This morning at about 5:45 I was listening to Sunday's This Week with George Stephanopoulos podcast whilst encouraging my wonderful dog to take a crap. Mitt Romney and his wife were the guests, and let me tell you, I wasn't impressed.

First off, Mitt's wife was kind of odd and kept mispronouncing words, like when she said "prostelighting" when trying to say "proselytizing." Understandable, considering she was probably nervous and that she has MS. But what bothered me was how Mitt kept cutting her off and finishing her thoughts. It's not as though that doesn't happen with other couples, but with the Romneys I couldn't help but see it as a disturbing glimpse of their Mormonics.

Next, when George asked Mitt about the sundry positions he's taken a u-turn on, he floundered (not foundered, floundered, which is somehow more pathetic, isn't it?) Not much more to say on this point, except that you should check out the audio. Stephanopoulos isn't exactly The Inquisition, and Romney completely folded.

Finally, during their discussion of gay marriage, Romney made an assertion you frequently hear from the right: the gay marriage debate is not about the rights of the adults, it's about the rights of their children. That is, the effective rearing of children requires a man and a woman in marriage.

It's a dubious claim, to be sure, and backed up by research conducted by the same people who said global warming was simply God bumping up the thermostat. But for the sake of argument, let's suppose it's true.

If the correct rearing of children is the real issue, why aren't we focusing our attention on that? For example, why not require licensing before having kids? The only pre-requisite would be marriage, obviously. And why aren't we banning divorces, except in the most extreme circumstances, for couples with children under 18? I mean, these are the same people who attack Murtha's recent plan to require troops serving in Iraq be properly trained and equipped, and serve no longer than the tour promised them when they signed up (A Modest Proposal, indeed!) a cowardly and indirect way to defund the Iraq war. If the real concern here is the children of America, isn't simply banning gay marriage a weak and indirect way to address only the smallest part of the problem?

Analogcabin @ 10:07 AM
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