Tag Archives: Mitt Rmoney

“We’re stupid, but we’re not dumb” Senator John McCain said in explaining why Republicans voted for an extension of the payroll tax cut.  He added “Some of us are downright moronic, a few are mentally deficient, a significant number of Republicans are bonkers, quite a few are not

Trees in Michigan, in February

playing with a full deck and a couple of us are senile.”

O.K., the 2nd sentence I made up, that was a joke.  But he really said “We’re stupid, but we’re not dumb.”  This is like saying “I’m not tired, I’m just worn out” or “I’m not angry, I’m just pissed off.”  It’s  sort of the political equivalent of “I love you, but I’m not in love with you.”  What the hell does that even mean?

In order for McCain’s statement to make any sense at all, you have to either change the meaning of the word stupid or the word dumb, because they are about as close to pure synonyms as you can get.

The problem is, he wasn’t really even trying to make sense.  He was just trying to say something that sounded nice, that wouldn’t alienate voters or commit him to anything.  Another example of political garbagespeak spilled from the mouth of Mitt Romney a couple of days ago.  “I love being in Michigan,” he said. “Everything seems right here. You know, I come back to Michigan; the trees are the right height. The grass is the right color for this time of year, kind of a brownish-greenish sort of thing. It just feels right.”

I get what he’s trying to say, I really do, and I’m sure Michigan’s a lovely place, (Hemingway loved it) but “the trees are the right height???”  Seriously, Mitt, are they taller or shorter than the trees in Massachusetts?  Do you have some objection to the California redwoods?

The right height for what?  A tree house? Climbing?  Swinging from the branches?  Picking fruit?

It was just an absolutely meaningless statement, designed to sound pleasant enough without actually saying anything at all about issues or policy, because he’s learned that whenever he opens his mouth to say something political, he gets attacked.  He can’t deal with the attacks because he is an empty suit, a paper tiger, a man with more money than ideas and no core convictions whatsoever.

So, he talks about trees.  Everybody likes trees, right?