Mitt Muskie?

The AP has a story today, linked near the top of Drudge, with the headline, "Romney Gets Tearful Recalling War Toll." The lede reads:

Mitt Romney's eyes filled with tears Monday as the Republican presidential contender recalled watching the casket of a soldier killed in Iraq return to the United States and imagined if it were one of his five sons.

This follows on the heels of Romney's Meet the Press performance Sunday, in which he got teary-eyed while telling the story of how he wept openly -- tears of joy, of course -- when he learned in 1978 that the Mormon church had ended discrimination against blacks.

Both of these are perfectly reasonable things to get emotional over, but methinks Mitt needs to watch his public displays of emotion, lest he become another Ed Muskie. Somebody needs to tell him there's no crying in baseball... or politics. The American people like their women unwrinkled and their men unemotional! (And their beer cold, their TV loud, and their homosexuals flaming.)

Comments

[Condor]

Actually, that tear changed its mind half-way out of his eye and went back in. Then it changed its mind again, and went back out.

[Angrier and Angrier]

He probably cried too when he found out the Mormon Church no longer allowed him to have multiple wives.

...Tears of joy.

[Sandy Underpants]

What a load of crap. The mormon church is still racist as hell. There is a limit to how far a black can go in the Mormon Church, and (white) Mormons call them "Jack Mormons" because they aren't considered real mormons. Other than that the church of Mormon is pretty affirmatively acting.

[David K.]

Pretty bold accusation Sandy, do you have any evidence to back it up?

[Condor]

Drudge is at the height of irresponsible right now. There's a story from the national enquirer on his front page about how John Edwards has an illegitimate kid. It's the National Enquirer!

[Condor]

This story clearly has no legs. There is absolutely no detail and the supposed woman can't be reached for comment:
http://www.nationalenquirer.com/john_edwards_cheating_scandal/celebrity/64271

I'm surprised people take it so lightly that Drudge irresponsibly tries to ruin the lives of political opponents.

[Condor]

If I were a trial lawyer like Edwards, I would sue the pants off of Drudge. But supposedly in libel cases, there has to be malicious intent. Therein lies the problem. Anyone who's read Matt Drudge's book knows that he's a total buffoon. No doubt he probably believes the things he reads in the National Enquirer, if only because a decade ago they got something right on Bill Clinton. It's hard to prove that an idiot didn't actually believe some idiocy that he printed. As Ezra Pound once said, "You can't talk to the ignorant about lies, since they have no criteria."

[yea]

a drudge smear report on the day the polls show edwards has surged in iowa? what a shock!! look out obama, hes already gone after hillary and edwards in the past few days, you must be next! at least markos doesn't hide his agenda.

[Brendan Loy]

Sorry, Condor, but I'm going to have to correct you on libel law again. :) "Malicious intent" is entirely irrelevant. What you're thinking of is "actual malice," which is a legal term of art that has nothing whatsoever to do with the emotional state commonly known as "malice." In the world of New York Times v. Sullivan (the Supreme Court case that created the standards for libel suits against public figures), "actual malice" means either "knowledge of falsity" or "reckless disregard for the truth." So in other words, in order for Edwards to win a lawsuit against Drudge, he'd have to show that Drudge printed that information either knowing that it's false or recklessly disregarding whether or not it's false, which is a very difficult standard to meet, legally.

As a practical matter, I'd say it's pretty much inconceivable that a major presidential candidate could ever win a libel suit against anybody.

Oh boy, another accusation of racism by Sandy.

The douchiness never ends.

[Condor]

Shit. I think I got malicious intent from some wikipedia article I once read. With all these lawyers around, can someone please point me toward a good article on libel law? It doesn't matter how technical, I can take it. But I better read something in detail before I make more of a jackass out of myself.

[Condor]

By the way, this story is so unbelievable, I predict Edwards turns it into huge fundraising cash by capitalizing on "right-wing attacks" out to destroy him because they're afraid of what he represents.

[Joe Mama]

I don't care one wit about Drudge's "agenda", real or perceived. As someone who usually checks out the Drudge Report at least once a day, it's not terribly difficult to distinguish between the likely veracity of a Nat'l Enquirer story about John Edwards' illegitimate child and, say, the story currently linked right below it in red from Bloomberg News about record wheat prices. But that's just me.

[Brendan Loy]

Heh. Sorry, Condor, I actually learned what I know about libel law from a couple of classes I took, so I'm not sure what article on the Internets to recommend... though I'm sure such things exist. Maybe someone else will have a suggestion.

[kcatnd]

Sandy, that's not a Jack Mormon. The term usually refers to lapsed Mormons or people who are sympathetic or comfortable being associated with Mormon culture, even if they are not officially Mormon. It really has nothing to do with blacks.

Ever heard of Google, Wikipedia, or asking a Mormon down the street?

[Condor]

I don't mean this to be offensive to Mormons, but a word to the wise: never, ever ask for the Book of Mormon. One time I was in Salt Lake City and I went sight-seeing to the temple there. I talked to an elder outside for about an hour about Mormonism. Unfortunately I couldn't say no to the old guy, so I gave him my name for the Book of Mormon. He must have put me on the "Chosen People's" list because they never stopped calling my house...

[Condor]

...The problem was that I was in the process of moving, and I was currently in Europe, so my poor mother had to field all of the calls. She said that they called multiple times a week, despite her repeated claims that I didn't live there anymore. I had no new phone number that she could give them since I was without a cell phone in Berlin. Now, my mother never lies to anyone. But after months, she got totally fed up and told them that I had permanently moved to Europe. They never called again. The worst part about it is that my mother, a devout catholic, could not, for the life of her, live down the fact that there were really determined Mormons out there trying to convert her son.

[Joe Loy]

Thanks for the Ed Muskie Memory Lane reference & link, Brendan :). Yes, well do I remember The Day That Muskie Cried.

Now here's an interesting extract from your linked page re Muskie, quoting a David Broder piece (emphases added):

For weeks, the Post's coverage had emphasized that the senator, who was running even with President Nixon in the polls and well ahead of any opponent for the nomination, had chosen a high-risk, early-knockout strategy. He would run in all the early primaries in an effort to "collapse the opposition' and nail down the nomination by April 25, when Massachusetts and Pennsylvania completed the run of the first six contests.

Think of that.

Anybody else for Turning back the Clock?

:>

[Sandy Underpants]

A Mormon I know told me about "Jack Mormons". He said that he was a Jack Mormon because he doesn't follow the faith as religiously as he is suppose to. I also asked him why there aren't (m)any black mormons and that's when he told me that they are also considered Jack Mormons and that blacks CANNOT ascend the Mormon ranks as high as whites. There is a cut-off for them, and only recently were they even accepted into practicing the Mormon religion.

Keep pointing out me crying racism... because everyone knows racism doesn't actually exist.