How is Crate-gate going to impact Mitt in the general election?

[yellowcanine]

This Seamus on the roof story seems to have real legs, at least on the internet. There is a web site and a Face Book page. At the least it is inspiring a lot of ridicule. Will Mitt address it it some point? What can he possibly say?

[bluestateguy]

1. An Obama endorsement by PETA and the Humane Society

nt

[yellowcanine]

2. I think this story has legs because it fits with the notion that Mitt is cold and calculating with

no real empathy for his fellow humans, let alone creatures.

[SheilaT]

3. Almost not at all.`

The attention span of most people is very short. The attention span of the media is extremely short. This story probably has had its run.

[montanacowboy]

4. My theory is Mitt got rid of the dog when they got to Canada

and told the kids he ran away

The dog sure as hell never made the return trip

I would bet money that he did the dog in somehow

He has gill slits under his shirt collar, this sonofabitch is not human

And if you watched Lawrence tonight, David Cay Johnston had Larry apoplexic about how Mitt never paid taxes on the $1 mil he gave his "non military serving sons"

I sure as hell hate Gingrich but this guy is in a special place all by himself, loathsome slimy smarmy mofo

[Ruby the Liberal]

9. Wait - what?

The dog never made it back home with them?

I have known about the abuse since the 2008 primaries, but this is the first I heard of this.

[montanacowboy]

12. The kids told a reporter

that the dog had run away when they got to Canada

[Ruby the Liberal]

13. Off to the googles...

This explains much. Hopefully that pup found a family that treated him like family.

[jberryhill]

14. Report back... This is the first I'd heard that too

[Ruby the Liberal]

15. Its bullshit.

From 2007 - he sent the inconvenient pup to live with his sister in California.

http://www.boston.com/news/politics/politicalintelligence/2007/07/introducing_sea.html

[Ruby the Liberal]

16. Link?

[jberryhill]

20. Did Merle Haggard say it on the radio?

Where did you hear this bullshit?

[Mira]

17. Well said. Took the words right out of my mouth.

And you know you have a point about how in the heck did the dog come back home?

[gopiscrap]

5. It does one of two things

it either makes him look like a dumbass or an inhumne cold hearted son of a bitch!

[jberryhill]

6. Some dumbshit thing he did 25 years ago?

The daily dose of Mitt's dog-on-the-roof stuff reminds me of the "happy giddy dance" over McCain's wife's drug diversion.

People take trips on planes with their dogs crated in airplane cargo holds every day. What do they think it is like in there for the dog? Do they think it's warm and lighted? That the dogs get meal service and pillows?

There are places where seeing a dog in the bed of a pickup truck is a daily thing.

Yes, it was a stupid thing. Yes, the dog was distressed. I'd never do a thing like that to my dog.

But, really, every day for 279 days we are going to be on about 25 years ago he put a dog crate on his roof?

Tell me what you think of this guy. A couple of months ago, I was booked on a flight to Frankfurt. In the waiting area, I met a soldier who was deploying to Germany along with his wife. They had two dogs, a pair of golden retrievers, and they found it was less expensive to ship the dogs via a cargo carrier that was scheduled to get in after our flight, so they could pick up the dogs on arrival. Our flight was maintenance delayed and ended up cancelled. It was a good six hours after our scheduled departure before we took off. So, by the time we got to Germany, these two dogs had been crated, checked in long before departure, flown cargo to Europe, and sitting in their crates for an additional six hours in the cargo area of the Frankfurt Airport - one of the world's busiest. They'd been in those crates for at least 16 hours away from anyone they knew, in the dark and cold, changing pressure, turbulence, take off, landing, and so on.

It had to be a hell of an ordeal. Was it abuse?

[montanacowboy]

7. Sorry but this bastard wants to be the President of the US

and animal cruelty just does not fuckin cut it

[jberryhill]

10. So the guy I met was torturing his dog?

[yellowcanine]

8. It is not the old story per se. It is that it connects with his image as a cold and heartless

schmuck who sees nothing wrong with doing whatever is most convenient for him even if it means putting a helpless dog in distress.

[Ruby the Liberal]

18. What a horrific story.

Add to that certain country quarantine limitations, and it can be a nightmare moving abroad with animals. Even worse, if they do let you in, good luck getting back into the US with them. The latter happened to friends of mine who moved temporarily to Costa Rica. Dog was welcome in, but not so much back.

I'll do you one better. ElAl flights will not allow an animal to travel with a deceased body due to Jewish law, so if you are taking an animal to Israel, you are at the mercy of whether or not a body is being shipped for burial. As is Jewish custom, bodies are to be buried within 24 hours of death, so that can be a real roulette wheel, not knowing if your animal is even on the plane with you or in a cage back at JFK or Newark based on what last minute 'cargo' was aboard.

[pa28]

11. People can relate to and understand this story more than Mitt's financial malfeasance.

The story got quite a bit of play in SC and I believe it cut into him temporarily. Do you really want somebody who would treat a dog that way to be sending kids to war, managing Social Security and Medicare cuts or writing tax and trade policy?

In every one of those cases, Republican or Democrat people who work for a living are going to see themselves as poor old Seamus in his "airtight" kennel with Romney getting out of the car every once in a while for a cursory hosedown.

Yeah, the episode tells an important story about this man.

[Mira]

19. Well said. With his money

he could have hired a car and a driver to take the dog to Canada.