07.13.12
The Oligarch’s Hobby
Who’s Mitt Romney think he is? The Marquess of Tavistock? Well, yes, that’s exactly who he thinks he is.
Recall all the guff Democrats take for being snobs, for not embracing stock car racking with enough fervor, for being prissy and fussy, like the hated French or all those fags in England. It’s a class thing, showing a lack of authenticity. They, we, are not salt of the earth.
And Mitt Romney’s family ‘sport’ is something the average Tea Party voter could easily watch on the giant flatscreen while crushing an emptied Budweiser can in his right hand.
From the New York Times, a month ago:
GLADSTONE, N.J. — Mitt Romney and his wife, Ann, who plan to attend the opening of the Olympic Games in London this summer, now have a personal rooting interest in the event.
Jan Ebeling, Mrs. Romney’s longtime riding tutor, and his horse Rafalca, co-owned by Mrs. Romney, earned a berth on the United States Olympic dressage team on Saturday.
Mr. Ebeling, 53, who has spent a decade knocking on the door of top international competition, made his first Olympic team with a third-place finish here at the United States Equestrian Team Foundation headquarters, a century-old stable built by the financier James Cox Brady to adjoin his 64-room mansion.
While Mr. Romney was barnstorming on a bus tour of swing states, Mrs. Romney watched from a V.I.P. tent as Mr. Ebeling executed a smooth “test??? of flying changes, in which Rafalca seemed to skip down the arena, and piaffes, an in-place trot …
As millions tune in to the Olympics in prime time this summer, just before Mr. Romney will be reintroducing himself to the nation at the Republican convention, viewers are likely to see “up close and personal??? segments on NBC about the Romneys and dressage, a sport of six-figure horses and $1,000 saddles. The Romneys declared a loss of $77,000 on their 2010 tax returns for the share in the care and feeding of Rafalca, which Mrs. Romney owns with Mr. Ebeling’s wife, Amy, and a family friend, Beth Meyers.
Remember, ithe horse does not share the nature of its owners. A horse does not choose for whom he trots. I like horses.
Yes, yes, you’re right. A lot of this is about class warfare and hating on the wealthy. Gotta problem with it? What’re you, some kinda commie-loving Euro-homo? I bet you don’t like pig’s feet or blind robbins.
Worth a few laughs, Matt Taibbi’s mugging description of Mitt Romney at Rolling Stone:
Romney can’t even be mean with any honesty. Even when he’s pandering to viciousness, ignorance and racism, it comes across like a scaly calculation. A guy who feels like he has to take a dump on the N.A.A.C.P. in Houston in order to connect with frustrated white yahoos everywhere else is a guy who has absolutely no social instincts at all. Someone like Jesse Helms at least had a genuine emotional connection with his crazy-mean-stupid audiences …
[Mitt Romney] doesn’t buzz with anything. His vision of humanity is just a million tons of meat floating around in a sea of base calculations. He’s like a teenager who stays up all night thinking of a way to impress the prom queen, and what he comes up with is kicking a kid in a wheelchair. Instincts like those are probably what made him a great leveraged buyout specialist, but in a public figure? Man, is he a disaster. It’s really incredible theater, watching the Republicans talk themselves into this guy.