What does Romney mean when he says he “loves” something?
Favorite line from an observer of last night’s debate:
Romney loves Big Bird, and wants to shut down PBS.
Romney loves teachers, and wants to bust their unions.
Romney is like a teenage boy: when he says he “loves” something, what he means is that he’s looking for a chance to screw it.
Author: Mark Kleiman
Professor of Public Policy at the NYU Marron Institute for Urban Management and editor of the Journal of Drug Policy Analysis. Teaches about the methods of policy analysis about drug abuse control and crime control policy, working out the implications of two principles: that swift and certain sanctions don't have to be severe to be effective, and that well-designed threats usually don't have to be carried out.
Books:
Drugs and Drug Policy: What Everyone Needs to Know (with Jonathan Caulkins and Angela Hawken)
When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment (Princeton, 2009; named one of the "books of the year" by The Economist
Against Excess: Drug Policy for Results (Basic, 1993)
Marijuana: Costs of Abuse, Costs of Control (Greenwood, 1989)
UCLA Homepage
Curriculum Vitae
Contact: Markarkleiman-at-gmail.com
View all posts by Mark Kleiman
I was not impressed by the debate last night. It seemed that the questions and, therefore, answers, were much too vague. And many topics were ignored. And all the domestic stuff was redundant.
I liked the staging much better though. I think when people have to sit at a table, they act more civilized. I thought the town hall staging was *horrible.* I can’t believe people are impressed by caveman theatrics. It seems quite sexist to me. How would a woman candidate show “dominance?” Being physically larger and obnoxious means you’ll be a good president? No wonder this country is in so much trouble.
Now, Mark, I do NOT think you meant this, but given that the title of your post is “Big love,” which is also the title of an HBO show about a polygamous fundamentalist Mormon family, someone who hasn’t read you for as many years as I have might imagine that you were trying to tar Romney with certain prejudices about his church. Which would be uncool. So I think you should change the post title.
Changed. Spoilsport!
Why on earth is his religion off limits? Big Love was the reason his father was born in Mexico. The foolish and bigoted tenets of any religion or moral code should absolutely be fair game.
If the foolish and bigoted tenets of religion were fair game, only atheists would be eligible to become president. This would work very well for me, as I am one, but I suspect Joe Bible might have a problem with it.
Romney loves America.
Problem with this joke is a lot of teachers think Obama’s out to bust their unions as well.
This recent thread at Diane Ravitch’s blog isn’t as anti-Obama as some of them are but it’s on today’s page so it was easy for me to locate. If you poke around on her site you’ll find others.
http://dianeravitch.net/2012/10/23/education-in-last-nights-debate/#comments
There’s no question for me that Obama must be reelected. It’s disturbing to see so many who I think should be natural Obama supporters so embittered. But I kinda see their point.
Ditto.
I had the same impression of Bush the younger. If he made a speech saying he was all for something that tended to mean he would be cutting funding. War excepted, of course.
“I love X” is a standard rhetorical move among businessmen. It means, I’m going to put the bottom line ahead of my alleged personal feelings and cut the shit out of X. I’ve heard it many, many times.