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Manhattan Diary by Cahir O'Doherty

Ann Romney feels your pain but doesn't share it

Posted on Wednesday, September 12, 2012 at 09:34 AM

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Mitt & Ann Romney

Ann Romney wants you to know that she feels your pain. She may not personally share it, because she's richer than Croesus, but she sees, oh she sees.

'I know that people are suffering right now,' she told NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday. 'And for people to think that we don’t have empathy just because we’re not suffering like they’re suffering is ridiculous. And our struggles have not been financial, but they’ve been with health and with difficulties in different things in life.

'And one thing that I, again, like to remind people is that — multiple sclerosis has been my teacher. It has been at times a cruel teacher. But it has also been a great gift in my life because of what it has done, it has taught me to be more compassionate and caring for others that are suffering.'

I'm not sure who she's trying to convince here? Me, you, herself? Perhaps she was moved to talk to her house cleaners? Who will ever know? If there is one thing we have learned about the Romneys, it's that they like to keep the details of their lives under wraps.

Ann's compassion, of course, doesn't extend to securing legal protections for the children of gay families. They can take a number. And she won't be drawn on women's reproductive issues, because that's not what this election is about, she says.

On Sunday she claimed her husband is being 'demonized' for being 'heartless.' I don't know about that but the fact is he is being evasive, apparently believing that furnishing tax returns are for the little people, not presidential candidates.

I'd suggest that anyone who thinks that 'corporations are people' is having some issues with their own humanity. I mean to say, how can a man that makes a $10,000 dollar bet as casually as other people buy a scratch card really relate to the working man?

And I'm not sure if she's watched any of her husband's political ads lately, but the GOP and their mouthpieces demonize president Obama pretty relentlessly: Kenyan Muslim Socialist Jihadist anyone?

I'm not sure how much empathy it took for her husband to make hundreds of millions of dollars repeatedly buying struggling companies, then loading them with debt with loans that put millions in his own pockets, then getting out before they were forced to declare bankruptcy.

I'm sure it brought a tear to someone's eyes. Just maybe not the people she's thinking of.

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bonjouryall | Sep 18, 2012, 09:28 PM EDT

And Marie Antoinette Obama feels your pain as you pay for her vacations in Europe. Fortunately, after the midterm elections, she scaled back her trips. Who cares if it is only because it was necessarily politically or lapdogs would spend more time defending her than attacking Ann. And liberals need to recognize their own prejudice against whites. Favoritism of blacks because of their skin color is still bigotry.

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eiriamach | Sep 15, 2012, 02:15 PM EDT

In case anyone is wondering whether Ann Romney has persuaded women to vote for Mitt, here are some stats from the latest New York Times / CBS News poll: Support for Obama is way ahead of support for Romney in every income group except "those making over $100,000." And the poll showed a HUGE gender gap: Andrew Rosenthal writes, "Among women who are likely to vote, Mr. Obama holds a 12-point edge. (Mr. Romney has an eight-point edge among men, which doesn’t say much for my gender.)" I'd guess that Ann helped widen that gender gap. The "Women for Romney" club wouldn't fill a broom closet to half full.

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GuinnessGrrl | Sep 14, 2012, 02:15 PM EDT

Hey all you "brain trusts" posting on here - the country is spelled Libya, not Lybia. Idiots.

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seanomelb | Sep 13, 2012, 07:52 PM EDT

Bogsidebunny continues to embarrass herself on this site her racist spiteful remarks tells us heaps about her state of mind.

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EphraimKibbey | Sep 13, 2012, 04:59 PM EDT

As a LIBERAL (a label I wear with pride) I do not attack wealth or the pursuit of wealth. I attack the hypocrisy of a person who tells middle class voters that he is working for them when his past life has been about hiding his fortune from taxes, destroying healthy businesses for his own profit, shifting taxes to fees which regressively hurt the less affluent and who's espoused tax policies for the US will increase taxes on those less well-off while giving himself millions tax free. I do not attack those who use their positions of wealth or fame in support of the "least of these" as He said we all should just those who shirk their responsibilities as American citizens and as human beings.

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eiriamach | Sep 13, 2012, 10:26 AM EDT

And in a pinch, bogsideb, you can always mix in a little racism to bring your buddies rushing to your defense and trying to make "Kenyan" politically relevant. I think it's all about your trying to reclaim the territory that Irish America abandoned long ago--yes, about the time that Kennedy ran for president. You think security lies in retreat to the past. Those whose grandparents left the Democratic party when FDR went "too far," or switched to Republican under Eisenhower to protect the property and status that Irish Americans finally achieved with the GI Bill or dogged hard work, have failed to recognize the signs of the times. "The times, they've been a-changin,'" and Irish America-- most of us-- have changed with the times. We know which party supports our interests now, and it ain't the party now controlled by racist, homophobic and misogynist tea partiers who chant about individual liberties believing the GOP will safeguard them--gullible fools! I, and probably everyone else posting here, should not expect to see an Irish American elected to high national office again in our lifetimes. Biden will have been the last. Unless America can trust Catholics to respect EVERYONE'S individual liberties rather than trying to impose obedience to unnatural Catholic sexuality teachings on everyone, an Irish-descended candidate will face the same opposition that JFK and Al Smith faced-- from the same Protestant evangelicals that you're in bed with now.

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bogsidebunny | Sep 13, 2012, 09:39 AM EDT

Life isn't fair folks. Get use to it. How come the Irish-American Catholic Liberals didn't go after John Kennedy for all his family's wealth, most of which was made by JFK's daddy Joe smuggling booze from scotland to the U.S. during prohibition? Ye are hypocrites all ye Romney bashers. I hope he beats the tar out of our first Kenyan president come this November.

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eiriamach | Sep 13, 2012, 09:21 AM EDT

I don't understand why there are so many comments below that add no substance to the discussion but just complain about liberals and insult the author or misrepresent Barack or Michelle Obama's politics. Statistically, it simply does not add up: According to the current Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life survey, only 18% of Republicans and Republican leaners are white Catholics. That's about half the percentage of white evangelical Protestant Republicans. (Very few Irish-descended Americans are evangelical Protestants.) And the percentage of minority Republicans is now statistically negligible. Do these foul-mouthed non-thinkers who comment here know who their fellow conservatives are and how and where they get their political views? Politics makes strange bedfellows as they say. But it sometimes seems to me that all 18 percent make a point of commenting on Cahir's blog! Why? Maybe because they're uncomfortable hanging out with their fellow Republican evangelicals on the right-wing blogs?

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BrianO | Sep 13, 2012, 02:18 AM EDT

@Occassio, you are wrong. ever heard of piss Christ, ever seen monty python and the pope, you are a small minded apologist and can remain such. The bigger void is the so called journalist who marks 911 by attacking a candidate's wife. A New York resident that has nothing to say about 911, coward. It is time to say enough, enough propaganda, enough division.

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occassio | Sep 12, 2012, 10:22 PM EDT

Belfastbeauty69. President Obama did not apologize to the attackers. He apologized to the Muslim population, many of whom had been working with the US envoy to the North African country, Christopher Stevens, to bring peace to the region. Mr. Romney's verbal attack was premature, poorly timed and politically motivated. The Israeli filmmaker who created this piece of incendiary garbage should be prosecuted for stupidity or jailed for inciting to riot. Anyone who has access to the media is well aware that denegration of Islam and/or the Holy Kuran evokes violent reaction-just as would burning the Holy Bible and denegrating the cross. I wonder when we'll see action taken by Israel's Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs.

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torbreezy | Sep 12, 2012, 10:05 PM EDT

Too pathetic to warrant comment . . . .

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borefield | Sep 12, 2012, 06:49 PM EDT

Canal Rat, you said it all and explained the strange Liberal thinking and big Bias. Cahir, you are so closed minded, feeble minded and plain stupid. No one but a second rate newsletter like IC would give you a job to attempt. To write a story. Al Sharpton could actually do better and he is just a loudmouth thug.

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seanomelb | Sep 12, 2012, 06:47 PM EDT

Poor little orphan Annie trying to hard not look like a spoiled rich wife of a political failure(Mitt).

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Canal Rat | Sep 12, 2012, 06:09 PM EDT

John Kerry marries an heiress, (two heiresses actually, the second even grander than the first), is worth a half billion or so, Nancy Pelosi-multi-millionaire,John Edwards,(a former dem favorite fond of 600 dollar haircuts), ditto, the late Ted Kennedy, ditto. If you are a liberal, and you fly around in your private jet, live in a mansion, drive an SUV and have a huge carbon footprint-no one will ever mention your money.But if you are a Republican you are suddenly "rich as Croesus" and your wealth becomes somehow sinful. Liberalism is a the strangest religion.

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alisaann | Sep 12, 2012, 05:44 PM EDT

MRS. ROMENY DOESN'T WANT TO TALK ABOUT "ALL" THE ISSUES THAT THE ELECTION IS ABOUT....IT'S NOT JUST ABOUT JOBS AND SUCH...IT'S ABOUT WOMEN'S AND GAY RIGHTS...AND I DON'T BELIEVE, SHE CARES ABOUT THE LITTLE PEOPLE....A VOTE FOR THE GOP, IS A VOTE AGAINST YOUR "BEST" INTERESTS PEOPLE...WAKE UP...AND STOP VOTING ACCORDING TO YOUR RELIGION.

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