Another Reason to Vote Against Mitt Romney

Isaac Chotiner:

The Plank: BEYOND OUR BORDERS: Mitt Romney and his wife were on 'Larry King Live' last week, and the former governor discussed his Mormon mission overseas:

Oh, it is a fabulous experience. Look, I was sort of having fun going to college and not worrying about the future. And then I went to a different country and saw how different life could be if we didn't have the values and the kinds of opportunities that exist in America.

It is indeed tragic that so much of the world doesn't have the same freedoms and conveniences that America does. Whole continents are filled with the scourges of disease and poverty. I'm just glad that Romney got a small taste of how so much of humanity actually lives.

Anyhow, where exactly was he?

I was in France. Bordeaux, Paris, all over France. A great learning experience to live overseas.

Comments

[Kate G.]

He and his wife are sickening phonies. You all might not know this but when he was running for governor of massachusetts she kindly explained to all of us that the two of them knew all about living on a budget because when he was in college they had made the decision to sell some of their trust fund to fund their college living expenses!

yes, she said "trust fund" to explain how she knew how regular people lived.

Kate G.

[weichi]

strange. very strange.

[anne]

No Kate, sweet innocent Kate has never been loosed in the wilds of, shudder, valueless wanton sex maddened Bordeaux. I get chilled just thinking about France with all the, well, French. Eek.

[yabonn]

I'm not really surprised about Mr. Romney's time into (I suppose?) sovietic (dictatorial? third world?) France.

From the same keg, Terminator fled Austrian communism, and there's an Eurabian doom next corner.

The poor souls are not-Americans. As a consequence, they

- lack something the writer is proud to think of as an American characteristic

and/or

- lack the most elementary ability to reason

and/or

- have reasonable, but despicable motives/ways

The writer's point is proven by means of GDP comparison, or something to that effect.

Not that it's uniquely american - nationalist idiots are everywhere - but it seems to be all over the place, lately.

That, or I'm a bit cranky these days.

[c]

It's not a place where you'd make a lot of LDS converts, that's for sure.

[Rob]

Hey - thanks Brad - this was truly funny

[db]

Check this out:

http://www.beliefnet.com/story/214/story_21450_1.html

[anne]

Coming soon French family values:

http://movies2.nytimes.com/mem/movies/review.html?title1=L%27Amour%20L%27Apres%2dMidi%3a%20%28Chloe%20in%20the%20Afternoon%29%20%28Movie%29&title2=&reviewer=VINCENT%20CANBY&pdate=19720930&v_id=9404

September 30, 1972

Eric Rohmer's 'Chloe in the Afternoon'
By VINCENT CANBY

Frédéric (Bernard Verley), the hero of "Chloë in the Afternoon," the last in Eric Rohmer's marvelous cycle of comedies, which he calls his Six Moral Tales, is happily married, but he is stumped: he's no longer capable of flirting with other women.

That's what he says, but he is not always trustworthy when he talks about himself. Never before in his life has he been so conscious of desirable women—on the train as he commutes from Saint-Cloud, in his Paris office, in the cafés. When he crosses a street, he attends to the passing women like a naturalist studying life in a rain forest. For a minute or two, he even falls in love with an unspectacular young saleswoman, apparently because she is so seriously insistent that he buy a shirt he doesn't want.

"I feel marriage closes me in, cloisters me, and I want to escape," he tells us on the soundtrack. "The prospect of happiness opening indefinitely before me sobers me. I find myself missing that time, not too long ago, when I could experience the pangs of anticipation. I dream of a life made of first loves, lasting loves."

Like Adrien in "La Collectionneuse," Jean-Louis in "My Night at Maud's" and Jérome in "Claire's Knee," Frédeéric must choose between love and desire, which Mr. Rohmer sometimes calls love-in-idleness. In "Chloë in the Afternoon," desire takes the fairly ample shape of Chloë (Zouzou), a none too stable, not immediately prepossessing young woman out of his past Chloë, who was once a successful model and the mistress of an artist with whom she went to America, has returned to Paris with boredom in her heart and a man named Serge she doesn't love.

Because Frédéric feels so secure in his marriage, because Chloë's interest flatters him and because he is so incapable of flirting, he begins to see Chloë in the afternoons, just to talk, sometimes to advise her, on her muddled affairs. He tells himself that because they have no commitments to each other, he can feel a freedom and excitment with her that he can't allow in his, marriage. Quite surprisingly (at least to Frédéric), he finds himself wanting to go to bed with her....

[anne]

The French are come:

http://movies2.nytimes.com/2007/03/16/movies/16wife.html?ex=1331697600&en=44a2bd8a66b6dbfb&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss

March 16, 2007

Chris Rock in the Afternoon
By A. O. SCOTT

In "I Think I Love My Wife" Chris Rock, who also directed and wrote the script (with his frequent collaborator Louis C. K.), plays Richard Cooper, an investment banker whose life is as bland as his name. Richard, in his voice-over narration, is the first to admit that his situation is enviable in many ways: He has a lovely wife named Brenda (Gina Torres), two cute small children, a spiffy house in the suburbs and a flourishing career at a reputable Manhattan firm.

The problem, as you may be able to intuit from this checklist of bourgeois amenities, is that he's bored. He has reached a point at which existence settles into a series of pleasant routines and minor frustrations. In Richard's case one of these frustrations — the sexual cooling of his marriage — becomes the source of some potentially major trouble.

"My marriage is frozen solid," he declares. He means to say that it's strong, but the metaphor sneaks up and traps him in an uncomfortable admission. To make matters worse, he delivers this diagnosis to Nikki Tru (Kerry Washington), a human blowtorch — even without the cigarettes, she'd still be smoking — aimed at the facade of Richard's comfortable, complacent life.

Nikki, the ex-girlfriend of an old friend, shows up at Richard's office one afternoon, supposedly seeking a letter of recommendation. By caprice or design she ensnares him in a long, volatile flirtation, a relationship that, while not technically adulterous, is nonetheless tinged with furtiveness and guilty exhilaration.

If the premise sounds familiar, that is in part because "I Think I Love My Wife" is a remake, at once free-handed and faithful, of "Chloe in the Afternoon" (1972), the sixth and last of Eric Rohmer's "Moral Tales." Mr. Rock's affection for this source is evident in his careful restaging of some of its shots and scenes, even though Mr. Rohmer's wry, ironical temperament could not be further from Mr. Rock's candid, confrontational stand-up style....

[joeo]

chris rock has just done a remake:
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ent/movies/4616256.html

[anne]

Chris Rock is as French as can be, and that is very French indeed. Yum.

[christofay]

Can I put the Grey Poupom back in the cupboard yet?

When the Randy Duke Cunningham took it out, I sacrificed too yet wasn't invited to any Watergate hookers and kick-back parties.

By my horrors I then saw the popular seller was named "French's" so I've been mustardless since 2001.

[anne]

http://www.calvorn.com/gallery/photo.php?photo=7109&exhibition=7&ee_lang=eng&u=170126,3

Ring-billed Gull Diving
New York City--Central Park, The Reservoir.

Here, Chris :)

[John Emerson]

C: I can hardly imagine a Mormon Frenchman.

[jerry]

Um, it might be interesting to see the French take on French Mormon Temple Lingerie.

[TROTSKY]

Forget the flip-flops; will the right desert him when they learn he can parler francais?

My own misspent youthful year in France left me with a tobacco habit that took 14 years to shake, a caffeine habit that I'm still stuck with, and terribly expensive tastes in wine. Though, appreciating the French taste for terroir, I prefer the California stuff.

[db]

What do you think?

http://www.beliefnet.com/story/214/story_21450_1.html

[Swedish Chef]

I wonder what opportunities Romney feels Americans have but the French lack? The 'opportunity' to die in the gutter due to a lack of health insurance?

[christofay]

Ring billed gull diving, I just look at how the feet are tucked in and the tail and wings are spread. It looks ungainly, like me skiing, but the bird is moving

[buzzard_lipps]

db -

Looks like a smart campaigner to raise money where you know you have supporters. Should hold Romney over while he raises money with the caps on, now that he's a candidate. In fact, he'd be pretty stupid to not raise money in Utah. That'd be like Kennedy not raising money in Massachusetts and South Bend, IL.

[c]

Yeah, John -- I can't think of a better way to elicit the celebrated French rudeness than to knock on their doors with an American accent and try to convert them to Mormonism. Even before you got to the no smoking and drinking part, as Trotsky points out. Imagine having to do that, house after house, week after week -- it would definitely put you off the French.

[bigTom]

c:
I don't know how it works, but if God gives more brownie points for visiting hopeless prospects, he might have got to like them. And we have discovered that unassimilated minorities in france (EU in general?) feel much more left out of society in France than in the USA. But since Mitt wasn't there for business/employment that probably wasn't a factor.
Of all the R candidates, Romney is the lessor-evil of the bunch IMO.

[bad Jim]

Almost as good is one Teresa Nielsen Hayden found:

«At the annual Miami-Dade Lincoln Day Dinner... he ended his speech with the stirring phrase, “¡Patria o muerte, venceremos!”... [which] for decades been the closing line of almost every one of Castro’s speeches.» Oops.

http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/008780.html#008780

[Chris C]

Well, as I said over there, I went on a mission to France too as a Mormon missionary. I would probably say something similar to what Romney said, without the touch of jingoism he seems to feel is needed for the rightwing.

I went there during Reagan. Pershing missiles were coming into Europe, and I heard many of the same complaints. The French just love to bitch about America, no matter what we do.

But what Romney can't say and I can is that I learned to love France and the French. I spoke the language, ate the food, walked the city streets. I made friends and, where I could, I tried to help those who needed it. It was a duty, often a drudgery. But in the end it was why I was there.

I was 19 years old. I had committed to serving several years on my own dime, and I had saved up for several years to be able to afford it. Once I got there, I couldn't listen to popular music (classical only), I couldn't hang out with girls, I had to wear a suit and tie, and I woke up every morning at 5:30 am to study scripture, before launching into a full day of religious work.

The first thing you find out as a missionary is that you work primarily among the poor. No fancy times at French chateaus. We worked in the HLMs, and while proseltyzing was the point, we usually found ourselves just helping out because so much help was needed.

So we would visit the old and infirm just checking in. None of them wanted to talk religion; they just wanted company for an hour. We cleaned drains, helped feed the chickens, repaired electrical cords, etc. We even started a baseball league (I know -- in France!) for poor kids; we bought the bats, balls and bases and played in a park on Saturdays.

I was too young and naive to think I was doing anything all that noble -- most of us were there because it was expected of us. We griped and complained and pined for lives of youthful ease, for college, for girls, and for home cooking.

But we did our time, completed our service, and eventually came home to all of that. That's just the way it was.

And contra Brother Romney, all of that is why I am a liberal today.

[anne]

http://www.calvorn.com/gallery/photo.php?photo=5332&u=17|4|...

Great Egret Dipping a Wing in the Water
New York City--Central Park, Harlem Meer.

Nice, Chris C.
Thanks, Christofay.

[baileyman]

Watching Romney from within state, clearly he follows the GE dictum to be #1 or #2 in any business, but modified. He'll do anything as long as he can be #1 or #1.

[Larry]

Hey, hey. Lighten up on Mitt! I bet those nasty French made them eat snails.

[c]

Thanks ChrisC for filling in the picture!

[andres]

What Chric C. writes is a good example of a universal rule: religious volunteers or missionaries do their best work when they do not try to proselityze. Focus on work as the best form of prayer, and let God take care of him(her?it?)self.

[Chris C]

Andres makes a good point, that religious volunteers do their best work when they do not try to proseltyze. But Andres' point has the misfortune of being dead wrong.

Religious volunteers do their best work when they work hard to love the people they work among. Corny beyond belief I know, but that's what the best of religion requires of those who work as its reps.

For my part, it did not come naturally and it is still the hardest damn thing I have ever done. Which leads me back to Romney -- most Mormon missionaries spend their lives talking about how they worked hard and came to love the people they served.

But Romney is hinting around about France with the same sort of thing that he says straight out about Massachusetts -- you know those guys I used to live among and work for? They suck so bad.

If I was a reporter in front of Romney, I would ask the following:

As a former missionary to France myself, I remember learning to love the country and the people as part of my Christian service to them. Are you saying that you did not learn to love them during your missionary service?

Most of you hearing that would go "huh?" But Romney would squirm like a motherfucker, and the dogwhistle politics of it would be that Mormons and some evangelicals would start to call bullshit on him.