Mitt Romney Asks If Pennsylvania Bakery's Cookies Were Made At 7-Eleven

Romney Puts Foot In Mouth

Mitt Romney drew some criticism during a campaign stop in Pennsylvania on Tuesday for comments he made about one bakery's cookies.

According to CNN:

The small town stir began Tuesday at a community center event when Romney paused to take note of the desserts while sitting down at a picnic table.

"I'm not sure about these cookies. They don't look like you made them," Romney said to the woman sitting next to him. "No, no. They came from the local 7-eleven, bakery, or whatever."

The cookies were actually donated to the event by Bethel Bakery, a popular local business. The comment quickly echoed through area news outlets and social media, according to the Wall Street Journal. Residents were not pleased.

The episode probably won't help ease the image of Romney as an out-of-touch multimillionaire, a perception he has struggled to combat for years. Still, a bakery spokeswoman said she believed Romney's comment was meant in good humor:

I'm sure he meant it all in jest and didn't mean to slam a local bakery. It's nothing that we want to get really upset about it, no reason to be angry. We're just having fun with it.

The bakery's owner, John Walsh, seemed less forgiving in an interview with WTAE:

"When I heard it, I thought, 'Oh, my goodness. This guy has no idea how beloved this institution is that provided these cookies' ... We wanted him to be welcomed with the best in the burgh, and he had no idea."

Walsh also quipped to the Wall Street Journal, "Let him eat cake next time," linking Romney to Marie Antoinette yet again.

The bakery, for its part, is using the incident to drive sales, offering a "CookieGate" special where customers can buy a dozen of the stackable items to get a half-dozen on the house.

Below, more on Romney's not-so-smooth interactions with humans:

Mitt Romney talks to humans

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