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Tag: Ann Romney

  • Nikki Haley “Hurt” by Laughter Over Opponent’s Accidental “Whore” Comment

    In what some are already referring to as “Whoregate”. Nikki Haley, governor of South Carolina, was accidentally called a whore by her opponent in the current race to keep her job.

    Vincent Sheheen, whom Haley defeated last election, and looks like she will handily beat in Red State South Carolina this time, was speaking at a campaign event.

    “We’re going to win this race because we want it more,” Sheheen said to the assembled crowd of mostly Democrats. “We want it more and all we have to do is remind the people of South Carolina about the junk that has gone on the last four years. Remind them that we have a governor who has vetoed over $100 million in public education funding. She vetoed our public school teachers’ pay raises the same year she gave her own staff 25 percent pay increases.”

    At this point, Sheheen got tongue-tied and made his infamous battle cry:

    “That is the worst kind of politics,” Sheheen continued. “And we are gonna escort whore out the door.”

    The crowd burst into laughter. Sheheen quickly corrected himself, saying, “… escort her out the door.”

    Sheheen and the audience both continued to chuckle briefly. Whether it was at Sheheen’s flub or at Haley was the question.

    Sheheen asked the crowd to settle down, “Think about it, y’all,” he said, seeming to want to move along with his points. “Alright, calm down out there.”

    But it was Sheheen’s next sentence that a lot of people took issue with.

    “Oh no, listen, you gotta tell the truth,” Sheheen said. “Think about it, we’ve got a governor who’s blocking 11 billion dollars of our own Medicaid tax money. That’s our money!”

    Sheheen later explained his gaffe in an interview with a Charleston radio station.

    “Sometimes when you’re speaking five to ten times a day, your words get a little bit garbled,” Sheheen said. “Uh. When they get garbled, and it does happen to me – I go back and say exactly what I meant, and you heard in that clip that I meant ‘her’ – h.e.r.”

    “I can promise you I don’t use that word, the word that you people are claiming that I used,” Sheheen continued. “I don’t use it in private, I don’t use it in public — but if anybody heard wrong, and certainly my words were garbled, then you know I apologize. Because I don’t want to send that message to anybody.”

    Ann Romney, wife of failed presidential candidate Mitt Romney, chimed in about the scandal.

    “When I first heard about it, it hit me right in my gut,” Romney said. “My nerve endings went haywire. It’s so upsetting when you know someone can say something like that about a woman, and not have any kind of reaction. It’s so unacceptable.”

    “You get so sick of saying there is bias out there,” Romney continued, “but if a Republican had said this, it would be blowing up in their face like nobody’s business.”

    Nikki Haley herself concurred with Romney.

    “[W]hether it was a gaffe or not, I really don’t care. The laughing afterwards was a kick in the gut. The comment that ‘sometimes you’ve gotta tell the truth,’ that was tough.”

    “I thought that Ann Romney’s comments were appropriate,” Haley continued. “There’s no place in South Carolina for comments or laughter – when it comes to things like that.”

    The “you gotta tell the truth” line has been characterized by some as meaning “I was only telling the truth about Nikki Haley being a whore.” It is worth noting that Sheheen did not say, “Sometimes you gotta tell the truth.” It may seem like a minor difference, but it colors his statement a particular way.

    Nikki Haley has been the accused of multiple affairs in the past, including direct claims by men who say they had relationships with her, some of whom are actually Haley supporters, but were concerned that her political opponents would dig up the affair.

    Whether or not people believe Sheheen was actually calling Haley a whore, or even continued to ride the comment for play after he mistakenly said it, seems to depend on which political party they vote for.

  • Ann Romney Blames Media For Election Loss

    Ann Romney Blames Media For Election Loss

    Though blaming the media and labeling it “liberal” is a common refrain for conservatives in the U.S., hearing the accusation come from a woman who could have been First Lady shows just how divisive political media in the country has become.

    During a Fox News interview with Chris Wallace this weekend, Ann Romney, wife of former presidential candidate Mitt Romney, stated that she is “happy to blame the media” for not portraying her husband accurately.

    “Anytime you’re running for office you always think that you’re being portrayed unfairly,” said Ann Romney. “We, of course on our side believe that there is more bias in favor of the other side. I think…that’s a pretty universally felt opinion.”

    It’s an odd accusation, given that much of the media reported on the 2012 presidential election, right up until the end, as if it were a close race. Many Republicans who believed Romney had a shot at the White House were blindsided by President Obama’s solid victory on election night. In hindsight, the most accurate predictions of the election, such as Nate Silver‘s 538 blog, showed that Romney never had much of a chance.

    Ann Romney also accused both the media and her husband’s campaign for concealing her husband’s true personality.

    “He really is a selfless person that really truly cared about the American people,” said Ann Romney. “He truly cares about making a difference and about helping others. And for him to be portrayed in a very negative light…was very hard,”

    (Image via Mitt Romney’s Facebook Page)

  • Ann Romney: “DWTS” In Her Future?

    Ann Romney has been offered a coveted spot on the celebrity competition “Dancing With The Stars”, and while she spent some time with producers trying to hash out the details, she ultimately decided it’s not for her.

    Now that husband Mitt isn’t in the spotlight much anymore, it would be the perfect time for Ann to take on a little project of her own, but her reps say an agreement couldn’t be reached. No further details were made available. Of course, with today’s news comes many suggestions on Twitter as to who “DWTS” should approach for their next season.

  • Romney Costco List Reveals Mitt Is A Romantic

    Ann Romney appeared on the “Rachel Ray Show” yesterday and revealed a somewhat surprising secret: she shops at Costco.

    Romney says that with five sons–who all have families–mealtimes at their home can get expensive. She turns to the bulk foods store to feed 30 people for under $150, with meals that include rotisserie chicken and frozen, pre-made desserts. The show sent a camera crew with Romney to document one such shopping trip as she shared her money-saving secrets, but the real dish came out when she spoke about her husband and how her family dealt with her illnesses–multiple sclerosis and breast cancer.

    “When I was first diagnosed with MS and my husband was taking care of me, he discovered rotisserie chicken,” Romney said, adding that he said, “I don’t care if we eat cereal and toast the rest of my life, as long as we’re together.”

    Ann spoke a bit about how important smart eating and exercise are for her to maintain her health, but she also revealed some more personal tidbits about her married life.

    “He is a huge romantic. He’s very thoughtful. I am number one in his life always. I know the kids know that they are important in his life, too, but I am the center of his universe. He’s amazing that way. He’s very romantic,” she said.

  • Ann Romney Won the Night, According to Twitter

    After a short delay due to Hurricane Isaac in the Gulf, the 2012 Republican National Convention had its first true night of activities on Tuesday. Some of the high-profile speakers included House Speaker John Boehner, former candidate Rick Santorum, and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie as the headliner.

    But it was Mitt Romney’s wife Ann’s speech that seems to have made the biggest impact – if you go by the response of the Twitterverse.

    Twitter is saying that the highest tweets per minute spike of the entire night of speeches came right after Ann Romney’s speech, when presumptive candidate Mitt Romney joined her on stage for a few quick kisses. They say that tweets hit 6.195 per minute.

    Plus, Ann Romney made a huge jump in an metric called the Twitter Political Index – from a score of 45 to 83, which is the biggest increase in TPI of any last night’s speakers.

    Twitter launched their Political Index earlier this month with the help of analytics firms and polling firms. The index judges the sentiments in tweets that mention Romney or Obama (originally), to determine how positive their mentions are. It appears that Twitter has expanded their indexing to auxiliary political figures.

    For comparison, Mitt Romney has only gained 2 point in the Political Index since yesterday (Obama’s gained 1).

    Gov. Christie’s keynote speech wasn’t far behind when it came to spikes in tweets per minute. When he gave his line about a “second American century,” TPM shot up to 6,079.

    Twitter also notes the Rick Santorum’s speech garnered a lot of jokes about his abundant use of the word “hands.”

  • Ann Romney: Our Dog Loved Riding On The Car Roof

    In the past few years, now former Presidential candidate Rick Santorum’s last name became something else. You’ve probably read dozens of pieces on Santorum’s “Google problem,” so I’ll spare you most of the sticky details. In short, anti-Santorum activists were able to push a certain site called spreadingsantorum.com to the top of Google search results for his last name. That site redefined the word “Santorum” as a rather unsavory sexual term.

    So every time anyone search “Santorum” on Google (and other engines), they were treated with a graphic neologism. His problem has seemingly been mitigated in recent weeks, as that particular search result has been pushed down the page.

    That issue received a lot of attention during the campaign, but few people know that frontrunner (and future nominee) Mitt Romney had a similar (albeit less serious) Google problem of his own.

    Just a couple of months ago, anyone who searched “Romney” in Google would see a result near the top for the site spreadingromney.com. That site redefined the candidate’s last name into a verb meaning “To defecate in terror.” Let’s use that in a sentence, shall we?

    “Dude, I woke up and thought I saw a ghost – I almost Romneyed all over myself.”

    All of this stemmed from a story that Mitt Romney probably regrets telling. Meant as a humorous anecdote, it became the focus of the campaign back in January.

    Romney detailed one fateful road trip where Seamus, his now-deceased Irish setter got a bad case of diarrhea and made quite the mess all over the car. Not the inside of the car, mind you – the outside. That’s because Seamus was tied to the roof of the car.

    Sure, he was secure and in an open-air crate, but you can understand why some people were left a little uneasy by the story. It’s odd to a large portion of the population to strap your dog to the roof on a car trip. As you would expect, he caught a lot of flak for this – the neologism search result probably the least of it. But, of course, the news cycle spins and all is forgotten.

    Until it’s brought up again on the national stage.

    In a recent interview with ABC’s Diane Sawyer, Mitt’s wife Ann Romney was asked about the Seamus incident. Here’s the conversation, courtesy of ABC:

    DIANE SAWYER: As we move away from this primary campaign into the next phase– again, on Yahoo, we got two questions most often, first about Seamus– which as you know is out there forever– would you do it again?

    MITT ROMNEY: Certainly not with the attention it’s received.

    DIANE SAWYER: You said it was the most wounding thing in the campaign–

    ANN ROMNEY: It’s crazy.

    DIANE SAWYER:–so far.

    ANN ROMNEY: The dog loved it. The dog was, like–

    DIANE SAWYER: But the dog got sick, right?

    ANN ROMNEY: Once, he– we traveled all the time and he– he ate the turkey on the counter. I mean, he had the runs. But– he would see that crate and, you know, he would, like, go crazy because he was going with us on vacation. It was to me a kinder thing to bring him along than to leave him in the kennel for t– in– in– in a kennel for two weeks, so.

    Crazy because he was excited? Or scared sh*tless? You be the judge.

    I can see the campaign ads now: Barack Obama – loves dogs, puts his on the White House Christmas card. Mitt Romney – thinks his dog loves being tied to the roof of a car.

    Somehow, in this crazy season of politics, dog-oriented ads don’t even seem like a stretch.

    [Image Courtesy]

  • Ann Romney Versus Hilary Rosen

    Ann Romney Versus Hilary Rosen

    Obama and DNC advisor Hilary Rosen is under fire after she said “Mitt Romney seems a little old fashioned,” “Doesn’t view women as equals,” and highlighted that Ann Romney “Never worked a day in her life.”

    Ann Romney made an appearance on “America’s Newsroom” and said that when she first heard Rosen’s statements she wished she could have seen how difficult it could be to raise her five sons. She went on to explain that being a mother was her “career choice” and that being a mother and working was also a choice.

    She also told viewers that Mitt said being a stay-at-home mom was a “forever job that would give her forever happiness” and was a more important job than any temporary assignment that he was working on.

    Hilary Rosen responded to Ann’s emphasis on choices in women’s life by saying that this is not about Ann Romney or women of means like myself:

    “This is about the waitress at a diner at some place in Nevada who has two kids — whose daycare funding is being cut off because of the Romney/Ryan budget and she doesn’t know what to do” … “it’s not about whether women of means can afford to make a choice to stay at home and raise kids. Most women — let’s face it — don’t have that choice.”

    Ann Romney reacted to this by saying that she knows what it is to struggle and maintained that her husband admires and listens to women.

    But how does that directly respond to how Mitt will help women overcome adverse economic conditions?

    According to the Huffington Post, “The plan, proposed by Rep. Paul Ryan who chairs the House Budget Committee, would eliminate slots for about 200,000 children in 2014, according to an analysis by the National Education Association. Over the next decade, the NEA estimates, more than two million children would lose opportunities to attend Head Start centers as a result of the cuts.”

    President Obama criticized Mitt Romney and mocked House Republicans for creating a “laughable” budget that “makes the Contract With America look like the New Deal.” He went on to say that “It’s nothing but thinly veiled Social Darwinism,” … “It’s antithetical to our entire history as a land of opportunity and upward mobility for everyone who’s willing to work hard for it, a place where prosperity doesn’t trickle down from the top, but grows outward from the heart of the middle class.”

    Do you think that Rosen deserves the backlash?