Team Romney's 'Obama eats dog' joke: A desperate move?
The presidential race enters its War on Dogs stage, as Mitt tries to push back against an infamous anecdote about his late canine pal Seamus
POSTED ON APRIL 18, 2012, AT 3:52 PM
The Daily Caller has created a mini-controversy by pointing out that President Obama ate dog as a boy in Indonesia, a fact Obama himself mentioned in his bestselling 1995 memoir Dreams From My Father. Obama's supporters had previously had a field day with the doggie exploits of Mitt Romney, who famously put his dog Seamus in a crate atop the family car decades ago, and then drove for 12 hours while the traumatized Seamus had a scatological accident mid-trip. "Say what you want about Romney, but at least he only put a dog on the roof of his car, not the roof of his mouth," says The Daily Caller's Jim Treacher. "Obama eats dog" jokes subsequently proliferated on Twitter, and entered the political realm when Eric Ferhnstrom, a Romney aide notorious for comparing his boss to an Etch A Sketch, tweeted an image of Obama with his dog Bo that read, "In hindsight, a chilling photo." The Obama camp expressed its outrage, while Dogs Against Romney, a group whose raison d'etre is the Seamus incident, says Romney's campaign is getting "desperate." Is Romney grasping at straws?
The Obama team started it: Lest we forget, Democrats "have signaled they have every intention of making sure the American people — especially dog-lovers — know the tale" of Seamus, says Jake Tapper at ABC News. It was David Axelrod, Obama's political guru, who got this fight started by tweeting a photo of Obama and Bo inside a car with the "snide observation": "How loving owners transport their dogs." And now Team Romney has signaled that "they are not about to cede any ground when it comes to a candidate's odd past with man's best friend."
"Romney campaign notes that Obama as a boy ate dog meat"
Perhaps. But this new salvo is absolutely ridiculous: This spat is idiotic, plain and simple, says Charles Johnson at Little Green Footballs. Obama was a child living in a foreign country when he tried dog meat. And it's just a "pathetic example of 'I'm rubber, you're glue' politics" to equate "a child eating dog meat to a grown man torturing and abusing a helpless animal." Really, this is a sad new low.
"Right-wing idiocy of the day: 'Obama ate dog, liberal dumbass!'"
And this fight takes Romney off message: It looks like the Seamus-related attacks have "finally gotten to the Romney campaign," says Kyle Wingfield at The Atlanta Journal Constitution. But Romney is not going to beat Obama "by winning the most 'Twitter fights' or fighting distractions with distractions." He should be "hammering relentlessly at the president's record — a record voters still view, at best, as 'meh.'" Every time the campaign is distracted by "fluff," the "incumbent wins."
"Romney: Don't let this election go to the dogs"
China used to have a dog meat festival but they did away with it last year. There had been protests against the custom for some time by animal rights activists. However, I don't think think the protests were the catalyst for the cancellation; it was determined that dog meat is not (or is no longer) safe to eat.
Last edited by chaos on Sun Apr 22, 2012 5:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
most dog meat can't be very good. i'm sure it's tough and lean. maybe dogs can make good jerkey? i'm sure if we start eating dogs we can pump them full of chemicals that will make them taste better.
But as Homer once said to Lisa: "This is lamb, not A lamb."
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That line is fucking brilliant. And so true. Somehow, it can be a pretty big difference.
Well, 'some lamb' is a non-count noun (a mass-term) with no singular reference; 'a lamb' is a count noun that refers to a single living creature. Huge psychological difference.
But as Homer once said to Lisa: "This is lamb, not A lamb."
...
That line is fucking brilliant. And so true. Somehow, it can be a pretty big difference.
Well, 'some lamb' is a non-count noun (a mass-term) with no singular reference; 'a lamb' is a count noun that refers to a single living creature. Huge psychological difference.
But as Homer once said to Lisa: "This is lamb, not A lamb."
...
That line is fucking brilliant. And so true. Somehow, it can be a pretty big difference.
Well, 'some lamb' is a non-count noun (a mass-term) with no singular reference; 'a lamb' is a count noun that refers to a single living creature. Huge psychological difference.
Homer's line is funny though, because he's absolutely incapable of noticing that 'some lamb' comes from at least one lamb. Normal, non-Homer (non-retarded) humans are able to notice the connection between some lamb on my plate and a lamb in the field. Though this is almost never enough to stop them from eating it. Vegans and vegetarians I know for the most part have a deeply visceral reaction to even the IDEA of eating flesh, possibly because they directly tie the non-count reference to individually imagined suffering animals. I know I don't have the psychology to do this... though I do care about animal suffering.
A Campbell restauranteur has equipped a real Cadillac hearse with hot dog grills made from a real coffin. The hearse is sweet-jet black, metallic flames on the side, and emblazoned with a sign, "Dead Dog, Bite Me, Ltd."
While the Ted Cruz fiasco is over the news, today's Washington Post included some memorable quotes from Cruz's colleagues in 2016:
In 2016, former House speaker John A. Boehner (Ohio), a fellow Republican, called him “Lucifer in the flesh,” and Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) quipped, “If you killed Ted Cruz on the floor of the Senate, and the trial was in the Senate, nobody would convict you.”
And someone started a twitter account for Cruz's dog:
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Although all of this nonsense has made me laugh, I realize Texas is having a very hard time. Juana - I hope you are doing okay down there.