Mitt Romney and President Obama both appeared at the annual Al Smith charity dinner last night (videos below) to deliver a few jokes. But if Romney hoped to soften his image as a cold-hearted, robotic, elitist who doesn’t connect with ordinary folks, he failed miserably.
Romney seems to have had the impression that this affair was a political roast where you go after your opponent with hopefully humorous insults and put downs. Actually, that’s not typical of the traditional presentations at the dinner. More often participants engage in light-hearted self-deprecating humor and general swipes at the institutions of government.
However, whoever wrote Romney’s address was intent on lambasting the President repeatedly over political matters that have been a part of his campaign all along. Romney used this appearance as just another stump speech with a few extra punch lines. The result was that he affirmed his reputation as a bully who lacks the social skills to congregate amicably.
Romney’s rant included references to Joe Biden, Big Bird, “You didn’t build that,” unemployment numbers, redistribution of wealth, the deficit, Bill Clinton, the “liberal” media, and Obamacare. All of those are staples on the campaign trail with Romney and he used them all to disparage Obama in this speech.
By contrast Obama’s speech was heavily weighted to jokes about himself. There were very few references at all to Romney, personally or politically. His performance demonstrates the distinct difference between the personalities and temperament of these two men. One is a self-aware, congenial, decent person with a sense of humor. The other is a self-centered, exploitative, megalomaniac with a superiority complex.
I find this case in point analogous to what we’ve recently seen with Republicans throwing tantrums when they lose debates or in the polls while Democrats accept reality and focus on how to improve.
Basically, they’re just poor sports.
Daphne, step away from the crack pipe and learn the truth. Your posting is a ideologically ignorant as the article itself.
“One is a self-aware, congenial, decent person with a sense of humor. The other is a self-centered, exploitative, megalomaniac with a superiority complex”.
This last line from the article is 100% correct. Unfortunately they got the roles reversed. That is what happens when blind ignorance totally devoid or reality is applied instead of critical thinking skills.
Gee, I was hoping for a less original metaphor. And it only goes downhill from there.
Waahhhh mommy, he’s picking on me. A better heading would be “Romney is funny, Obama is a pretentious crybaby”.
Nah. No whining involved. They’re legitimate complaints.
The beauty of this event is the proof of how well each man did. The vast majority of Romney’s comments were met with genuine, long-lasting laughter from the entire room. The person who laughed the most at Obama’s comments were Obama himself. For something to be funny, it has to have some truth in it.
Sorry Lib’s, your day in the sun is over…
And your day in the bubble continues as usual.It must be nice to have such a delusional perspective of reality that validates your twisted preconceptions.
Do you think maybe Romney doesn’t know who Al Smith was?