I don’t want to be cavalier about something that must have been quite frightening for Ann Romney. A plane she was traveling on had to make an emergency landing last week because an electrical fire was filling the cabin with smoke. I’m sure that Mitt Romney was quite emotional about it when he heard what had happened, and I don’t want to make light of either of their experiences. But, holy crap is Romney stupid if he thinks it is a good idea to have windows that open on airplanes so you can let fresh oxygen in. If he has no clue how airplane pressurization works, he ought to at least know that there is virtually no oxygen at the cruising altitude of airplanes.
What does he thinks happens to folks who summit Mt. Everest? They either bring supplemental oxygen or they have to race back down before they die. But forget about the science of the thing. I went to tell the teenage boys about what Romney said and they already knew. Facebook is plastered with jokes about what an idiot Romney is for wanting airplanes with windows that open.
Pretty much every kid in the country has already had about 10 laughs today at Romney’s expense. Someone even made a submarine with a screen door.
There is also the matter that the plane is moving at several hundred MPH and the wind through the open window would be pretty extreme.
Glad Ms. Romney got through it all right.
I guess that’s what we can expect from Willard when he makes an executive decision…
Glad you posted on this. Is he cracking up? I mean here’s a guy who’s been travelling in planes all his life. are we getting insight into how ppl who don’t believe in science function in todays world – i.e. like they’re stumbling around in the dark?
No. He’s not cracking up. He is dumb as a stick.
From my recent post I Just Gotta Say – Romney. He DUMB!!!
Like…stupid dumb.
AG
Is it safe to say that Romney is now a more embarrassing candidate than Sarah Palin was?
Not sure. More voters liked her. And she didn’t know enough to spout off on as much stupid stuff as Mitt does. But Mitt has a few more weeks to cement his rep as worse than Palin.
I’m beginning to think that the Romney campaign logo should be a pooch trying to hide its behind…
More proof that you don’t need to know stuff to be rich.
Maybe he’s so mad at Jon Stewart and Colbert that he decided he’d win the “most comical” contest by any means necessary. Seriously, it’s like he’s all three stooges in one nasty costume. Funny, but creepy as hell.
His staff should keep him away from the supermarket checkout.
As an aerospace engineer, I must say I had a giggle or two about this. The next thing he’s going to say is that the windows should be square lol:
Why airplane windows are round/oval
But… but… its so hard to find the proper window treatments for those little round things.
Remember when Poppy Bush discovered the scanners at the grocery store? Romney has just had his Poppy Bush moment. The election is over. Even if Obama is found in bed with a dead boy.
Ladies and gentlemen, you heard it here first. Mitt is not only toast, the RW is going to fall off faster than skin on a Florida Zombie.
To quote a very perspicatious (if right wing) person: BET ON IT!!!!
Right wing?
Not a bit of it.
A synonym for “right” might do, though.
Correct wing.
OH yes.
AG
Not the same at all though. Poppy Bush was sheltered from buying his own groceries. Mitt has been riding in airplanes all his life.
I know everyone is laughing at him. But I’m certain that in his Republican science book, you extinguish a fire by feeding it with oxygen. It’s right there beside the picture of a man riding a dinosaur and adjacent to the chapter about climate change which consists of a single sentence, Genesis 9:11, “I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.”
well, apparently, he didn’t get the spreadsheet. or maybe just assumed those mountain-hugging entreprenuerial wannabes are all sucking oxygen at some government’s teat.
if it’s a job-creator airplane, one that the free market floats aloft, well then the windows ought to open, because job-creators breathe the air of freedom.
No problem. From this day forward, all rich people get their own personal emergency escape hatch. And survival pod.
Problem solved!
Maybe they should put vacuume cleaners in the cabin so the passengers can suck up the smoke with them
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2012/09/romney-tax-records/#more-83775
“Bbbbut Obama said ’57 states’ OMG I know you are but what am I no fair!”
And on the subject of James Fallows.
I noticed that Booman recently had a at least half a good word for James Fallows. (How to Win the Debates) Half a good word is three times too many for this jowl-shaking, tendentious empty suit posing as an “expert.” He makes Wlliam Safire’s work look reasonable.
This time he is acting as apologist for Mitt Romney’s utter stupidity in not understanding why airplane windows don’t open.
Here:
Bullshit. “Any of us…could and would say things as inapt?” Maybe Fallows has foot-in-mouth disease…on the evidence of his writing I am sure that he does, actually…but I cannot think of a single soul among all of the people that I have ever known who would say such a thing. Well…maybe some folks who have never flown and aren’t too curious about how the world works. But that’s it. Nobody else.
Except the Mittser.
And Mr. Mittser is only several percentage points and/or some funny business at the polls away from being the dodo with his finger on the End Of The World button.
God help us all. This nation is so broken!!!
Fallows is a pilot..small planes, thank providence…and he blathers on for a while about safety procedurals that they must learn by heart.
And then he says…
Right.
Different people have different, irrational fears. But no matter what the fears, do people of even average intelligence completely misunderstand the nature of the feared object? Mitt Romney saying “When you have a fire in an aircraft, there’s no place to go, exactly, there’s no — and you can’t find any oxygen from outside the aircraft to get in the aircraft, because the windows don’t open. I don’t know why they don’t do that. It’s a real problem.” Is like…ohhh, say like James Fallows saying “”When you have a big horse with hard hooves and lots of teeth, when you’re near a horse, there’s no place to go, exactly, there’s no — no place to hide. Why don’t they put some kind of softener on their hooves or something….padded socks, maybe. Or…or… take out their teeth! I don’t know why they don’t do that. It’s a real problem.”
Unfuckingbelieveable.
I have a great fear of pundits. Why don’t they…ohhh, I don’t know. Why don’t they just get rid of them?
Oh.
What’s that you say?
Who’d enforce the fix if they did that?
Oh.
Nevermind.
Yore freind…
Emily Litella
Exactly what you don’t want in a Commander-in-Chief
Having finally gotten a chance to actually see the speech I think this was another example of Romney simply not being capable of feeling empathy and appropriate emotions.
I think he was making nervous noises with his mouth in the form of a speech and because he had no genuine and appropriate feelings on the subject when he ad libbed what he thought was a joke, the bizzare came out. Much like his comments about appropriate tree height.
I am willing to bet he knows why windows don’t roll down on planes and if he didn’t he can learn why. Far more troubling is his brain and being seems to be totally out of touch with the feelings of those around him. Not Good for anyone let alone a president.
You think he was…joking!!!???
I haven’t seen the vid, but really…that might be worse. I am convinced that sense of humor is directly tied in with real intelligence. He may try to be funny, but since he has no “sense” of what is funny and what is not, he’s like a fool trying to tell jokes that he does not understand.
Also not good for anyone let alone a president.
Worse, maybe.
Imagine a “Nuke ’em” joke in a room full of equally no-sense-of-humor generals.
T.S. Eliot wrote:
Maybe he missed the mark.
Henny Youngman:
“Take my wife. Please.”
A great one-liner. Roars of laughter because of setup and context.
Mr. Mittster sees a clip of it.
“Take my wife. Please.” Preznit Mittster says as he tries to ad-lib his way through a meeting with Netanyahu or Putin.
No setup, no context, wrong audience.
Thud.
They think “This guy’s an asshole. A stupid asshole. We have to take measures before he kills us all.”
WWIII starts the next day.
Deep.
AG
Remember, AG, this was the guy who was in London for the Olympics and didn’t go when his wife’s horse was competing.
I’ve been done many bad things in my life. Not supporting my wife’s enthusiasms has NEVER been one of them.
Soulless basterd.
Just as mind boggling was his reference to Univ of Utah discovering cold fusion…mmm, not so much Mitt.
Chris Matthews talking about Mitt and GW yesterday made the comment that certainly a man as educated as Mitt would understand the science of global warming. Well, today, after the jet window and cold fusion stupids Chris may just be backing off his assumption.
He believes in Cold Fusion but not Evolution or Global Warming. My mind reels.
In the Spirit of this blog, there is a chance Romney thinks Cold Fusion is some sort of way to make ice for the Arctic Circle.