1. LOL!

Another classic RMoney tone-deaf gaffe!

[Cali_Democrat]

8. It's interesting. You know his advisers are trying to tell him not to come across as out of touch

They even threw a pair of blue jeans on him. Yet he keeps making gaffe after gaffe.

[pinboy3niner]

12. I think it's like the scorpion story. It's in his nature.

Even in trying as hard as he can to present a false image of himself, he can't help revealing his true self. To impersonate a 'common man' character, you have to understand something about what you're impersonating. He clearly doesn't. Even his 'doing laundry' photo op didn't wash.

[DCKit]

46. That's just 'cause when the rest of us do our laundry....

we're down to our last pair of sweats or shorts and a ratty T-shirt, not the last three-piece suit hanging in our warehouse-sized closet.

[Arugula Latte]

48. He should just put on a top hat, tails and a monocle and embrace his Monopoly Man nature.

Maybe get a fancy little walking stick, too, so he can poke the riff raff as needed.

[Ishoutandscream2]

40. LOL, he really doesn't get it!

Man, he's sooooooo out of touch.

[fishwax]

2. Good gracious. The guy just can't help himself. It's too thoroughly ingrained.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

3. Wow - the robot's programming is jammed on a continuous loop

He has no free will to escape this cycle of self-destruction.

[agentS]

4. How does he keep missing soft balls like this?

All he had to do was say he knew some fans or "owners and fans", and it wouldn't be a problem.

This guy could not hit a beach ball if it was tossed down the middle over the plate!

[pa28]

5. He just can't help himself.

Here is a guy with nothing to prove. Everybody knows he's filthy rich but it seems to me he's overcome with this compulsion to brag about his money anyway.

Whether it's his wife driving a couple of Cadillacs, the problems of owning and staffing many expensive houses or betting 10k on an offhand remark by an opponent Mitt just loves referencing his own wealth.

Oh yeah. I wanted to include the "I like to fire people" but the list was getting too long. Mitt has got to be the most tone deaf politician I've ever seen at the national level.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

11. We need a complete list

He said he was out of work, too. He said that GM should have gone bankrupt. He said banks should have foreclosed on homeowners to shake out the market. He said corporations were people, too. Twice he mentioned his wife owning Cadillacs, the second time in Michigan and the first time in Arizona, AT A FORD DEALERSHIP! I'm sure there are even more than the ones on your list.

[pa28]

15. Good idea. Anybody should feel free to add.

Also the comment about his worry over getting a pink slip.

Another one that stands out his analogy about his sons employment on the presidential campaign trail being somehow like combat service in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Also his story about being a kid while daddy presided over the Detroit golden anniversary despite the fact he hadn't even been born yet! He loves to brag so much he'll combine it with a lie if he has to. Why?

[ecstatic]

25. He also said the banks were scared too (regarding foreclosure and underwater homes)

Romney was standing outside a Fannie Mae-foreclosed home in a struggling neighborhood telling a small crowd why they're having so much trouble. "In this case, it's because of the banks," he explained. "Well, the banks aren't bad people. They're just overwhelmed right now."

During a Monday roundtable with business owners struggling in Florida's hobbled housing market, the former Massachusetts governor told the group that their troubles with banks came because the lenders were worried about staying in business.

"The banks are scared to death, of course," he said. "They're feeling the same thing that you're feeling. And so they just want to pretend that all this is just going to get paid some day."

http://abcnews.go.com/m/story?id=15433619

Of all his gaffes/comments, that one bothered me the most.

[pa28]

27. And that reminded me of the "corporations are people" remark.

If corporations are people I guess banks are people too. Really special people who don't have to pay taxes.

[muriel_volestrangler]

6. The Repub nomination will go to whoever shuts their mouth first

before they make themselves look even more extreme, rich or insanely angry.

[madinmaryland]

7. Romney is just as good a gift to Dems as was Michael Steele!

[madrchsod]

9. he has the WORSE campaign team in modern history...

they are even more clueless than their boss.

i bet his dad is rolling in his grave.

[Initech]

10. You want a guy who is completely out of touch with reality? Look no further than Mitt.

[Yavin4]

13. Is He Secretly A Writer for Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert?

He is just giving them easy material to satirize.

[bayareamike]

14. Jon Stewart's advice pretty much sums it up.

We get it, you're effin' rich. Not like normal rich, either. Like, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY rich.

It's who he is; the guy IS out of touch because, well frankly, he lives in a different America than pretty much EVERY American. Purportedly there are only 9,000 people in the WORLD who are wealthier than Mitt.

[silverweb]

16. Just goes to prove...

[font color="navy" face="Verdana"]There's no cure for doofus!

[Motown_Johnny]

17. The Gaffe assembly line must have added a shift

production is way up

[Dawson Leery]

18. Gaffe after gaffe after gaffe.

Remember, this is from the "A" bench.

[TheKentuckian]

19. What a strange golem Rmoney is

In a way he is the most frightening of the bunch. He is soulless as I can think of and makes the robot from 'Lost in Space" look like Lady Gaga, Ben Franklin, JFK, Joan of Arc, Charles Manson, Audrey Hepurn, and George Clooney wrapped into one.

Add to that his beyond McShame/Poppy/Bob Dole levels of being out of touch and a seeming utter lack of principles and you get a very dangerous and unappealling option.

[ecstatic]

20. Is he embracing his role as Mr. One Percent?

It sure seems like it! Hey, it works for Trump!

[JBoy]

21. I had to check if this was a joke. Talk about clueless.

[gratuitous]

35. Giving him every benefit of the doubt

I'd say it was a joke, and in some ways, actually sort of funny. I realize that for the modern politician, appearing at a NASCAR event is de rigeur. For those who don't give a happy rat's ass about shiny cars whipping around an oval track, there's practically nothing worse than having to feign interest in it, for the sake of impressing voters who care passionately about it. The first part of Romney's response is obviously spot-on (he's not as interested in NASCAR as these devoted fans, who came out in the rain), and the second part is sort of self-deprecating. Put them together, and it's like a Jim Gaffigan joke: You have "fruit," which is good, and "cake," which is great, put them together and you have "fruitcake," which is nasty crap.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

22. I think he'll have a better chance of winning if he just mimes from now on........ What am I saying?

He'll probably find a way of making it look douchey.

[Glimmer of Hope]

23. He is like a gift that keeps on giving!

[BOHICA12]

24. NASCAR is hard for Romney and Santorum - too many left turns! nt

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

26. This guy is so incredibly out of touch. He has absolutely no clue! None at all. But, keep on talking

Mittens. You are screwing yourself. Keep talking!!

[opihimoimoi]

28. His handlers must be cheaply paid.. or, he runs the show himself, kinda Hitleresque, a Bully man

[DefenseLawyer]

29. "I once gave serious thought to buying NASCAR

But once I saw how little capitalized wealth was in its holdings I knew I couldn't leverage it enough to make a profit before sale. But hey, lovely day for a race isn't it? The cars all seem to be the right height."

[No DUplicitous DUpe]

44. That's a DUzy!

You could write for The Daily Show.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

30. "Ardent" fan, "resolute", "severe" conservative

I'm all for having a decent vocabulary but this doesn't sound to me to be the way normal people speak in everyday conversation. It sounds prepared and artificial.

[pinboy3niner]

32. He's incapable of speaking like normal people

Even with campaign staff, advisors, consultants telling him what he needs to do, and with him trying his damnedest, he just doesn't get it. He never will. He's always a square peg trying to fit into a round hole.

[grantcart]

34. I trace this back to the fact that his father was forced out of the Presidential race

(despite being ahead of Nixon by 8 points) because he used a single word, 'brainwashing'.

He has developed a second voice inside his head that is trying to preselect 'impeccable' words so that his world won't come crashing down on him like it did his Father.

My dad died in a scuba diving accident and I have never had any interest in scuba diving.

[aquart]

31. No man should be so rich he has nothing left to buy but his government.

[Bozita]

33. Brighton, MI is where you can get a great deal on grave sites. - Rmoney in Kalamazoo

He said it Friday evening.

Take a look:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002349214

[av8rdave]

36. Just a regular guy, isn't he?

[NICO9000]

37. His discomfort with the "average Joe" is palpable

You don't even want to have a non-caffeinated beverage with this idiot. Even the morons are wary of him.

[Fawke Em]

38. 1 percent tone deaf. eom

[mick063]

39. Yowza

Last edited Mon Feb 27, 2012, 06:52 PM - Edit history (1)

He really "connects" with the 1%.

I bet he gets a vote from every NASCAR team owner.

Chalk up 50 more votes for Romney!

[AllyCat]

41. He just doesn't get it that everytime he tries to look like "one of the little people" he

only magnifies why he hasn't a clue what non-filthy-rich people appreciate and value.

[existentialist]

42. tone deaf?

What do you think?

Maybe just a little?

[freethought]

43. Seriously, could anyone make this stuff up!!?? n/t

[spicegal]

45. Please tell me he did not say that.

Is he really that "tone deaf"?

[Kablooie]

47. He has a hard time speaking because of the huge, stinky foot in his mouth.

[Arugula Latte]

50. The foot is vying for space with the silver spoon that has been in place since birth. nt

[spanone]

49. romney IS the 1%. there couldn't be a better representative of upper crust.

[Octafish]

51. A real man of the people.

I hate chickenshits.

[Raine]

52. IMO it's on purpose for the benefit of his 1% friends

he wouldn't want to have to live down being an ordinary guy when he goes back to that life. Visuals are for the average guy the audio is for his 1% buds.

[bluesbassman]

53. I liked the part where he asked when they got to go out on the track and replace divots.

[ScottLand]

54. Hey, who doesn't have friends who own NASCAR teams?

I'm sure that will resonate with all the regular people, Mitty!