Mitt Romney’s five sons — a staple on their dad’s campaign trail — made perhaps their biggest stop yet: on Conan O’Brien’s TBS show.
Wearing helpful name tags, Tagg, Matt, Josh, Ben and Craig Romney–the closest thing the GOP has to a boy band–sat Wednesday for an interview with O’Brien, who asked how they felt about their father’s 2012 White House run and the prospect of a President Mitt Romney.
“We’re nervous about it,” Josh Romney–the Justin Timberlake of the group–said. “It’s one of those things, our lives are pretty good as they are, and this is one of those things that it’s good for the country for my dad to run, but it’s not necessarily good for us. So we’re going to keep our lives as normal and as consistent as they can possibly be over the next few years.”
I don’t blame the Romney family. Why would anyone want to dangle their family out there for everyone to take a pot shot at? I don’t understand it. They have a good life, a much more privileged life than most of us have. Why mess it up? What is it that makes people run for office?
Politics is hideously nasty. One only has to look around at local blogs to see the unnecessary nastiness directed at those some perceive as political enemies. There is no gentlemanly behavior, or limits to things some people won’t hurl at others nowadays. People are mimicked over their religion, their appearance, their ideas, even those that others have distorted. Yet, people continue to moan and groan, bitch and complain about the quality of those running. Good grief. No wonder. I simply cannot imagine why decent people want to put themselves and their families out there to be the public punching bag.
As Americans we are going to have to raise the bar on our public discourse. It is unacceptable to say some of the things I have have heard about people who are running for office. References to condoms, suicides, and asking someone’s church to deny a candidate communion is totally unacceptable and crosses the line of decency.
Americans are a decent people whose country was founded on religious freedoms. Yet the airwaves and Internet have been filled with false accusations of Obama being a Muslim (Muslims are people too) and nasty little jokes about Mitt Romney being Mormon. The people sending those joke are in a real pickle. [stage whisper] He’s their candidate and they don’t like it that he is a Mormon. That’s too bad. Why would anyone care.?
These examples are just the tip of the iceberg. Americans just need to insist on the Golden Rule being applied in the political arena. We would really know a lot more important things about our candidates if we did.
Michael Steel and Lenny Davis have issued a bipartisan statement calling for less negativity and more emphasis on ideas. I agree with their joint statement.
Mudslinging has always been a part of politics. People may dislike attack ads but they work.
But should they work? I expect there have been peaks and valleys in how we treat people running for office and who are in office. Most old timers in politics would agree with me that things have gotten horrible the past 20 years.
Things are much more negative than when I was younger….not just negative but nasty.
“But should they work?”
They work because they appeal to human emotion and how our brains work.. To change the culture of politics you’d need to re-engineer us as people. Think of beer commercials. Have they really changed that much? Show cold beer, guys having fun and boobs. SOLD!
Hell as long as they ain’t throwing snow balls at Santa I think anything else is pretty fair game and tame.
Not really. Don’t accept unacceptable behavior as part of DNA.
Much of it is part of low, lax standards of behavior and decorum.
Looking at Romeny’s boys. Anyone who raises 5 boys has to have something going for them.
Geez. You can fake a basketball team with 5 boys.
Elect me dictator and I’ll solve all of your problems. Send me all of your money and I will send back to you what you need. I know what’s best! A chicken in every driveway and pot in every car!
What do you think? Does my platform need tweaking?
Does anyone know whether any of he five Romney “boys” is doing
some kind of so called “good deeds”. You know, like the Peace Corps, military,
Americorps or the like?
(he two years of spreading the faith don’t count)
@punchak
Why don’t the years of Mormon mission count? Because it’s not something you believe in? When did you get the position of determining what does and does not count as public service?
I’m not a Mormon largely because I studied what they believe and it’s not for me. I’m a mainstream, perhaps boring, member of a Protestant denomination. However, I admire the commitment Mormons make to their faith. How many other people would give up two years of their life, often to live in some really nasty places in the world?
Military, Peace Corp, AmeriCorps are all worthy ways of service to something someone believes in beyond themselves. But service to one’s faith whether it’s Mormonism, or any other religion is just as worthy. We all have the right to determine what kind of service we want to do. No one should arbitrarily anoint themselves as judge of what does and does not count.
@Need to Know
No, what I believe in has nothing to do with my opinion. I just can’t see comparing spreading one’s beliefs, no matter what the terrible conditions are,
to actually doing service in the military, Peace Corps or AmeriCorps. Heck, I admire those young guys too (am I wrong in believeing that Mormon women don’t go on missions?). They come neatly dressed in white shirts, black trousers and black ties, sometimes by cike, sometimes on foot. BUT, they are doing themission for their own good, so as to keep their standing within the church .
I was wondering whether any of the “boys” were involved in any
not-for-profit, so called do-good, enterprise.
As for nasty places, Mitt Romney
I didn’t realize that Mormon missions replaced military service. I don’t think they did when there was a draft. That would certainly be tearing down the wall between church and state.
Some girls do go on missions but not to areas considered unsafe. It isn’t particularly common. There is a reason those guys travel in 2’s.
I don’t like anyone disturbing me to sell their religion. I am generally very grouchy about it.
It isn’t like the peace corp where the missionaries go work in an area. Mostly they are pretty much selling religion rather than providing service to the area. Not criticizing them, just stating a fact. Not saying that some don’t go above and beyond but it really isn’t a service mission as much as it is an evangelical mission.
It’s not a public service.
Mormon missionaries are required to do at least 4 hours a week of service in the communities in which they are assigned over the 2 years. 200 hours per year times 50000 missionaries for the LDS church throughout the world adds up to a lot of public service.
Thanks for the clarification, Observer. Does it change from location to location? Some areas are much needier than others. My resources are no longer local so I have to email them on Facebook. I have had very little experience with actual missionaries. My next door neighbors told the missionaries who always stopped by their house to save their time…that we were hopeless cases! Actually, the best missionaries were some of the kids in that family who I am still in touch with. They taught me a lot about their religion without it being a knock on the door–just in passing over the 15 years or so we were neighbors. I think you will find most of what I say about Mormons is very positive.
To many people, spreading their faith is just as or more important public service as anything the Peace Corps or any other organization does. I appreciate Observer’s additional information on what the Mormon church does. No one has the right to say that this service or that service is any more or less worthy than another. We each have a right to chose for ourselves.
As I wrote above, I am not a Mormon. I simply can’t agree with a great deal of what they believe and I must be intellectually honest with myself. However, I do respect and admire their commitment and service, even if it’s not something I would do myself.
Actually, I would have problems belonging to any group that wanted to take away my Kentucky Bourbon 🙂
I do think their is a difference in the peace corp and similar programs and missionary work. Not saying better or worse, just different. Different objectives.
I don’t make general statements about faith spreading. It all depends…..
I would say that the Mormon Church’s most visible positive attribute in the area is that they put their money where their mouth is and provide a great deal for their kids to do. I know that the kids are somewhat restricted about some secular things. The Church provides sports and social events for kids. They didn’t just say “don’t do this abnd don’t do that.” They provided opportunities for lots of social life, dances, scouts, sports and let other kids come also. My kids did a lot of things with their Mormon friends while they were growing up. I always knew they were being chaperoned.
If their was any proselytizing, it didn’t take on the heathen Howler gang. Actually, the Howlers had their own church, just not anywhere near as structured.