Imagine working for someone that can't even acknowledge your existence. Maybe you are serving in a foreign away from your family, your children, your spouse, and even your dog. You are alone, the job is boring, you tell your husband, your wife, your mother. It's true it is boring, but last month you lost your best friend to a road side IED. He was in the vehicle ahead of you. Everyone scramble to take cover in case of snipers. There weren't any, but those minutes waiting for something or nothing to happen were the longest minutes of your life. Finally the commanding officer gives the all clear and you return to the base. You ride with your best friend. There will be a funeral and you will talk to his wife. You will talk to your wife and reassure her a hundred times you are ok. But, you aren't ok. You are anything, but ok. The only people that understand are the people in your unit. But, you are there for your country. You don't ask for a lot, but at least people thank you for your service. Unless they are Mitt Romney and they don't have a laundry list of things to do. They just go out and do what is important. Like talking about all the ways they are going to tax the middle class to pay for tax cuts for the rich. Yes, it is more important that we talk about ways to raise taxes on people like those that serve the country, rather than thank them for their service, that is Mitt Romney's world.
I didn't think I could be shocked more than I have already been shocked by this campaign. I knew the high from Mitt's European Vacation would end. It was a great week. Yes, I was angry that he insulted our allies and he was the laughing stock of Europe. But, all in all it was fun to watch him fumble and gaffe his way through what should have been a relatively easy time on his road to the GOP nomination.
This was the first time his campaign showed that Mitt is overtly racist. Of course, many people including myself already suspected that. "If you want free stuff vote for the other guy." I can't see anyway to spin that that helps Mitt put his hood back on straight. Mitt's joke about Obama's birth certificate firmly puts him in the birther camp. I can't say after this last couple of month's I am angry about that. I have used it all up now I am just in awe that anyone can run a campaign this badly.
Mitt's failure to mention the troops in his nomination speech is not the thing that makes him unfit to command. It highlights his unfitness rather nicely or in a rather ugly way if you rather. His unfitness stems from his arrogance. He is a racist that alone as far as I am concerned makes him unfit to lead a diverse nation. The commander in chief isn't just the commander in chief of white males in the military. The President or Commander in Chief is the President of all American citizens. The fact that he refuses to see so many, the majority of Americans as a matter of fact, means he is unfit. He doesn't see women as equal, he like Santorum doesn't like Blah people, he thinks Hawaii isn't the real America, if you don't have enough money to go to college borrow it from your parents. He has no idea what the reality is for the 99%.
So the glaring no reverence, reference, mention of our troops while infuriating isn't the worst thing he has done. It's very bad, it is monumentally bad. But, think about everything he has done while campaigning all the flip flops all the gaffes, errors in judgement, his record at Bain, his lying to the SEC, his hiding his tax returns, yelling at reporters, impersonating a police officer, his armature barbering, his treatment of animals, ect.. I could go on and on and on. But, I am not trying to write a novel here. Make no mistake about this, the failure to acknowledge our troops all by itself is a horrible thing. It is one of those things that should stand out, but somehow in a sea of incompetence it just becomes one more thing that Mitt has mishandled and as usual his explanation just makes things worse. If I was in the military it is the thing that would have me vote for someone else. I don't know which way I would go with my vote. I might vote for Obama in protest or Gary Johnson because I want to. But, I am not in the military. But, even I feel the slap in the face.