Just exercise our short-term memories for a moment, casting your minds back to this point in the 2008 Presidential campaign:-
In not one, but two incidences, John McCain had enough integrity to diffuse situations in which his supporters sought, by their own ignorance or misunderstanding (most likely obtained from the media), to voice their fears of a President whom they clearly did not trust based on various misunderstood criteria (but always with the underlying racial factor at hand.)
Today, Mitt Romney faced a similar situation:-
That's right; a Romney supporter, in the middle of a question, makes an audible aside, which Romney could clearly hear, remarking that the President of the United States should be tried for treason. She finishes her question - as ever about the quintessential Constitution, which all Rightwingers purport to love but which few have ever read - and hands the mic back to Mitt for his answer.
Instead of experiencing a carpe diem moment, a moment when he would have surely shown that, not only was he a serious contender for the office of President of the United States, but also a decent human being in possession of integrity, he would have corrected that woman in her bold and overtly ignorant assumption that the President should be tried for treason. Instead, Mitt ploughed into a convoluted display of paper patriotism in eulogising the Constitution.
His silence on the comment about the President as a traitor to the country spoke volumes about the character of Willard Mitt Romney.
His answer, itself, showed that an expensively bought law degree from Harvard mattered for nothing in Mitt's case. Yes, Marbury v Madison established the precedent for judicial review, by the Supreme Court, but it did not enable the Court to review and overturn every piece of legislation enacted by Congress as protested by the various states as unconstitutional. That is judicial overreach and definitely not permitted by the Constitution. All three branches of government are equal. Really separate and really equal.
Mitt didn't just miss his McCain moment. He missed the whole damned bus.
In not one, but two incidences, John McCain had enough integrity to diffuse situations in which his supporters sought, by their own ignorance or misunderstanding (most likely obtained from the media), to voice their fears of a President whom they clearly did not trust based on various misunderstood criteria (but always with the underlying racial factor at hand.)
Today, Mitt Romney faced a similar situation:-
That's right; a Romney supporter, in the middle of a question, makes an audible aside, which Romney could clearly hear, remarking that the President of the United States should be tried for treason. She finishes her question - as ever about the quintessential Constitution, which all Rightwingers purport to love but which few have ever read - and hands the mic back to Mitt for his answer.
Instead of experiencing a carpe diem moment, a moment when he would have surely shown that, not only was he a serious contender for the office of President of the United States, but also a decent human being in possession of integrity, he would have corrected that woman in her bold and overtly ignorant assumption that the President should be tried for treason. Instead, Mitt ploughed into a convoluted display of paper patriotism in eulogising the Constitution.
His silence on the comment about the President as a traitor to the country spoke volumes about the character of Willard Mitt Romney.
His answer, itself, showed that an expensively bought law degree from Harvard mattered for nothing in Mitt's case. Yes, Marbury v Madison established the precedent for judicial review, by the Supreme Court, but it did not enable the Court to review and overturn every piece of legislation enacted by Congress as protested by the various states as unconstitutional. That is judicial overreach and definitely not permitted by the Constitution. All three branches of government are equal. Really separate and really equal.
Mitt didn't just miss his McCain moment. He missed the whole damned bus.
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