Intrusion of Reality Ruins Perfectly Good Campaign Stop
Don’t you hate it when reality comes barging into your ideological Neverland and mucks everything up? That’s what happened to Mitt Romney last weekend. At a campaign stop in Dover, NH on Saturday, the Mittster found himself confronted by Clayton Holton, an 80-pound man stricken with muscular dystrophy who says he is “living proof medical marijuana works.” Romney wasn’t having any of it.
“I am completely against legalizing it for everyone,” Holton says, “but there is medical purposes for it.”
In an exquisite moneyshot of condescension worthy of Bill “Let’s Go to the Tape” Frist, Dr. Romney tells Holton that he should just use synthetic marijuana or some other painkiller (Oxy Contin maybe?), but Holton says he can’t, that stuff makes him sick.
While Holton starts rattling off all the prescription drugs he’s tried, you can actually see Romney clenching his jaw, rocking slightly, his lips moving as though invoking some obscure incantation to ward off this obvious Satanist sitting in front of him. He’s sensing the trap, as well as the battery of cameras forming around him, so he tries to brush the guy off. “I have muscular dystrophy,” Holton concludes.
“I’m sorry to hear that, I really am,” Romney brusquely says as he turns to walk away.
“My question for you,” says Holton, “is will you arrest me or my doctors if I get medical marijuana?”
“I am not in favor of medical marijuana being legal in the country,” Romney says. He turns to an old man sitting nearby. “Hi, how are you?”
“Excuse me, will you please answer my question?”
“I think I have. I am not in favor of legalizing medical marijuana.”
This isn’t the first time a Republican candidate has been cornered like this. In fact, Fred Thompson got the same treatment from Holton—a volunteer with Granite Staters for Medical Marijuana. Only when Fancy Fred got the question, he was at least able to respond like a human being—a slightly fogged-over human being—but nonetheless, a human being.
“Well, we’ll have to look into that,” Thompson said. “I’m not prepared to tell you ultimately. I can’t imagine what you’re having to go through and what your needs are, and I really can’t address that right now. But, I’ll be glad to sit down and talk with you sometime about it.”
My guess is Holton’s tactics will be far more effective in the general election than in the primary. The only hardcore Republicans likely to be moved by them are those who have seen, firsthand, medical marijuana alleviate the suffering of a loved one, and they’re already sold.
The rest of the base—at least, it seems, by Romney’s reckoning—will likely see a rude little prick with a ponytail and smart mouth and think: godless pinko hophead. Sure this drug may temporarily help his body, they’ll cry, falling to the floor with their Bibles and thrashing about in slicks of consecrated holy oils. But what of his soul?
October 8th, 2007 at 5:34 pm
Romney may be clueless, but Republican voters are actually pretty open-minded about medical marijuana, as Steve Chapman’s column in Sunday’s Chicago Tribune click here :
October 8th, 2007 at 6:07 pm
This is actually a bigger problem for Romney than it is for Thompson or the others because of who he’s married to. Like reversing himself on stem cell research and saying he’s against it, this idea of no medical marijuana, even for the gravely ill, makes him look extremely callous. But it also makes him look like a man who’s more worried about becoming president than he is about his own wife’s comfort.
Joe is right, though. The general election, if he gets there, is where he’ll get hammered on this stuff–especiall stem cells and Ann
October 12th, 2007 at 2:45 am
Compassion:
com·pas·sion (kəm-păsh’ən) pronunciation
n.
Deep awareness of the suffering of another coupled with the wish to relieve it. See synonyms at pity.
[Middle English compassioun, from Late Latin compassiō, compassiōn-, from compassus, past participle of compatī, to sympathize : Latin com-, com- + Latin patī, to suffer.]
compassionless com·pas’sion·less adj.
compassion
n
Antonyms:
cruelty, harshness, hatred, indifference, meanness, mercilessness, tyranny.
click here
October 16th, 2007 at 12:26 am
I would like to say “Thank You!” to all the folks on the front lines….:}
I woke up one day from my self-evolved life to a struggle for America’s Civil Liberties. I’m retired so I have a lot of time to devote to this injustice…a cannibus activist is born.
Thank You! to Eons, NORMAL, Lifevine, Richard Lake and DCRnet for their great work in supplying information on this subject. Thank You! to the DEA, FBI and the Republicans for their unbelievable behavior in handeling this matter.
To the clinic’s, the growers and the sick and dying…..”You are not alone…Thank You.” :}
January 8th, 2008 at 10:14 pm
WOW… My hat’s off to the support this issue still gets. I’ve been a proponent of MMJ for about 20 years now, since I saw first hand how it helped many of my friends years back… That said, here’s one to put in the pipe and puff on…
In 2000, the Republican party courted the ideals of most MMJ and general smokers by stating it’s core beliefs were “less government intrusion, and smaller government”… yea… right… Well we all saw what happened in 2001 and That “compasionate conservative” ran and hid. Next came 2004 when the republicans wanted to ‘prove’ their efforts with a poll of the AARP when that group were asked “Do you favor the use of medical marijuana to ease pain and suffering?”, thinking that if that were a small number and it comes from the gereatric group that their efforts in that other war.. the Drug War, thru the DEA and elsewhere would be vindicated. Well, the HUGE surprise was that over 70% of those AARP members who responded to the survey said they DO SUPPORT MMJ !!! Well, the survey was supposed to be published in the Oct. ‘04 AARP magazine to convince the other AARP members and others to ignore this issue in the campaigns of the Democrats, and it was pulled by the sponsor … guess who that sponsor was…??? You guessed it… The Rrepublican National Committee !!!
Well, I think the ‘new wave’ of Democrat candidates for ‘08 are seeing the tide that will take them to victory. I’m voting for Ron Paul but that’s because he is a serious 2nd Amendment supporter and so am I. If there is a war to be won…. let it begin now.
P.S. … I followed and helped John Edwards campaign in ‘04 but warned them that if they did NOT support the MMJ issue, they would lose and the rest is history… If ‘dear John’ gets past Feg. 5, someone tell him he’ll never make it without addressing this issue, like I did in ‘04, but I’ve already learned my lesson…
Keep the Faith
YOU will WIN in the end!
January 8th, 2008 at 10:26 pm
Yea, and I forgot to let you know why I support Dr. Ron Paul besides his stand on the Constitution… Read this;
click here
Thanks for voting and if you don’t just remember, You get the government you deserve.
April 22nd, 2008 at 9:14 pm
I AM A 53 YEAR REPUBLICAN WHO WORKED FOR CONGRESSMAN DANIEL LUNGREN AND REAGAN-BUSH NATIONAL COMMITTEE. I HAVE SEEN THE LIGHT… AND SUPPORT LEGALIZATION OF MARIJUANA FOR THOSE WHO ARE ILL. I HAVE BEEN STUDYING FOR OVER A YEAR THE PRO AND WHAT CONS OF MARIJUANA AND THIS IS A WONDERFUL SOLUTION FOR SO MANY WHO CANNOT TAKE FDA DRUGS. THE AVERAGE AMERICAN HAS NO IDEA THAT THE DRUGS WE TAKE DAILY CAN BE SO HARMFUL IN A VARIETY OF WAYS. TO BAD WE WERE NEVER TOLD THAT MARIJUANA CANNOT HURT YOU AND THE PROPAGANDA OF THE LAST 50 YEARS WAS JUST THAT.
READ THE HISTORY OF MARIJUANA, FASCINATING
bONNIE MORRISON
NEWPORT BEACH, CALIF
May 4th, 2008 at 4:36 am
Medical Marijuana Programs do not increase drug abuse. As a matter of fact they teach patients harm reduction - such as learning how to cook with cannabis, making tinctures and learning to vaporize instead of smoking.
I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. I found I can cook with a mixture of leaves and buds to make oils, cannabutter or tinctures. The edibles reduce my spasms and pain. I take fewer Rx pain pills.
I know I’d be taking more Baclofen and be wearing pads without my medicine. (I remember how I felt when I had to fly out of state for a couple days.)
OREGON RESIDENTS:
Just reminding everyone to read ini 131 and vote no on The Kevin Mannix Crimefighting Bill. If sigs are verified it threatens the entire Oregon Medical Marijuana Program by replacing marijuana with Marinol. Marinol is synthetic Thc. Marinol is not Marijuana.
Most patients would not be able to take Marinol or it would not provide relief; besides it is costly - like $2,000 a year - How Oregon Health Plan could pay for that and the doctors’ visit is beyond me. OMMP made money without a dispensary. Oregon has a very good system - and has very little abuse. Oregon has been a model for other states as they begin their legislative journey. It has worked well here for almost a decade. Don’t change what is working now.
Vote No on ini #131 Crimefightghting Act
IN OREGON
May 19th, 2008 at 8:44 am
Hello. I was just wondering if doctors or labs could tell the difference between Marinol and Marijuana in your system? Thank you in advance.
May 22nd, 2008 at 5:42 pm
Marinol costs over a thousand a month..thats unbearable as the pain.