Partly it's because they look alike in an almost creepy way -- the way couples begin to look alike after being together for years. Partly it's because, as Maureen Dowd points out, there's also a father/son resemblance that reinforces the impression of money, privilege, and rapacity in both candidates.
And a lot of it has to do with the gradual revelations that these two slick guys have stuff in their backgrounds that makes them not-nice people. All that and plenty more too account for the energy invested in making sure the Romney-Ryan show is discontinued on election day.
Dowd, a Catholic, goes straight to the church for its take on one of its own, the man who looks like he's hiding "full-tilt virulence."
Even Catholic bishops, who had to be dragged toward compassion in the pedophilia scandal, were dismayed at how uncompassionate Ryan’s budget was.
Mitt Romney expects his running mate to help deliver the Catholic vote and smooth over any discomfort among Catholics about Mormonism. (This is the first major-party ticket to go Protestant-less.) Yet after Ryan claimed his budget was shaped by his faith, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops deemed it immoral.
“A just spending bill cannot rely on disproportionate cuts in essential services to poor and vulnerable persons,” the bishops wrote in a letter to Congress.
The Jesuits were even more tart, with one group writing to Ryan that “Your budget appears to reflect the values of your favorite philosopher, Ayn Rand, rather than the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”
The nuns-on-the-bus also rapped the knuckles of the former altar boy who now takes his three kids to Mass. As Sister Simone Campbell, executive director of the Catholic social justice group Network, told MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell, it’s sad that a Catholic doesn’t understand that “we need to have each other’s backs. Only wealthy people can ever begin to pretend that they can live in a gated community all by themselves.”
Even Ryan’s former parish priest in Janesville weighed in. Father Stephen Umhoefer told the Center for Media and Democracy, “You can’t tell somebody that in 10 years your economic situation is going to be just wonderful because meanwhile your kids may starve to death.”
Beyond the even-keeled Ryan mien lurks full-tilt virulence. A moderate demeanor is not a sign of a moderate view of the world. ...Maureen Dowd, NYT
__
I cannot safely contain the observation that Mitt Romney’s stiff, inscrutable smile has all the warmth and charm of a man wincing on the toilet. ...Gene Weingarten, WaPo
Comments