Readers’ rants from Romney fest
BY CAROL MARIN cmarin@suntimes.com August 31, 2012 6:48PM
Chicago Sun-Times political columnist Carol Marin works at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., last week. | DON MOSELEY PHOTO
Updated: October 3, 2012 6:15AM
TAMPA — OK, here I am, sitting in the Tampa airport, and reading emails that have piled up over a week of covering Republicans at their Romney fest.
Some of you have gotten pretty worked up about what I’ve written. And I figure if I get to write what I think, I ought to return the favor.
A few of you found my column about Ray LaHood — Republican congressman and secretary of Transportation for President Barack Obama — particularly irritating when I referred to him as a “conservative” who will for the first time in his 66 years, vote for a Democrat for president.
Anthoy Caruso writes: “How in God’s name you can refer to Ray LaHood as a ‘conservative’ is beyond me.”
John Bolte, of Joliet, writes: “Because of very low cost, I’m now getting the Sun-Times. I never realized that was a left-wing paper until now. You tell me if Jesse Jackson, Mary Mitchell, John Fountain, your editorials and other columnists are objective, then I’ll fall off my chair.”
When I wrote about Mitt Romney’s recent revelations that he, a multimillionaire, irons his own shirts and that he buys them at Costco, some of you were as hot as the nominee’s steam iron.
Mary Lusak writes: “I had read that he purchases those shirts from Costco and that the shirts come in a three-pack. I shop at Costco all the time and no men’s shirts come in a three-pack.”
And not everyone was wild about Ann Romney’s newlywed anecdotes either.
S. Wright fumes: “The bit about tuna casserole and no furniture — many of us are still there. We weren’t lucky enough to marry a man worth probably a half a billion dollars.”
As for my column on the “truthiness” of flammable, fuzzy-fact convention rhetoric, Rod S. writes: “I have never seen a campaign where both sides are so willing — even eager at times — to flat-out lie about the other candidate. And, they don’t even care when they get caught. Then, they double-down on the lie”
And then there was this, from Ron Vercellotti. Truthiness be told, it may be my favorite: “In the past I’ve been critical of your articles which I feel are really slanted, you being a liberal and all. This article you wrote in my eyes was a very fair assessment of the campaign rhetoric. This is how reporting should be done. I actually liked you today.”
Well, Ron, there’s always tomorrow.
I’m on to Charlotte next and the Democrats’ Obamafest. Keep those comments coming.
As Clint Eastwood would say — when he’s not talking to a chair — you guys make my day!
