That happened when? Probably before Jason was even born. And that makes it ok for Romney to get away with cruelty to animals? Typical......

Patty, if something happened before Jason was born, does that mean it doesn't count?

If you are calling him a hypocrite, it is. What Edward Kennedy did so many years ago has nothing to do with this. Jason's article is on something current.

@J.B. Schmidt -- I would never had voted for Ted Kennedy for President. Not that I personally blamed him for the mess-up of that auto accident (because people in shock aren't thinking straight) but because of the sort of men he would keep around to advise him. Fortunately, it never became an issue.

Romney's character, however, is. He showed a distinct lack of empathy for that dog and for the numerous people he put out of work during his Bain Capital days.

@Randy
Does he also deserve the credit to his character for the thousands that have been created because of how Bain restructured failing companies? Since you seem able to condemn him for job loss that would have happened to the company regardless if Bain bought them or not.

Being a rich 1%'er his dog probably lived better them you. Does the pleasant home life of the dog then also garner him some credit?

Mary Jo Kopechne would have been safer on top of Romney's car than in Kennedy's car.

Patty, the dog story is no more "current" than is the Kennedy story. It happened nearly 30 years ago.

Bob, its current because he is running for president now.
and J. B. Schmidt- we have no idea how is dog lived. If that is how the dog was treated on a trip, I can also imagine how he was treated at home. You can't just assume he was treated well because the family has money.

@Patty
Why can't I? You and Jason are 'assuming' it was treated poorly based on a single story.

Patty, he's running for President, not chair of the local ASPCA chapter. I know plenty of people who treat their dogs like people and, frankly, most of them haven't got a lot going on in the common sense department. I wouldn't trust them with a $100 of my money, much less put them in the wheelhouse of the nation.

On the other hand, someone who drives blind stinking drunk into the water and leaves behind a passenger to die, while saving his own skin and using his family influence to extricate himself from the consequences AND who goes on to become the elder statesman of his party while continuing to behave in the same fashion that produced the afore mentioned atrocity is not something to be waved off as "ancient history". You'll still find no one in your party with the you-know-whats to call him out, even at this point, for those actions. Because the name still resonates and produces political gain for the party as a whole. That, Patty, is disgusting.

You guys can rationalize any crime, evil, creepy thing that a Republican does, but you know what? It doesn't work any more. You've shown yourselves to be anti-Middle Class worker, anti-women, anti-healthcare, anti-minorities, anti-contraception and anti-everything except the tax breaks you give to the Rich and Big Oil. Say goodnight gracie! It's all over for the Tea Baggers.

You should probably add LBJ's habit of picking up his dogs by the ears--to me, that sounds worse than having a car-top dog crate..

How did you post in the future, Bob? Your post reads 5:41 pm, and my post was made after yours and timestamped at 5:37...

Don't forget anti-dogs-in-the-car too, R Still.

BTW, how do you feel about Teddy Kennedy's drive into the drink, Clinton's little dalliance in the Oval Office, John Edwards screwing around behind his cancer-striken wife's back, Anthony's Weiner, JFK's turning the WH into the Playboy Mansion East?

Any of that matter to you? Or do you just rationalize those away?

@ Bob McBride - See that's the difference between us Bob, Democrats do NOT approve of cheating, lying stealing etc. and we don't reward it like Republicans do. It's almost a badge of "honor" for Teapublicants. Take the case of Rep. Vitter, a wife cheater on the DC Madame's "client" list. When HE got caught they gave him a dinner and a standing ovation, when Weiner got caught with his pants down, he was forced to resign. Hypocrisy? The Teapublicants invented it! http://blogs.e-rockford.com/applesauce/2011/06/16/a-few-differences-between-the-respective-sex-scandals-of-anthony-weiner-and-david-vitter/

Well then how to do you explain Teddy Kennedy and Bill Clinton?, R Still? JFK's legacy?

Not quite as different as you'd like to believe, is it?

And, seriously, does a dog in a carrier on the top of the car 30 years ago even come close to those 3 examples? C'mon....

The comments I read on another site about Cheney's heart transplant bring up the fact that it was possible for a person with Cheney's wealth and good health insurance to even get a transplant at his age. This happening at a time when so many conservatives don't want affordable health care for most of the country.

I read hundreds of posts on Cheney after his heart transplant on Huffington Post and couldn't find a single one, whether they agreed with the man or not, that wished him any ill. I know we have more class than that. So not sure where you read that, but it sure wasn't the thousands of posts on HP. Also wasn't it nice that he had great health insurance that would cover such huge costs. The same that Teapublicants would deny to Working class America.

@ Bob McBride We have the dog vote AND their owners - better a dog owner than a dog abuser. By the way, Seamus ran away when they reached Canada. I now have a sticker that reads "I Ride Inside" DogsAgainstRomney.com Shows a Corgi like my own and I have it on the back of my truck. It the man can't even care for a dog, how the H*LL can he take care of the country. Answer...he can't. And won't, because Obama will be re-elected just by the preponderance of those the Conservatives are attacking..women, minorities, LGBT, unions, Seniors, Middle Class workers, the poor, children, any religion other than Faux Christian...and the list goes on....and on.

You need to quit watching MSNBC and hanging out a Alterra. All that nonsense and caffeine are making your cranky.

If you watch the youtube video with Mitt on Fox News, he admits to the incident. And he also admits to "have gone through a lot of dogs in the years" as well.
I guess when you treat dogs like hood ornaments, their lifespan dramatically decreases. Whoda thunk?

Under Paul Ryan's plan he would have to "shop around" to try and find an insurance company to even cover him first, and with his health history there is not a company in the US that would touch him with a ten foot shotgun.

Most transplant teams will not perform a heart transplant on anyone over 70. Here is an interesting article on this subject: http://vitals.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/03/25/10855120-cheney-too-old-for-transplant-bioethicist-weighs-in

Jason, I'm not a social conservative and I'm not afraid of Romney being Obama-lite. I know his background. I find him much more acceptable than a Santorum or a Gingrich or a Cain or...I don't even remember the rest of them at this point.

I find him and Obama, frankly, interchangeable and that doesn't bother me. He's snooty and so is Obama. He's out of touch with the common man and so is Obama -that's part and parcel of the career path both of them have taken He's socially liberal and so is Obama. He's less likely to send us into spiraling, unrecoverable debt than is Obama. That's why I favor him.

I'm not an absolutes guy as regards candidates. I'm a "lesser of two evils" guy and, based on what I think Obama wants to do in his next term as regards another "stimulus" effort, I favor Romney.

Not that hard to understand, really. None of them are perfect, they all have warts and we love to poke fun at warts.

If your overriding issues are incontinent dogs riding in the Granny Clampett seat and hating the rich, so be it. I can accept that. Nobody said you had to vote one way or the other for logical reasons.

Sure, Paul. I love how all of you right types assume that anyone who doesn't agree with your views uses your money and has no job. I assure you that you are not paying a penny towards my life. How do I know the taxes I pay aren't supporting you? You are so ridiculous.
There are people who lack health care in this country. If they have no insurance, or their insurance won't cover pre-existing conditions... or their insurance doesn't cover the high costs of some treatments, then they go without health care. That should never happen in a country like ours.
You go ahead and keep believing that every liberal is lazy, doesn't work, collects welfare or whatever.. you are very naive.

@Paul S -- I'm actually very worried about earning a living for myself, my son, and my grandson. The lean, mean, hostile takeover and downsize business model that Romney and Bain Capital exemplified is responsible for quite a few people being unable to earn as good a living as they had earned before, or being able to earn a living at all. It makes it difficult to acquire healthcare. It makes it difficult to save for retirement. Meanwhile the lucky ones like Romney continue to rake it in and blame the unlucky ones for their plight. Just like that dog on the roof, losing control of his bowels. Bad dog!

Of all of them, Romney is the least odious to me in terms of his politics, but he is so untrustworthy it scares me. When it comes down to preserving Medicare and Social Security for those of us who now find them crucial, thanks in part to thirty years of vulture capitalism, who knows what he will do? He's a weathercock, spinning in the political wind.

Randy you are quite ignorant, you should be thankful that this country allows dunderheads like you to vote. Would you like me to list all of the companies that Romney saved that were going down the bankruptcy toliet?

@Randy
I'll ask again, do you have any facts to support the belief that more people lost their jobs do to Bain's actions then gained them? Businesses come and go every day. Also, provide for me the number of jobs saved (since we are crediting Obama for those) that would have been lost had Bain not existed.

Currently Medicare and SS are DOA. Your grandson will never partake of those if they stay on the current path, which is also the current Democratic plan. Mitt supports the Ryan plan. The only current plan offered that will work.

@J.B. Schmidt -- If you have numbers showing a net increase of jobs provided by Bain Capital's machinations, I'll be happy to listen to them. I'm going by the testimony of a person who worked for a factory in Georgia that was taken over by Bain, had its assets looted and sent to other companies, was sold, went into bankruptcy, and then recently re-opened under new ownership, no thanks to Bain.

I don't think it is really possible to come with exact numbers, but it seems pretty obvious that the vast majority of companies that Bain invested in have not gone out of existence.

Staples, Sports Authority, Gymboree, Clear Channel Communications, Houghton Mifflin, Burger King, Sealy, Domino's Pizza, Burlington Coat Factory, Dunkin Donuts, and the Weather Channel are all successful companies that collectively employ tens of thousands of people today because they were part of Bain Capital's investments/acquisitions at one point or another.

Here's one for you, guys -- from that Liberal rag, The Christian Science Monitor: http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Elections/President/2012/0119/Is-Mitt-Romney-really-a-job-creator-What-his-Bain-Capital-record-shows

Buy company, squeeze workers for extra profit, go into debt to pay Bain big bonuses, flip company . . .

@Randy
Do you have any data on Bain? You have only stories of people mad they lost their jobs and a union leaders who is anti-republican. Not exactly proof of anything you are saying. If it were me, I would want hard date before I attacked a guy for the business decisions he made.

When Obama took over GM and demanded they closed down car dealerships in their restructuring process, I wonder if there were people angry at Obama? Do those job losses question Obama's credibility?

@J.B. -- You didn't read the entire article. You give me the data on Bain -- jobs created versus jobs eliminated, plus the changes in salary and circumstance of the actual workers involved. What you will find is middle-class people doing worse and folks like Romney doing better.

Here's another specific instance: http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/2012/01/13/2599863/romneys-bain-capital-made-millions.html

"Boston-based Bain Capital LLC more than doubled its money on GS Industries Inc. – the former parent company of Georgetown Steel – under Mitt Romney’s leadership in the 1990s, even as the steel manufacturer went on to cut more than 1,750 jobs, shuttered a division that had been around for 100 years and eventually sank into bankruptcy."

@Randy
Staples had to open a location before Mitt invested and not they employe 70k people.
http://www.newsmax.com/RonaldKessler/Mitt-Romney-Bain-Capital/2012/01/09/id/423495

Turn around Steel Dynamics
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/288162/bain-capital-and-little-steel-mill-could-patrick-brennan

Now we are even in companies, but I have more employed then your losses.

Your turn .

@Randy
70% success rate.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204331304577140850713493694.html

If we factor in the billions spent by Obama on alternative energy companies, Romney's percentages are better.

I'll repost a comment from January: "Staples was an example of an early Bain Capital "start-up." The layoffs (the extent of which are unknown because of private records) took place after BC shifted focused to leveraged buyouts. In many instances, BC was party to "strip mining" a company, then jumping out before it went bankrupt (i.e. Ampad)."

My issue with Mitt Romney is a gnawing sense that he is not forthright. Even though we know that quantitative facts, there is other data that is not present. I sense discomfort in his public appearances, almost a wariness-of being confronted with questions he would prefer not to answer? What would happen in a general election?

I do believe Romney is the strongest of the top 3 candidates. Rick Santorum lost re-election in 2006 by 18 points in part because of his support for the Iraq War and also a poorly-timed dust-up in Pennsylvania from moving his family to Virginia and still accessing PA's educational program for his homeschooled children, costing taxpayers considerable expense. He also claims to be regular folks while his income over the past few years has been at or near $1m/annum. Without his billionaire backer, I believe Rick would have faded long ago.

And Newt--only Newt could blame patriotism for his marital infidelity. Another who is still in the race courtesy of a billionaire backer.

Bren:

You do realize that Romney was on a leave of absence from Bain during the Ampad takeover, don't you? He was running for the Senate at the time and had nothing to do with Ampad...

Dang. Romney is a company saving, job creating, weath generating, investing machine.

Cow, yes. Mitt held several positions within the company and as I understood, was more involved in the earlier venture aspect. That doesn't mean he didn't and doesn't benefit from the income generated by colleagues.

There's that whole "capitalism with a human face" issue to think about going forward.

Bren:

What exactly is wrong with 'benefitting from the income generated by colleagues'? The issue here is the alleged rape and pillaging of corporations by Romney, isn't it?

...remember, those 'human faces' were subject to job losses had Bain not taken the risk and put their money into those companies and allowed those businesses to fail.

Some might say reaping the benefits of others' plunder is tacit acceptance, if not complicity. What Bain did wasn't illegal, but it was at times highly insensitive to the needs of people. Sensitivity and compassion for others is a trait I would admire in any president of these United States.

Bren:

The 'needs of the people' are to have a company in business so they can have a job. Bain Capital saved a lot of companies from going out of existence (along with the jobs they provide)...

Cow, the dark side of Bain was loading some companies with debt they didn't previously have, etc. If we are looking for a president that can outwit China, India, etc., in the board room Romney would be the one. But we need a president who can deal with non-business issues, up to and including bringing all sides to the table and building consensus on important world issues. Of all of the Republican candidates, I would say Romney was the one most capable of doing this, but this is in relative terms.

We need a community organizer to bring world leaders together and beat America down in it's place.

This is fun:
Cow, the dark side of Obama was loading the entire country with debt it didn't previously have, etc.

Steve, don't you believe it's possible to build consensus without losing face? And I do hope that you haven't forgotten which administration was on watch during the road to recession, or that bail-outs began during that administration. Let's keep it real! ; )

Bewildered, absurdity is coin of the realm for liberals.

I'm pretty impressed that a 28 year old dog is still capable of producing diarrhea...

At least Romney pays his bills and doesnt go around bilking folks in some grand co-op pyramid scheme like some folks.

Alfred, just saying, personal attacks do not give you cachet.

No, Patty, it's not irrelevant now, because your party still considers him one of its greatest statesman, regularly honors his memory and none of them will condemn those actions publicly because it would, in fact, draw attention to the hypocrisy that still exists in your party to this day. It pays to learn your legacy, lest it come back to haunt you as it has right here. Ignorance is not an excuse.

Really Bob l...everyone who votes democratic doesn't share the exact same beliefs. I still don't get the point of even bringing up this thing with Kennedy. So you are saying that nobody should ever vote for a Democrat because of what one of them did almost 50 years ago? So if we go along with that- should nobody ever vote for a Republican because Nixon was a crook?
And Paul, if Kennedy came back from the dead and was running for president today, maybe I would take the time to go back and research it. It has nothing to do with the elections in 2012.

No, Patty, that's not the point.

@Patty
We have a president that spent 20 years in the church of radical, but that has no bearing on his character. We had a president that womanized in the Oval Office, but we can't assume that means poor character. Democrats had a Wiener Representative that was sexting to a woman other then his pregnant wife. Democrats had a presidential candidate using campaign funds to hide his pregnant girlfriend from his cancer stricken wife. Young woman continue to come forward regarding JFK's sexual exploits while president.

Yet, you are attempting to crucify a guy who didn't put his pup in an airbag protected leather seat with a neck pillow. Where is your ability to be objective?

As usual JB, you have no idea what you are talking about. How many YouTube videos were there of Wright preaching? Three?

20 years of preaching. So these videos lasted what? Six years a piece?

A number of respected clergy and theologians in Chicago had a high opinion of Wright.

But you are a little prickly about racism. How come?

Keith,

Still dealing with your unresolved racial guilt?

Steve, is that your picture collection? Very nice if so!

In the interview with Romney I saw about this, he described it as a large air-tight crate or words to that effect. I've never seen a vehicle-top dog crate for sale so assume it must have been custom-made.

It's pretty common for crated dogs to ride in the backs of pickup trucks. How much worse is it really to put the crate on the top of a car?

What about the cattle or pig trucks that we see on our highways? If it's OK for those animals to be transported in such a manner, why is it so terrible for a crated dog?

Bob - The last two pics of the little black one are mine. The rest looks like Jason posted of his collection. I assume by air tight (video interview posted to this article) he meant protected from the wind and road like a livestock trailer.

Dogs often do ride in pick up truck bed, I have seen dogs on motorcycles before. I take mine jet skiing with his little life vest. He even sticks his head out the window on the freeway with pleasure.

Just trying to see what this crate looked and gain a larger picture like before I go all ape on something that happened they year I was born.

Yes, Steve, I was referring to those two.

That odd little dog next to your two. We used to have a couple of those as kids. They were vegetarians and had a hell of a time fetching slippers. I don't imagine they would have been very useful on hunting trips either.

Depends on what you are hunting. Look like good bait.

No I didn't. Asked for hard figures of his job 'creation' versus the jobs eliminated by Bain's machinations. Interesting thing about Staples and Toys R Us -- there are other companies that might have been competitors that went down the tubes under Bain's stewardship, including American Pad & Paper and KB Toys. So what is the net effect? Especially if you were one of the older workers let go and not rehired?

Mike,

You need to pay attention. You read too many headlines or get your news from ABC/CBS/NBC.

I hope you also include name-calling Republicans in your all-encompassing love! ; )

Gregory, mother would have loved something like that I'm sure, and we didn't have a dog! Sometimes I think even she might have found our vigorous negotiations for the "shotgun" seat and driving lessons slightly annoying (she would pedal and one of us would steer).

Who are these 'biggest conservatives' that you refer to?

By my count, only Paul S has made a comment about liberals being lazy/out of work. Just how big is Paul S?

Most of us are self employed and doing quite well Mr. Patzfahl, so I guess we are stealing from ourselves when we respond to your sophomoric rantings of a stay at home dad whose genitalia has been confiscated by his public school teaching wife.

There is this thing called the internet
It is installed at work
It actually can make you a boat load of money if you know how to use it correctly.
At work there is a computer that is hooked to the internet.

Debt is not 'inheritable' from a father to a son.

Jay, please don't mess up Jason's hard-scrabble story where he compares himself to Mitt Romney.

Jason, nice hard-scrabble story. So what. Everyone has a story. Did you hear the one about the Warren Buffett? You know, the one where he takes a deep pay cut and gives all his wealth to his employees and families.

And god forbid, in your angst and unresolved racial guilt, why do you bring in Trayvon and MLK? BTW, MLK was a Republican.

I have no idea. And neither does the President, because he never lived there.

According to my google machine they do. Don't youtube it if you want to have a good day. The president is not very smart if I know this and he does not.