Regarding the article:  GOSH! WHO TALKS LIKE THAT NOW?  ROMNEY DOES! that appeared in the New York Times and locally in "TBT*  TampaBay.com"on Thursday, October 25, 2012.

The part of about the word "grunt" is my favorite part. It reads: "Perhaps the most intriguing of these is "grunt." Most people just grunt. Mr. Romney, however, talks about grunting. "Grunt" he says, onomatopoetically, when annoyed with a last-minute change in his campaign schedule." 

Not only does Mr. Romney lack a real opinion, much less a platform, he seems to even lack a real personality and the ability to "act human". (Possibly it's an attempt to try relate to those of us [the infamous 47%] that he so despises.) Seemingly like the Scarecrow on the "Wizard of OZ", Governor Romney doesn't use much of his brain. I am willing to bet that on his first speech where he just says, "grunt", the speechwriters added it to the speech as stage direction, like in a movie script. Being Mitt, he just says it instead of doing it. Having made the mistake, he has had to continue the folly, so as to seem consistent, if you will.


The article, in it's entirety is below:

Gosh, Who Talks Like That Now? Romney Does
October 20, 2012 6:05 pm
By MICHAEL BARBARO and ASHLEY PARKER / The New York Times

Correction Appended

GOFFSTOWN, N.H. -- At a campaign stop in Rockford, Ill., not long ago, Mitt Romney sought to convey his feelings for his wife, Ann. "Smitten," he said.

Not merely in love.

"Yeah, smitten," he said. "Mitt was smitten."

It was a classic Mittism, as friends and advisers call the verbal quirks of the Republican presidential candidate. In Romneyspeak, passengers do not get off airplanes, they "disembark." People do not laugh, they "guffaw." Criminals do not go to jail, they land in the "big house." Insults are not hurled, "brickbats" are.

As he seeks the office of commander in chief, Mr. Romney can sometimes seem like an editor in chief, employing a language all his own. It is polite, formal and at times anachronistic, linguistically setting apart a man who frequently struggles to sell himself to the American electorate.

It is most pronounced when he is on the stump and off the cuff, not on the stuffy and rehearsed debate stage. But Mr. Romney offered voters a dose of it during his face-off with President Obama last week, when he coined the infelicitous phrase "binders full of women."

Mr. Romney's unique style of speaking has distinguished him throughout his career, influencing the word choices of those who work with and especially for him. Should he reach the White House, friends and advisers concede, the trait could be a defining feature of his public image, as memorable as Lyndon B. Johnson's foul-mouthed utterances or the first President Bush's tortured syntax.

Mr. Romney, 65, has spent four decades inside the corridors of high finance and state politics, where indecorous diction and vulgarisms abound. But he has emerged as if in a rhetorical time capsule from a well-mannered era of soda fountains and AMC Ramblers, someone whose idea of swearing is to let loose with the phrase "H-E-double hockey sticks."

"He actually said that," recalled Thomas Finneran, the speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives when Mr. Romney was governor. "As in, go to 'H-E-double hockey sticks.' I would think to myself, 'Who talks like that?' "

Mr. Romney, quite proudly. In fact, he seems puzzled by the fascination with something as instinctive (and immutable) as how he talks, as if somebody were asking how he breathes. "It's like someone who speaks with an accent," he said in an interview. "You don't hear the accent."

His Mormon faith frowns on salty language, and so does he. A man of relentless self-discipline, he made clear to lawmakers in Boston and colleagues in business that even in matters of vocabulary, he "held himself to a high standard of behavior," said Geoffrey Rehnert, a former executive at Bain Capital, the firm Mr. Romney started in the 1980s. Mr. Romney's father, George, whom he idolized, shared the same style of refined and restrained speech.

Those around him are so accustomed to his verbal tics that they describe them in shorthand. "Old-timey," said one aide. "His 1950s language," explained another. "The Gomer Pyle routine," said a third.

Asked about his boss's word preferences, Eric Fehrnstrom, a veteran Romney adviser, responded knowingly: "You mean like 'gosh, golly, darn'?"

For Democratic strategists, Mr. Romney's throwback vocabulary feeds into their portrayal of a man ill-equipped for the mores and challenges of the modern age. David Axelrod, a top adviser for an Obama campaign that has adopted "Forward" as its slogan, once quipped that Mr. Romney "must watch 'Mad Men,' " the hit television show set in Manhattan in the 1960s, "and think it's the evening news."

His exclamations can sound jarring to the contemporary ear -- or charming, depending on whom you ask. Midway into a critique of Mr. Obama's economic policies a few months ago in Charlotte, N.C., Mr. Romney declared: "They've scared the dickens out of banks," he said. "They've scared the dickens out of insurance companies."

He declared, "To heck with it!" while urging reporters to use their fingers to dig into a box of pastries he was passing around on a plane. "Darn good question," he replied to a voter in Kalamazoo, Mich., who asked how he would work with Congress if elected. (His wife also got the "darn" treatment in Michigan, when he enthused, "Gosh, darn, she is amazing!") "Thank heavens" is another favorite.

For people used to peppering their speech with four-letter words, time with Mr. Romney can prove an exercise in self-control. A half-dozen people recalled the precise moment when they swore -- almost always accidentally -- in his presence.

When Robert Travaglini, then the Democratic president of the Massachusetts State Senate, would curse in front of Mr. Romney, the governor would frown and interject, "Well, I wouldn't choose that diction," Mr. Travaglini recalled.

Mr. Rehnert, the former Bain executive, was mortified when a potential client he took into Mr. Romney's office promptly dropped a string of profanities. "Mitt wanted to know what cats and dogs I was dragging in here," Mr. Rehnert said.

His cussing colleagues said Mr. Romney took pains not to judge them publicly. "He did not impose his language preferences on us," Mr. Finneran said. "But I wonder if we became a little bit more restrained because we knew this about him."

Mr. Travaglini recalled lawmakers' discussing how Mr. Romney "should be more in tune with the vernacular of the day and express himself more passionately."

"But," he added, "that's not who he is."

Mr. Romney does have his own distinctly G-rated arsenal of angry expressions -- "Good grief," "flippin'," "good heavens" and even the occasional "crap."

Perhaps the most intriguing of these is "grunt." Most people just grunt. Mr. Romney, however, talks about grunting. "Grunt" he says, onomatopoetically, when annoyed with a last-minute change in his campaign schedule.

Many of Mr. Romney's verbal habits can sound like those of a hyper-literate graduate student who never left school. (In college, he majored in English.) He favors the gentlemanly qualifier "if you will," which he invoked three times during a recent speech in New Hampshire.

On how to reduce the debt: "You have to start accumulating, if you will, reserves."

On speaking to a group of soldiers: "The cadets were all lined up and sitting at attention, if you will."

On his business background: "I've had the experience of working in the real world, if you will."

In interviews, voters expressed an equal measure of admiration for and curiosity about his quaint dialect, which many described as a conspicuous break from the normally harsh tone of politicians.

"It's a wonderful change," said Irene Sperling, a retiree from Allentown, Pa. "He's a gentleman."

Wendy Tonn, 63, a Romney supporter who splits her time between Michigan and Florida, said she found comfort in his vocabulary, comparing it to the simple innocence of "Leave It to Beaver." "We are of that era, and we'd like to be returned to that kind of era," she said.

A few of Mr. Romney's acquaintances, however, have tried to drag him linguistically into the 21st century. Mr. Finneran, an admitted serial curser, said that after years of working closely with Mr. Romney, he began to fantasize about provoking him to utter a particularly crude word.

"It got to the point where I started to think that my greatest achievement of all time would be if I somehow or other got him to say the word," he said.

Once, Mr. Romney seemed on the cusp of fulfilling that wish during a heated discussion in the State Capitol. But he caught himself just in time.

"And I thought, 'Oh, God, my closest moment ever,' " Mr. Finneran said. "But it's not going to happen."

Correction: October 20, 2012, Saturday

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction: An earlier version of a picture caption with this article misstated the location and date of a campaign stop by Mitt Romney. He was in DeWitt, Mich., in June, not in Virginia this month.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

A Look to the past to help us to save our future.

There was a time that when you opened the door of a GM car, truck or van that there would be an emblem on the bottom of the front doorways that said, "BODY BY FISHER".

 

 

 I always smiled when I would see that. It made me think of my sweet but tiny Mom working the afternoon shift struggling to move those large cushions to sew them together to put into all of those GM vehicles. While I regret my Mom having to miss most of my childhood.  As I grew up, I came to understand the sacrifices that she made, being away from her young children (I was two and my eldest brother of the five of us was nine, when she started working at Fisher Body) to make a better life for us, as her parents generation did for hers, and their parents did for them.  This is not the year to give up on the middle class, the middle class that the American Labor Movement fought to create, just to let it die. This is the year to save the middle class, especially those who have or are nearing retirement age.

The Social Security Act, enacted on August 14, 1935 as been a fund that every legal American Worker has paid into. The Social Security fund had always had a surplus until some greedy politicians started digging into it to pay for other things.

We, as Americans, have paid into the Social Security, Medicare, and disability insurance (FICA) since we were kids working our first jobs. We have paid into these funds with our hard earned money! These are not "entitlements", we aren't "dependent on government" or believe that "we are victims" and "are entitled to health care, to food, to housing to you name it" as Governor Romney likes to say about those of us 47% that he says, "I'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives." Furthermore, Governor Romney said, "It's not my job to worry about these people." We aren't expecting a handout, we just want what is due to us, what we have paid for. Like many corporations, the Insurance Industry is a good example, all branches of Government are happy to take our money, but not so happy to give it back or pay us what we have earned.

I wonder why Governor Romney is so adamant about not showing his tax returns. It's probably because it will show the American People is that he is exactly what we are fighting against. The wealthy digging deeper into our pockets to make them richer. I doubt if Mitt Romney ever worked an honest days work in his life. I wonder what his father, George, would really have to say about Mitt's "business experience". While George Romney worked to turn American Motors Corporation around, making it competitive, his son Mitt, was CEO of a company that took companies and stripped them dry of assets, outsourced or just fired workers and bankrupted the companies while walking away with billion dollars of profits from those assets that they STOLE.

George Romney was a Republican and was elected Governor of Michigan in 1962, 64 and 66. I wonder what he, President Gerald Ford, and President Ronald Reagan (all Republicans) would think of the current state of the Republican Party? I know that I am so displeased that I severed my relationship with the Republican Party and became an Independent in the 1980's. Honestly, I wasn't a Democrat until I saw Barack Obama speak before the Democratic National Convention in 2004. The only reason that I tuned into the convention was that I was curious why Ronald Reagan, Jr. was making a speech to Democrats that night. You might call me an "Obama Democrat".

Why am I a such an devoted democrat?

I'll bet many people wonder why I am such a devoted Democrat.  I'm actually an Obama Democrat.  When I was seventeen, I was to young to vote for President Ford.  He lost the election because he pardoned former President Nixon.  Twenty-five years later, historians, scholars and both the Democrat's and Republican's said that President Ford did the right thing and it was the best way to help America heal and move ahead.  I was a Republican until the end of the Reagan Administration.  After that, I was an Independent. I didn't lean toward the Democratic side until I watched the Democratic Primaries in 2004. I only tuned in because I was curious as to why Ronald Reagan, Jr. was speaking. As it turns out, he was speaking on behalf of funding for research for a cure for Alzheimer's and the use of cell stem research. That night, I heard a charismatic man who had just been elected as the Junior Senator of Illinois.  I thought it was odd that someone of such low ranking be given such a prominent speech:  the keynote address.  His name was Barack Obama.  He made a moving speech, one that reminded me of those made by Presidents Abraham Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  The next day, I told my eldest brother, Kurt, that he would run for and become President in 2008.  As I'm sure most older brothers do, he blow me off until it actually happened.  In 2008, my 84 year old Mom (a long time Democrat), Scherry and I went to Orlando (a two hour drive one way) to an Obama rally.  We saw and heard U. S. Senators Bill Nelson, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama speak.  We were all so excited as none of us have ever been to a political rally.  Now, I stand beside my co-workers, my fellow UNION MEMBERS (GASP! Did he say the "U" word?) and members of the battered and almost non-existent middle class and fight for what we have worked for all of our lives.  We have been paying into Social Security and the Medicare Fund and pension plans since they began.  I'll be damned if I'm going to let some rich punks take it away and continue to line their own pockets.  It should be noted that some current and many former Republicans wonder what has became of their party.  The greed and lose of respect for the Constitution, America and for the Republican Party began with a member of the Oil Cartel, President George "W" Bush (the same cartel that had another member by the name of Osama Bin Laden).  The viciousness and greed spread like wildfire.  That's why I call Governor Mitt Romney, "good ol' line his pockets Mitt".  Look what he did with Bain Capital!  If he wins this election, he and his wealthy pals are going to get even richer, like they did when he was Governor, at the expense of the rest of us.

Tampa Bay is coming back!

Many people complain about President Obama. I can't speak about any other part of the country, but Tampa Bay is showing many signs of recovery.  I live in Pasco County (north of Tampa) and work in Pinellas County (west of Tampa).  I see so much progress being made.  Most of the McDonald's Restaurants have been torn down and totally new McDonald's buildings have taken their place (a very attractive design, I might add). Wal-Mart has remodeled most of their stores included making Super Wal-Mart stores out of regular Wal-Mart stores. They have also added three new stores in St. Petersburg (one on the 3300 block of U.S. 19 South, a Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market on U.S. 19 and 68th Ave. North and Super Wal-Mart on U.S. 19 and 1st Ave. North in the revitalized Grand Central Shopping District of Central Avenue heading toward Downtown St. Pete. What use to be a blighted area now has many new small businesses lining Central Ave. Wal-Mart is also building a store on U.S. 19 in Tarpon Springs where a K-Mart store use to be. Wal-Mart is also building a Sam's Club store on U.S. 19 and 17th Ave. North in St. Pete. The Dollar Tree chain has added many new stores, among them one in South St. Pete, one in Clearwater Mall, and one in Port Richey, Florida. Within the past few years, I noticed that HH Gregg appliance & Electronics stores that I use to shop at when I lived in Indiana have come to the area. Hobby Lobby built a new store in Port Richey. A new chain of gas station/convenience stores called WaWa are being built, too. God Bless Harold Seltzer for opening two steakhouses where the old Sam Seltzer's Steakhouses use to be. (They have the best New York Strips and every once in a great while T-Bone steaks that just melt in your mouth.) These are just a few examples.

While I tend to moan and groan about all of the road construction being done these days, I had to think back that before President Obama was elected, there was great concern about where to get the money to repair or replace the Eisenhower Interstate System and other highways in the U.S.  Many people complained about the Stimulus Package and how expensive it is, but after 50 years the all of these roads and many other projects needed to be replaced or built and President Obama is going to, as Larry the Cable Guy says, "git 'er done"!