The Boston Globe ran a publicity article on Wednesday about Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. The article recounts a family vacation in 1983 where Romney drove with his pet dog in a carrier fastened to the roof of the car. One of the children noticed that "a brown liquid was dripping down the back window, payback from an Irish setter who'd been riding on the roof in the wind for hours". The article then describes how Romney pulled over at a service station, sprayed off the dog and the car, and then got right back out on the road. The author goes on to call these events "a tiny preview of a trait [Romney] would grow famous for in business: emotion-free crisis management".

Ok, here's the problem. The only "crisis" Romney could identify was that there was dog excrement all over his car. He completely and utterly failed to observe the crisis of having just treated his own dog with obvious cruelty and neglect. "Emotion free" is absolutely right. What Romney really showed here is a complete lack of ability to empathize with someone very different from himself. You can say that this happened in the past, but even now, why on earth is he NOT embarrassed by this story? The article unconvincingly tries to portray Romney's actions as an example of good leadership. What it really does is give us "a tiny preview" of the extraordinary blindness we can expect from Romney if he should ever become (shudder) President of the United States.

The Making of Mitt Romney (Boston Globe)

Romney's Cruel Canine Vacation (Time)

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