Mitt Romney Likes A Good Tasering

How else to explain the goofy smile and jovial manner he displayed while discussing the tasering of a University of Florida student by police? By now you've no doubt heard of the tasering during yesterday Q&A with Senator John Kerry (at least on Fox, it's running neck and neck with Bill Hemmer reporting from outside OJ Simpson's Las Vegas jail), but here's the gist: Student Andrew Meyer, 21, apparently not a Republican, got excited while asking Kerry why he conceded the 2004 election and other questions relating to frustration about the Bush administration. As he launched into one more question, two officers grabbed him to pull him backward. Meyer resisted, more officers got involved, Kerry protested and offered to answer the question, more officers forced him to the ground, Meyer continued to protest that he had done nothing wrong, Meyer was tased. So! This is all over the place today, because it was (a) a student (b) at a school event who was (c) tased. At a (d) Kerry event. Even the most law-and-order type of person has to concede that the circumstances are...unusual; for most people who saw the video and saw that Meyer, though tall, was pretty outnumbered by the cops and was being sat on by them, probably hadn't quite merited that level of tasing action. Either way, you'd probably manifest some appropriate reaction. Right?

Not if you're Mitt Romney! Romney kept that same goofy smile on his face the whole time, joking about how usually it's the politician that gets tased (er, right, just after he's forced to ride tied to the roof of a car) and not expressing much of an opinion either way about whether this indicated a worrisome and excessive use of force (tasers: meant to subdue dangerous criminals in extreme situations; this was a student who really really wanted John Kerry to answer a question). But! He sure did have an opinion on the next topic: Barry Manilow being canceled from his appearance on The View for refusing to appear with conservative Elisabeth Hasselbeck. Look at the difference in his face — the second is clearly a serious issue. This is a paraphrase because our DVR popped off pause, but essentially when Steve Doocy asked if Manilow should have been allowed to give Hasselbeck the Heismann, Romney was outraged, and said, in effect "No way! Barry Manilow should have to answer the tough questions!" Sort of funny the circumstances under which Mitt Romney gets outraged about who should be made to answer what questions when. Wait, what was that about him skipping the black voter debate?

This isn't the first time that Romney has smiled his way through inappropriate moments, by the way — as HuffPost's John Neffinger pointed out in the recent GOP debate liveblog, he smiled while giving answers about abortion, illegal immigration, and whether his sons helping him on the campaign was just as patriotic as going to Iraq.

Also, a note on journalistic objectivity: Gretchen Carlson was full of praise for Romney as guest, bubbling that he didn't ask for anything back in the green room, the only request made was by her, for a photo, and he was MOST gracious in posing with her! Oh Romney! You came and you gave without taking!

Sparks Fly After Student is Tasered at John Kerry Meeting on University of Florida Campus [Fox News]
Video: Student Tasered in Florida [YouTube]

Related:
Liveblog! GOP Debate [HuffPo]
Romney's Cruel Canine Vacation [Time]

Funny In Spite Of Ourselves:
Finally, an electrifying John Kerry speech [KC Star]

Comments

[meandmagoo]

Mitt gives me the creeps.I feel like I'm about to get molested whenever I see him,and I'm a forty three year old man watching tv.

[jashu51]

Yeah, inappropriate smile---looks like a sociopath. Some guy w/a son in Iraq told him how offended he was by Mittster's comment (his sons campaigning for him equals service to their country) and Mitt had that stupid grin on his face. Maybe it's just his nervous response when he's been caught in a bullsh*t lie. Giuliani did the same thing to the point of almost bursting out laughing when asked whose decision it was to put the Emergency Control Center in the WTC. "It was Hauer's decision!!!" Liars all!

[ChezMJ]

Don't kid yourself. Mitt Romney is very smart. He is also a very hard worker. The admittedly "odd" affect, i.e., smiling at inappropriate moments, sells & he knows it. People are ready for a president who can string a cogent sentence together & isn't as much of a crank as Bush/Cheney. This guy is dangerous. Don't underestimate him.

[comatoast]

As usual Ms. Sklar, your comments are both entertaining and insightful. Mitt Romney is the worst of the worst when it comes to spineless political pandering. Unfortunately, the rest of the clowns who lust to hear "Hail to the Chief" played in their honor don't best him by very much. Please keep illuminating the spurious behavior of this gaggle- at least we can go to our doom with smiles on our faces.

[GhostofBillHicks]

This A-hole is nothing more than a hollow suit,clueless at what "average" people go thru in their daily life.
Mabey that smug,shit eating grin is because his "magic underwear" are stuck in his ass crack.

[jagoneely]

Magic Morman Underwear.­..If he squeezes his buns together twice can he get us out of this F***ing war? If so I think I'll order a pair myself...

[jeff]

GAINESVILLE - Police have released the incident report detailing the Tasering of a University of Florida student during a campus forum with Sen. John Kerry Monday, and the officer who actually Tasered Andrew Meyer wrote in the report that Meyer later told police, "You didn't do anything wrong."

In the 12-page report, which gives accounts of the incident from the perspective of eight different officers who were present Monday afternoon, Officer Nicole Mallo writes that Meyer would only resist officers when cameras were present.

"As (Meyer) was escorted down stairs (at the University Auditorium) with no cameras in sight, he remained quiet, but once the cameras made their way down stairs he started screaming and yelling again," Mallo wrote.

Mallo was one of two officers who actually rode in the vehicle as Meyer was escorted to the Alachua County jail, and she said said he told them during the ride: "I am not mad at you guys, you didn't do anything wrong, you were just trying to do your job," according to Mallo's account.

Mallo also wrote in her report that he asked, at one point, if cameras would be present at the jail.

[FDRbyGodDemocrat]

The guy gets tasered and then tells the cops they didn't do anything wrong? Uh, right.

[DasBoot]

Watching somebody get tasered, what's not to like? Just some good clean fun.

Reminds me of when Bush mocked a woman on death row begging for mercy in an interview with Tucker Carlson in 1998.

I bet both Romney and Bush were torturing animals when they were kids. In Romney's case, even as an adult, see dog story above.

[rmreddicks]

You got it! Well said in just a few sentences.

[indypete]

Mitt is scary. I know a lot of Mormons and in general they are nice people with the right idea of "do unto others" and all that. However, they do tend to believe the right wing and they WILL vote for Mitt just because he's one of them. They are blind to the fact that he is just another fascist hack who will, given the opportunity, continue the transporting of America to hell in a handbasket.

[Spookcatcher]

Mitt is a White Elitist Cultist. McCain is an MK Ultra/Manchurian Candidate for the Military Industrial Complex and their Bankers, Richardson is a Wannabee Elitist, and Thompson if elected will have a Vice President (maybe Cheney again) that will assume the Presidency, within the first year, after everybody realizes he has Dementia, and can't remember his lines or keep his concentration on the teleprompter. It's funny on that point, go back and look at the early idiot Bush news tapes. Look for Newt Gingrich who is hiding in the shadows to come riding in as soon as Thompson's numbers reflect public disapproval.

[alkamm]

Mitt will sell well. Corporations know they are no damn good, but they can sell the perception that they are. Like a good CEO, Mitt will smile, act superior, and continue to support the criminal corporate structure as it has evolved from the United States and throughout the world.

Edwards is our best chance to challenge corporate dominance of the world's resources. He knows how to make them pay, and he knows only a better lawyer can defeat their corporate hacks.

As far as the tasered student goes, he was throwing his arms around, refusing to desist from his bullying appearance at the open mike. He courted the abuse, and the way he threw himself around was a danger to anybody within his reach. He had a script.

I deplore Bush mocking the death row inmate who had so clearly been rehabilitated, but Mitt's smiles toward this issue are acceptable because the kid's clearly provocative, bullying behavior was as comic as it was dangerous.

His smiles and winks to corporate dominance,however, show just how willing he is to serve them.

[AmericaIsATerroist]

Why is anyone even discussing this assclown as a serious Presidential candidate? Good lord you already have an idiot in the WH do you really need another named "Mitt" of all fucking things?

[Archie1955]

Romney is the kind of neofascist you don't want coming anywhere near the Whitehouse.

[alwaysthere]

a lier

is a lier

is a lier

[waiguoren]

is a liar.

[ChezMJ]

PLEASE learn how to spell!

[alwaysthere]

the massacre continue's

[alwaysthere]

never let the lier's in..

if they cannot conquer you

yjey will destroy you

never never let the lier's in

[IntegrityIntact]

Mitt Romney represents EVERYTHING that is wrong with our American government today, make NO mistake about this. Fortunately, most Americans have a greater IQ average than, say like Romney supporters, I'm sure, and we see right through that barely concealed veneer of another man with his head way up his ass and as far away from the common American as you can get.

You'll never be Prez, Rom