Mitt Romney’s character-some unknown facts

[kcal09]

I am not a Romney supporter. But a post earlier today featuring a photoshopped image of Romney’s family intended to impugn his character, was quite irritating. Coincidentally I received the following remarkable email from a friend, and republish it here to counterbalance the earlier post:
Sometimes, this facet of Romney’s personality isn’t so subtle. In July 1996, the 14-year-old daughter of Robert Gay, a partner at Bain Capital, had disappeared. She had attended a rave party in New York City and gotten high on ecstasy.

Three days later, her distraught father had no idea where she was. Romney took immediate action. He closed down the entire firm and asked all 30 partners and employees to fly to New York to help find Gay’s daughter. Romney set up a command center at the LaGuardia Marriott and hired a private detective firm to assist with the search. He established a toll-free number for tips, coordinating the effort with the NYPD, and went through his Rolodex and called everyone Bain did business with in New York, and asked them to help find his friend’s missing daughter. Romney’s accountants at Price Waterhouse Cooper put up posters on street poles, while cashiers at a pharmacy owned by Bain put fliers in the bag of every shopper. Romney and the other Bain employees scoured every part of New York and talked with everyone they could, prostitutes, drug addicts, anyone.

That day, their hunt made the evening news, which featured photos of the girl and the Bain employees searching for her. As a result, a teenage boy phoned in, asked if there was a reward, and then hung up abruptly. The NYPD traced the call to a home in New Jersey, where they found the girl in the basement, shivering and experiencing withdrawal symptoms from a massive ecstasy dose. Doctors later said the girl might not have survived another day. Romney’s former partner credits Mitt Romney with saving his daughter’s life, saying, “It was the most amazing thing, and I’ll never forget this to the day I die.”

So, here’s my epiphany: Mitt Romney simply can’t help himself. He sees a problem, and his mind immediately sets to work solving it, sometimes consciously, and sometimes not-so-consciously. He doesn’t do it for self-aggrandizement, or for personal gain. He does it because that’s just how he’s wired.

Many people are unaware of the fact that when Romney was asked by his old employer, Bill Bain, to come back to Bain & Company as CEO to rescue the firm from bankruptcy, Romney left Bain Capital to work at Bain & Company for an annual salary of one dollar. When Romney went to the rescue of the 2002 Salt Lake Olympics, he accepted no salary for three years, and wouldn’t use an expense account. He also accepted no salary as Governor of Massachusetts.

I checked, and snopes.com not only verifies the truth of this story, but provides an extensive amount of additional details here:

http://www.snopes.com/politics/romney/search.asp

[Anonymous]

Funny, if this same story were about Obama, here’s how Fox news would report it:

“Obama hangs out with drug-abusers and prostitutes.”

[scaredyclassic]

Ok if that’s true I want to vote for him.

On the other hand, I don’t know maybe the moral is he helps only his friends and partners.

[briansd1]

Romney speaks French so that makes him OK by me. French is the language of intellectuals and diplomats.

At the very least, everyone should speak a second language. Good exercise for the brain.

[svelte]

Three days later, her distraught father had no idea where she was. Romney took immediate action. He closed down the entire firm and asked all 30 partners and employees to fly to New York to help find Gay’s daughter.

Let me ask you this. If it had been the daughter of a low level employee at one of the companies that Bain owns instead of the daughter of a Bain partner, do you think he would have taken the same action?

[davelj]

[quote=briansd1]French is the language of intellectuals and diplomats.
[/quote]

Sure, in the 18th and 19th centuries. Today, English is the language of intellectuals and diplomats. If you line up all of the world’s intellectuals and diplomats I’m betting you’ll find fluency in English outnumbers fluency in French by many many multiples. Not that there’s anything wrong with the French language… but let’s keep things in perspective.

[scaredyclassic]

The life of a wealthy person actually is worth more than the life of a poor person.

[briansd1]

Yeah, I know Dave. English is mandatory in today’s world. French is not.

But there’s a certain cachet to speaking French.

Stephen Breyer said that speaking a foreign language, any foreign language, opens up a new world and a new way of thinking.

[briansd1]

[quote=walterwhite]The life of a wealthy person actually is worth more than the life of a poor person.[/quote]

For sure.

[Allan from Fallbrook]

[quote=davelj][quote=briansd1]French is the language of intellectuals and diplomats.
[/quote]

Sure, in the 18th and 19th centuries. Today, English is the language of intellectuals and diplomats. If you line up all of the world’s intellectuals and diplomats I’m betting you’ll find fluency in English outnumbers fluency in French by many many multiples. Not that there’s anything wrong with the French language… but let’s keep things in perspective.[/quote]

Dave: Brian has visions of himself spending a quiet Sunday afternoon in a cafe on the Left Bank of Paris, sipping a Pernod, smoking a Gauloise and idly leafing through either Camus or Sartre. Far, far away from the Great Unwashed of America, with nary a Walmart in sight.

[Allan from Fallbrook]

[quote=briansd1]Yeah, I know Dave. English is mandatory in today’s world. French is not.

But there’s a certain cachet to speaking French.

Stephen Breyer said that speaking a foreign language, any foreign language, opens up a new world and a new way of thinking.[/quote]

Brian: Unless we’re speaking of German, then “a new way of thinking” might start another world war.

Why no mention of Latin? Command of Latin opens the door to all of the romance languages, especially Italian.

As to the “cachet” of speaking French: I’d opine it’s more “snobbery” than “cachet”. It offers one the appearance of “worldliness” and hauteur without necessarily having the commensurate depth or class to accompany it. Much like your considering the Queen “the apogee of polite society”, you fancy yourself a cut above others and speaking French undoubtedly underpins that conceit.

[Anonymous]

Ben Franklin spoke French.

It was useful for diplomacy when he was in France.

It was useful in other ways as well.

[Allan from Fallbrook]

[quote=pri_dk]Ben Franklin spoke French.

It was useful for diplomacy when he was in France.

It was useful in other ways as well.[/quote]

Pri: If by “other ways” you mean nailing nearly all the good talent at the French court, I’m with ya, brother! Old Ben get around, didn’t he?

[scaredyclassic]

Spanish is mandatory at our house. Trying send the oldest down to Mexico w a Mexican friend for the summer.

[briansd1]

[quote=walterwhite]Spanish is mandatory at our house. Trying send the oldest down to Mexico w a Mexican friend for the summer.[/quote]

Mexico is a hidden gem that Americans are afraid to explore these days. I love the megalopolis that is Mexico City. Not at all what we, in Cali, generally think of Mexico and Mexicans.

[Author]

Posts