The New York Times Runs a Hit Job on Ann Romney
Leave it to the New York Times to greet its vast audience of Sunday edition readers with a front-page hit job on Ann Romney. Everyone knows that Mitt Romney’s wife, along with his flock of sons, is one of his greatest strengths. Ann Romney is beautiful, smart, a great campaigner, and an all-around asset to Mitt Romney’s campaign for the presidency.
So what does the old “paper of record,” as it used to be called before everyone realized it is a left-liberal rag that regularly fails to separate outright propaganda from its news stories, do to tarnish Ann Romney?
It does the only thing possible. Run a story to prove what we already know: The Romneys are rich, they are part of the hated 1% (to use OWS lingo), and Mrs. Romney is someone who engages in a horse sport called “dressage.” Yes, it is so rare that you undoubtedly never heard of it before.
The Times informs us in the second paragraph that the sport attracts “wealthy women” in particular; that the horses who are in it cost “seven figures”; that Ann Romney goes on horse buying trips to Europe; and that Ann and Mitt floated a loan of $250,00 to $500,000 to one Jan Ebeling, Ann’s tutor in the sport and a horse scout.
You get the idea? The Romneys are filthy rich, are not like you and I, and participate in a rare sport that only the “elite” partake in. No down-to-earth ice hockey for them, not to speak of baseball or football.
On Facebook today, Univ. of Chicago professor Charles Lipson, from whom I first heard of the story before opening the Sunday paper, wrote the following quiz:
NEWS QUIZ!!! Really hard one!
FACT: Ann Romney rides horses in a sport called dressage. Some people in Manhattan think it is a sport for rich people.
QUIZ QUESTION: Does The New York Times Sunday edition think the story is:
A) Trivial and should not appear in the newspaper at all?
B) Mildly interesting and should appear in the Style section?
C) Important and should appear somewhere in the Sunday news sections?
D) Earth-shattering and should appear on the front page of the Sunday paper with the words “elite,” “expensive,” and “deep-pocketed” prominently featured in the lede paragraph about Ms. Romney?
This is a really hard one.
No peeking at today’s New York Times.
Well, you already know the answer to Prof. Lipson’s quiz. Reporter Trip Gabriel, if we can call this person a reporter, writes that this little-known sport is part of the Romney family’s “way of life, which they have generally shielded from view.” Get it? They don’t want it out that Ann Romney engages in the elite sport of dressage.
Of course, she was doing this before the campaign, and one can argue that it is hardly relevant to the issues facing the country. Moreover, if the Romneys just wanted to enjoy their wealth and retire and live off their vast savings and profits, Mitt Romney did not have to subject himself to the tiring effort of running for president. Perhaps he might be doing this because he believes he can help the country return to its greatness, and use his expertise and know-how to get our economy in better shape. Such a common-sense conclusion, of course, is something that hardly occurs to whatever editor commissioned this bit of old-fashioned yellow journalism.
But no, the paper and reporter Gabriel pause to remind us again of what we already knew but has to be thrown in the readers’ faces:
Protective of their privacy, they may also have been wary of the kind of fallout that came after Mr. Romney’s mention of the “couple of Cadillacs” his wife owned and the disclosure of plans for a car elevator in the family’s $9 million beach house in California, which prompted criticism that Mr. Romney was out of touch with average Americans.
But aren’t their more accessible sports that Ann Romney could have taken up? And why, one might wonder at this point, did she find out about dressage, given that it is so rare? The answer comes only in the eighth paragraph, in which readers learn that “Mrs. Romney took up dressage at age 50 as a therapy for multiple sclerosis, but it soon became her passion. Riding, she has said, ‘sings to my soul.’”
So she obviously learned about the sport in the first place because it was recommended as being a good therapy for dealing with MS. But the article does not give Ann Romney credit for learning this tough and demanding sport at age 50, and becoming an expert and champion at it. Instead, the reader is supposed to think how horrible it is that Mrs. Romney chose a sport that only the rich can participate in. And even worse, Mitt Romney learned to ride trails on a horse (horrors) and himself showed acquaintances “expensive, esoteric breeds, mentioning his wife’s Austrian Warmbloods and his own Missouri Fox Trotter —‘like a quarter horse, but just a much better gait.’” And, we also learn, this was told to Sean Hannity in a tape of an interview, but left out of the actual broadcast. Get it? Sean Hannity participated in the cover-up of Ann Romney’s sport so that his viewers would not learn about it. Perhaps Hannity had better judgement, realizing that it was not of major importance to the issues in the campaign that he sought to interview Romney about.
There are more horrors. We learn that Ann Romney uses her own money to sponsor her mentor, Jan Ebeling, in his own competition in the sport and helps plan his competition in the sport in the European season.
This is the kind of investigative news story the editors of the New York Times consider important. You won’t find a front-page investigation of the Obama administration’s crony capitalism and its using federal dollars to fund failing green-energy firms like Solyndra, or an investigative report about Eric Holder’s DOJ and its failure to investigate the DEA’s selling of arms to the drug syndicates, or scores of other questions one may have about the incumbent president’s policies and their deleterious effects.
Nor will you find any stories providing us the details of Michelle Obama’s notorious vacation in Spain at the taxpayers’ expense. And there are no stories about Obama’s expensive vacations in mansions in Hawaii or Martha’s Vineyard, where he is at home with all the other elitists of Democratic Party persuasion, such as the singer Carly Simon and others in the entertainment industry that lavish his campaign with big money. Nor does the paper remind readers that our president went to the most elite and wealthiest private high school in Hawaii, and that his children now, like Chelsea Clinton before, attend the Sidwell Friends School, an institution known for its liberal politics as well as its high tuition. No public schools in D.C. for the Obama girls. Just think, they may have suffered the fate of Jimmy Carter’s daughter, who was forced to attend a regular public school because Carter obviously thought it looked bad for the president to have his own child treated differently than the rest of us.
A friend of mine noted that FDR, a wealthy man himself, dubbed the presidential retreat available to the commander-in-chief “Shangri-la,” which it was called until Dwight D. Eisenhower changed the name to what it is today, Camp David. Don’t expect Barack Obama to take his vacation there. It just can’t compare to the elite homes he can inhabit in the Vineyard. And speaking of Franklin D. Roosevelt, he was one of the wealthiest leaders to inhabit the White House. Millions loved him nevertheless, and did not begrudge him his wealth because they saw him enacting policies they believed helped them and the country. FDR was supported by the political left wing, and not one of his leftist supporters would ever have dared to attack him for his wealth, just as long as he gave speeches pledging to “throw the money-changers out of the temple,” even though — as one historian quipped — he brought them back in a few days later.
We live in different times, and we know that the editors of the New York Times love Barack Obama and detest Mitt Romney. That is all we really have to know to explain that front-page story about Ann Romney. Do the editors really think even their own readers are that dumb to fall for it?
Why does the NY Times hate people suffering from MS? Are they prejudiced against the handicapped?
Only if they are rich, Republican, or conservative, male or female and white even a “Hispanic White?” could also be a white Asian, I suppose according to their logic and are a member of the family of a person running against their chosen candidate which is always a liberal of any sort!
White Indians are cool too.
The Times will be doing a hit job on Elizabeth Warren( Massachusetts Cherokee Socialist) any moment now, I’m sure. Our national media have become the same bad joke that our schools have become and the Democrat Party has gone Communist. We are going up in smoke unless we turn this nonsense around. ABO2012
Pity the NYT media. Their lies would fill an encyclopedia. Whether it be by commission , or more subtle omission ~ lt feeds lefty wish it were so mania.
They do fill an encyclopedia. Take a look at Wikipedia’s rules for reliable sources. And worst of all, you really can’t blame them.
Also, it isn’t that bad; there is some balance.
The New York Slimes doesn’t mind elitist horse sports for the rich if it is their super-lib, Voice of the Working Man Joisey hero Bruce Springsteen is at Windsor Castle in London watching his daughter Jessica win first place in show jumping.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1387400/Bruce-Springsteen-hobnobs-royalty-Royal-Windsor-Horse-Show-London.html
It is one of the great secrets of “left-liberalism” (or social democracy) that their conservative reforms were designed to make some concessions to the (mobbish) People, while preserving the bulk of their wealth for themselves. And yet they commend themselves for maintaining “the marketplace of ideas.” But that marketplace has been purged of moralists, namely, their political opponents who deride “collectivism.” I tried to expose their negative views of “the People” here. http://clarespark.com/2010/01/02/jottings-on-the-culture-wars-both-sides-are-wrong/. So if Ann Romney is trashed, while Michelle Obama’s taste for luxury is ignored, a narrative in place since Progressivism started is vindicated. Blame all social ills on the “One percent,” and display your bleeding heart for all to witness.
I had know idea of Mrs. Romney’s expensive hobby, so to me it was extremely informative and relevant. I did not find it all biased, it just pointed out how rarified their lives are compared to the majority of people in the world.
Hey Sue. Let me do the heavy lifting for ya and finish your thought…”I’m a staunch conservative and have voted Republican all my life but this story about Ann Romney has me deeply troubled and questioning whether I can ever support Republicans again, what with all their show-offy wealth and stuff. I think I need to consider voting for President Obama because, communist or not, he lives an un-rarified life among the rest of us. Sigh.”
Idiot.
Oh, puh-leeze! Did you ever hear of Hyannisport, m’dear? The Kennedy Compound? Or did you grow up on Mars?
Most of our politicians come from rarefied atmospheres, including the “community organizer” OBama who somehow went to the fanciest private school in Hawaii.
where he skipped class, did pot and harder drugs when he could get them. and gave thanks to his DEALER in the high school yearbook. his mother received no mention (nor his grandmother who PAID his bills.) ungrateful twerp – but then, the universe revovles around him and pays homage to his wonderfulness.
Roger! You should be ashamed at slapping an infant like that! Particularly, one that was born last night!
Why didn’t you remind her of Kerry’s yacht?
Have you ever watched the Olympics (summer edition coming soon)? It’s a good thing they don’t have show dogs.
This is an Olympic sport. Like running.
Of course people who can spend all their (free??) time running around an oval track couldn’t possibility be well off…
Exactly. Never heard of dressage? Only if you’re a city snob who never paid any attention to the Olympics. LOTS of people practice dressage, certainly not just rich folks. Primarily rural people, though. And the “journalists” who write for the NYT wouldn’t know anything about them, would they?
Sue writes, “I had know idea of Mrs. Romney’s expensive hobby . . .” Sue, dear, it’s “. . . NO idea ABOUT . . .”
I’d say, “Smarten up”, but I fear that’s not likely.
Don’t shake the newborns!
You bloody Yanks need to wake up and then grow up.
Dressage happens to be an Olympic sport. In Australia and New Zealand it (along with show jumping and cross country) is enjoyed by thousands of kids whose parents are far from rich or wealthy. They call it ‘eventing.’
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dressage_at_the_Summer_Olympics#Dressage_in_the_Olympic_Games
I suggest you go and have a look at the background of a few Equestrian Gold Medalists and then go and stuff some second hand oats down the throats of those idiots at the New York Times.
We know. Enough kid’s movies have been made about the sport.
Well, OK, show jumping, anyway.
IIRC, Princess Anne was into dressage and jumping. I have no qualms about Ann Romney’s dressage workouts. My wife has MS, so I know what it can do to your whole body. People (and the New York Slimes, too) need to lighten up. Being rich is NOT a criminal behavior.
Eventing is a different discipline than dressage. Eventing does have a dressage component, it tests three disciplines over three days; stadium jumping, dressage, and most importantly cross country. The levels of dressage and stadium jumping don’t go to grand prix levels in eventing. The prize money is relatively low so the horses don’t command the prices of a grand prix level jumper or dressage horses, both of which can command six figures. Jumpers tend to be the most expensive at that level with horses costing up to seven figures, spending on the trainer and show experience. You can also win big prises on a horse like that and they are most likely owned by a person but ridden by a professional. Rich daddies like Bloomberg and Springsteen can buy their little girls $800k dollar horses that will take them around a grand prix jumping ring, but you need a great rider to get to the Olympics.
Like the Kennedy’s? The Heinz-Kerry’s?
Or the Pelosi’s for that matter.
Rmemeber back to when the 1st Bush ran against whoever….
Whoevers VP pick was Bentsen.
Now, the media could not stop talking about Bush’s oli wealth….. but nary a mention about DEMOCART Bentsen’s …. whose oil wealth was a lot larger.
As opposed to JFK, FDR, and a few other liberal saints who grew up in poverty and made good by knowing first hand the poverty and suffering of the people, and… oh wait.
Funny, isn’t it, how the presidents who REALLY WERE rags-to-riches, or at least middle-class-to-riches in their lives — Nixon, Reagan, Lincoln, Eisenhower — were all republicans? The one exception I can think of is Truman, and “give ‘em hell Harry” was hardly a typical democratic mandarin.
Sue,
You should know better than try to defend the NYT on this site. You and I are probably the only people here who don’t visit this site to read opinions we already hold. They’re like the people (well, ‘like’ may be the wrong word)who watch Fox News. They’re not interested in hearing anything they don’t already agree with.
I think we all agree the Romneys are rich. What is the New York Times telling us that we didn’t know before that justifies Page 1 Sunday treatment?
So you’re sayign you’re a troll?
Please investigate the meaning and proper usage of the word, “troll”.
Gee, Paul, I guess that the enlightened ones who watch MSNBC aren’t anything like those nasty Fox News people. No, sir, the MSNBC viewers are completely open-minded and watch only to broaden their horizons with the great “fair and balanced” message of that network.
[Said in the same voice one uses when telling a dog that he is a "good boy"]:
“Oh, you’re a liberal; isn’t that cute!”
You don’t know anything about my politics. Stupidity must be addressed whether it comes from the left or the right. In the case of this site, it seems to be coming from the right. But the point is, I’m here, not someplace where I can listen to a bunch of fools spout opinions I already hold.
People who agree with your opinion are fools?
Paul-bo, do you mean like those cocooned libs who only get their news from ABCBSNBCNNPBSMSNBCNPRLATimesNYTimessWaPo and have no idea that the Obama Justice Department smuggled guns to Mexican drug dealers or that the Catholic Church archdioceses are suing the Obama Administration?
The above posting is by an Obama campaign worker, who googles for the word “Romney”, and puts nonsense like this in the comment section of any article they can find. This is how they controlled the narrative in the last election and this time they have a paid staff of thousands doing this all over the electronic media. They are especially adept at using Facebook and Twitter for this. They usually sign their posts with a very American sounding generic first and last name. But they don’t always. Sometimes they will sign with cliches like “Voice of Reason” or “Fair Minded Voter” or some such. The whole idea is to make you imagine that they are normal people like yourselves. They know that most so called swing voters just vote for the candidate they think will win, so they try to convince you that there are millions of well meaning Americans who are going to vote for President Obama. The truth is that there are only thousands of paid propagandists supporting their Communist comrades. As we get further into this election cycle, keep this in mind as you read posts from unfamiliar readers. This crap will be in full swing by September and these same people will get even more shrill in their attacks on the Romney family. ABO2012
You are a walking testament to paranoia.
Hmmm. Does being factually correct count at all in your world?
Rarefied? Maybe so, there are only 400,000 people in the United States who are currently suffering from Multiple Sclerosis. Ann Romney rides for therapy. Why dressage (a form of horsemanship practiced since the ancient Greeks) from which all disciplines of horsemanship can claim ancestry? Because it requires the use of all muscle groups and is one of the most comprehensive forms of rehabilitative sports.
Rarefied? A Missouri Fox Trotter is a gaited horse, the state horse of Missouri. You can’t throw a stick in a Missouri horse pasture without hitting one. Mitt Romney has figured out that riding a gaited horse will decrease saddle sores and muscle aches. They are also the horse of choice for the uber wealthy super elite U.S. Forest Service. They cost of fraction of one of Martha Stewart’s Friesians. (Gaited horses were reserved for officers in the calvary, usually saddlebreds, thus the reg. cavalry army were called “rough riders”.)
Rarefied? There are 2,000,000 horse owners in the United States. All of them practice some form of dressage whether they call it that or not. Dressage is simply defined as harmony between horse and rider. As a discipline, almost every community in the US has local competitions. You cannot rise in ranks unless you personally are able to accomplish it. No substitutes on a fancy horse with a lousy rider can qualify. IOW, Not only is Ann Romney competing in a challenging sport in spite of a physical disability, as the rider, she must match the ability of her horse. This requires courage, dedication, determination, agility, intelligence, patience, and skill. That – I’ll say – is truly rare in a person.
Unless the NYT gave you some of that bit of information, Sue, it was neither relevant nor informative, rather it was deceptive and demonstrably biased. Can hardly wait until they attack some blind Republican’s ‘expensive’ guide dog…
Sue, I have two horses that can do dressage, it’s quite common in upstate NY, even with the middle class.
You think the sport of dressage exists only among the rarefied, do you? How very parochial of you.
I was not into horses myself growing up, but I had plenty of girlfriends who were and dressage was standard training for those young ladies (who were always properly attired in jodhpurs, boots and helmet, the little snobs). Every horse show I ever attended had dressage events. Of course, my friends couldn’t spend the kind of money Ann can afford to spend on a horse and, in fact, most of them hired their mounts, but dressage was as common to them as shagging flies was for my male friends who were aspiring ballplayers.
So Sue.. How enlightened were you to discover Michelle Obama’s penchant for expensive vacations?.. On the tax payer’s dime?.. Versus privately earned funds?..
Progressives are puritanical about everything except sex, and if you have the right opinions, will even forgive you for your success and conspicuous consumption.
Isn’t it a little early to be running these hit jobs? In an earlier election, they showed somewhat better timing, with the piece on Dubya being AWOL from the reserves. Recall the phone call with the NYT’s Keller begging Dan to hold off on the piece. Even then they went a little too early, with Dan and his producer exposed on using a document forgery as the basis for proof. As it turns out, the Army at the time routinely dropped reservists from their semimonthly payroll if they weren’t active, and Dubya by then had gone inactive cuz the Vietnam “conflict” was being wound down, with hundreds of fliers having no chance of being called to active duty to fly.
This would be early only if they didn’t already have hit pieces scheduled for the fall. I’m guessing necrophilia and/or Satanism.
Because they probably think that these stories will set up the really juicy ones later on. Expect the slime to only escalate from here on.
Correct. We have them right where we want them because, as soon as they believe the election is a slam dunk, they will start the Obama is a nice moderate middle class guy routine.
Mr. Romney served the Commonwealth of Massachusetts as it Governor, taking no salary whatsoever, nor did his Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healy, another of the evil 1%.
The New York Times required the assistance of one, Carlos Slim, in order to continue killing trees for no good purpose.
I pledge that I will go to New York to attend the auction of the contents of the Times building if only to buy a paperweight.
A great weight will have been lifted from the back of Liberty when this wretched organization is wiped from the planet.
Are they still using it? I thought they were no longer at Times Square.
The new (2007) New York Times Building is on 8th Ave just across from Port Authority. They own about 60 percent of the building, but I believe they had to mortgage their space a couple of years ago to keep the paper afloat. The paper sold the building on Times Square in the early sixties and eventually Allied Chemical bought it. They tried to get everyone to start calling it Allied Chemical Square, but of course no one would (just like no one calls 6th Ave Avenue of the Americas).
“Do the editors really think even their own readers are that dumb to fall for it?”
Maybe Mr. Radosh. But the NYT editors fell for it. Are they dumb? Or just biased about horses? Are they really “editors”? Or…
Remember, “I am Liberal to a degree, I want everybody to be be free…” etc.
I don’t know how dumb the editors of the NYT are but I know for sure that the guy they work for is a pitiful drooling moron. I went to high school with NYT publisher Pinch Sulzberger and he was a complete twit as well as a dysfunctional loser. He was my classmate for only a year, though, becuase he flunked out. If he hadn’t inherited his job he wouldn’t have gotten as far in jounalism as Jimmy Olsen.
And, at least Superman had Jimmy Olsen’s back.
As Ann Coulter points out, as well connected as he was, he couldn’t even get into Columbia. (This in response to attacks on W for connections.)
Anyone see the whitewash on Wikipedia? no criticism at all!
I thought Mrs Obama wanted everyone to “get moving” and her husband has played how many holes of golf ? Golf courses littering the “hood” certainly? What do the elites at the NYT’s do for exercise besides jump to conclusions and run off at the mouth? It’s the only exercise they get.
Mitt might have given a kid a hair cut and Ann makes horses prance around…
Is this the best the lefty-thugs can do? Really?
Well, it tells me that can’t find ANY dirt on the Romneys whatsoever.
I had exactly the same reaction you did. There must not be any actual dirt on the Romneys. My prediction for the summer is an intense ramping up up of vilification of Mormons and the LDS church.
“Do the editors really think even their own readers are that dumb to fall for it?”
The answer: Yes! These loyal readers are unable to think and follow a logical argument. They read the Times only to support their leftist ideological addiction.
Mr. Radosh, why do we care what the New York Times says? By responding to them as you and NEARLY ALL other conservatives do, you allow them to set the agenda.
Yes, and it sounds like Radosh and the NYT are hayseeds together:
[Anne Romney is] someone who engages in a horse sport called “dressage.” Yes, it is so rare that you undoubtedly never heard of it before.
…hmm…as well as being a rite of passage for middle class children, usually girls, it’s been an Olympics event since the dawn of the modern games; tens of millions watch it and know what it is.
None of which is to defend Romney. The party faithful made the bed and now get to lie in it.
For the Democrats, it’s open season. Oops!
Please have your sarcasm detector recalibrated. It’s not functioning well.
Apparently you’re under the impression that if only Conservative writers would ignore a front-page story in the NY Times Sunday edition then nobody would ever hear about it. Really? Like it or not, it’s still the Times. And like it or not that means it’s going to be talked about. So of course the meme has to be rebutted. This should be so obvious that it makes me wonder if, in fact, you’re just a concern troll here. The idea that Romney should sit back and just take it is ridiculous. The idea that Conservative writers should just sit on their hands and not respond this nonsense is equally ridiculous.
And NY Times articles are reprinted in all major metropolitan dailies through the NY Times News Service. Here in Houston we see about half our news coming from either AP or NYT. That is one reason for their outsized influence. Unless you look at the byline, you might miss the fact that you are reading the NYT in Oshkosh or someplace.
By not responding, we’re letting them lay a foundation of lies. No more. Punch back twice as hard. Don’t let them get away with anything. Calling them out helps to further discredit them.
This isn’t to say that Romney shouldn’t stay on message about jobs and the economy. I’m saying that the rest of us can take up the fight while he stays on message.
We should not retaliate for this villification by pointing out Ms. Obama’s many expensive vacations & shopping trips. Neither should we call patronage on the high paying position she held prior to becoming 1st Lady (I think that essential position has not been re-filled since her departure). Neither should we recall the non coverage of Teresa Heinz Kerry’s wealth. Neither should we point out any possible hypocracy in villifying wealthy Republican politicians, but not wealthy Democratic politicians. Engaging in any of these sins would be racist.
It is quite disgusting that the left feel it is ok to attack spouses and children of political opponents. As far as I am concerned they have crossed a line. I will not try to see their side of things.
If they really do think of the Soviet Communists as their spiritual mentors – and there seems to be evidence of this – taking shots at the wives and children of political opponents is straight out of Stalin’s playbook.
There was actually a specific section of the Soviet criminal code in Stalin’s day that made it a crime punishable by a term in the Gulag, for being a family member of an “enemy of the people”. That provision was applied widely and ruthlessly. Even Stalin’s own family was not exempt. And it wasn’t just the immediate family that was affected. You could wind up in the Gulag for being a nephew, cousin, brother-in-law, aunt, grandparent, etc. etc. of the accused “enemy of the people”.
Screw the times! If they did research, they would know that it isn’t an elitist sport. Unlike the times, you will be inspired by this article.
http://www.usefnetwork.com/news/8154/2012/3/9/paraequestrian_dressage_riders_lau.aspx
Dear Mr. Radosh,
I heard that Mitt and Ann rode their horses to Rhode Island so they could avoid paying taxes on them.
Oh, wait, silly me, that was Democrat John Kerry and his yacht. Well, I heard that as they rode their horse Ann and Mitt lifted their heads high to get that last bit of marijuana smoke that…. oh wait, that was Barack Obama in his car when he was in high school.
I get so confused, is it the Romneys who screw the country by spending their own money or is it the Obamas who take multiple vacations and campaign trips but let the tax payers pick up the tab?
Far be it for the NYT to lay blame where it belongs- everyone knows Jackie Kennedy abused horses like her Kennedy men folk mentors abused women.
Catch next Sunday’s edition of the NYT for Charles Blow’s timely exposé on Grace Coolidge’s depraved imprisonment of a raccoon-
http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/president/holiday/historicalpets2/03-js.html
Phooey. “Dressage” isn’t that rarified. It’s pretty standard stuff.
My sister did it as a teen. As I recall, she faced a choice between moving towards dressage (more static, more stately, more precision and showmanship, less strenuous) and jumping.
And no, we weren’t fabulously wealthy.
Don’t these reporters at the NYT git any edjicashun?
Why doesn’t the NYT feature YT columnist Tom Friedman’s mansion in its Sunday Magazine?
Because… because… um, because… Shut up, you poopyhead!
My cousin’s daughter engages in dressage and they are as middle class as they come.
Whattcha wanna bet, that a higher percentage of NY Times readers (as opposed to any other paper in America) know what “dressage” is in the first place?
Romney Obama the Same?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWDJEc92d38
Will we now have another week or two of TV News and Major Pundit Debates about this?
(That is to follow Dog-Gate, now we’ll have Horse-Gate.)
“Horse-Gate”? No, let’s call this what it really is: Horse Puckey!
When whoever it is buys the NY Times for $1.00, as it will surely be sold for sometime soon, I wonder if they will spend the first few weeks running front page stories about the moral decripitude of what was once, very mistakenly, thought to have been a premier newspaper.
New York Times = Pravda and Izvestia.
New York Times = Pravda and Izvestia. No, NYTimes = Pravda & Washington Post = Izvestia. In Russian, pravda means truth and izvestia means news. In Soviet Union, people say there is no truth in Izvestia, and no news in Pravda.
You do have a point.
He does, but you obviously didn’t get it.
How would you know?
In the excellent 1987 movie “Gardens of Stone” (about service at the Arlington National Cemetery during the Vietnam War), they called the Washington Post “Pravda on the Potomoc”. That name fits.
There is but one word to describe Pinch Sulzberger & colleagues in this “page one” story: loathsome. What should one expect from a company that continues to proudly hold onto Walter Duranty’s Pulitzer Prize.
my mother’s cousin had fox trotters, and even (gasp) bred them – and he was FAR from “rich”, but very middle class.
Mike2: Amen.
This truly lame propaganda about the “1%” and the “99%”, is a replay of its predecessor from 80 or so years ago. Substitute “Kulaks” for the “1%”, and the tired old tune will come into focus:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kulak
One almost wishes the left was capable of more imaginative propaganda, something with flair, something that would take at least some mental effort to decipher. Is this the best we can expect from them?
The story’s ridiculous – honestly, it’s their money, and they may spend it as they please. Further, I’m impressed by Ann Romney’s discipline and ability, as dressage is (as any little girl who was nuts about horses and learned about the Lipizzaner Stallions can tell you) a difficult and demanding form of riding.
But seriously, was this playing on that weird fear and loathing of horses? It’s a sickness with some people.
In the end, President Obama will have a net gain financially from being President while a President Romney would most likely have a net loss financially if elected President.
Hemmingway: The rich are not like you and me…
Fitzgerald: Yes, they do dressage.
Is this an argument for buying the premise of a bunch of Communist propagandists in a Presidential election cycle involving one of their own? ABO2012
But this is OK: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1386741/Bruce-Springsteen-watches-daughter-Jessica-Windsor-Horse-Show.html
‘Cuz the Boss supports the correct causes.
Just saying
Did’nt there used to be a well-respected newspaper called the New York times?
Yes, but it never desrved it.
Just sent a message to a friend of mine from HS (some 35 years ago now) that she and her daughters are officially part of the evil and hated 1%- they particpate in dressage events. And according to her today’s facebook posting, did really well today in a dressage event, getting a qualifying score for regional championship.
My guess is- after reading the NY Times article, which I referenced, she won’t be voting “D” this year…
I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say that some executives at the NY Times have wives or daughters — maybe sons — who participate in dressage events. It’s kind of a rich folks sport.
Christopher Reeve became a quadriplegic while participating in dressage.
Well, heck, I’ll just say it. In the west, dressage is work, in the east it is recreation. Why in the world that people can afford to ride horses is worthy of a front-page story is beyond me.
I would just about bet that Obama’s daughters (or is it sons?) have taken dressage lessons. It’s kind of what you do when you’re a rich liberal or conservative.
Wrong. Christopher Reeve fell off his horse going over a jump while Eventing – that is not dressage, although the best way to train an eventer is through dressage.
Wrong. It’s work in the east, in the west, and in the north and south, too. Dressage is the single most demanding form of horsemanship. It derives from battle movements of soldiers and originated thousands of years ago, probably not from rich republicans..
It costs $10/yr for a youth, and $35/yr for an adult to join the US Dressage Foundation.
“It costs $10/yr for a youth, and $35/yr for an adult to join the US Dressage Foundation.”
That would be a lot more relevant if you could actually compete for that meager fee. But as I understand it, you have to provide a horse too and you need to spend into six or seven figures if you want to be competitive. That’s the money that the New York Times resents Romney having, not the $35 fee for the annual membership.
Snark,
The point is that dressage is not an elitist sport, it’s fairly common. If you are saying that Ann Romney is competing at a level that she can afford, so be it. My response is that she as a rider must also be equal to the skill challenge in spite of a debilitating illness; you can’t buy good health. That she competes at this level is as much about her ability as her money.
Who here would trade with Ann Romney if they could have her wealth but have to suffer her illness? And would you lay in bed and have someone take care of you (you could certainly afford it), or would you fight it tooth and nail like she’s doing?
Snark, how much does a round of golf cost? And did you know you could get two tickets to an Obama fundraiser for the cost of one of Romney’s horses?
ZING!!!
I bet I can hire a kid to do my yard work for a whole year for less than the price of one Obama fundraiser ticket! Funniest line I have read in a week, Carmelita.
The New York Times has been a propaganda organ of the Marxists from at least the time of Walter Duranty [1930's] when the New York Times hid the Stalin and NKGB contrived famine in the Ukraine that killed/murdered over 7 million men, women and children. The new and non-communist Ukraine Government has asked repeatedly for the Times to give back the Pulitzer Prize for Journalism for the coverup they did for the Genocide but they have so far refused. If they would coverup a Genocide of over 7 million murdered to this day, utilizing Stalin’s “Big Lie” technique about dressage is nothing compared to what is to come.
Unfreakin’ believable.
I take it the “investigative” reporter of this piece is 28? As are the editors?
Google / bing “Caroline Kennedy pony” and you will find in the images a picture of JFK, Caroline, John John on the porch of the White House with her pony Macaroni.
While they’re at it, they should check this out:
http://ts4.mm.bing.net/th?id=I4946819328573691&pid=1.1
Jackie Kennedy was an equestrienne. Where’s the outrage??
And damn. I am going to have to sneak that dressage saddle I have stashed in my basement waiting for my rescue horse to get up to snuff, lest I be labeled as a 1%er. Do. Not. Tell. My. Husband.
Are all NY liberals that ignorant?
So at week we can expect to see some insight into Michelle Obama’s previous career as an attorney? How she got that cushy job at a Chicago hospital for $300K plus to figure out ways to steer the poor people away and into a clinic? And the status of her law license? Her grades in college and law school?
What? Oh, I guess not. I forgot.
Bruce Springsteen. Working class hero. Favorite of the Obama’s and the limousine liberal set.
Bruce is really into dressage. No kidding. He even hangs with the Queen of England at the Royal Horse Show.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1387400/Bruce-Springsteen-hobnobs-royalty-Royal-Windsor-Horse-Show-London.html
Bruce owns two friggin’ horse farms and had himself a little legal dustup over a $800,000 nag.
Bruce’s indulgence in dressage doesn’t seem to effect his ability to “relate” to the masses.
Bruce hated Bush. That’s all it takes to become a liberal star in obama’s eyes.
How does it stack up against Michelle Obama and her daughters on vacation? Please NY Times, I am waiting.
You can’t talk about Michelle Obama and her daughters because SHUT UP! Besides, Ann Romney was spending her own money. Michelle Obama is spending the taxpayers’ money and that’s what Democrats do best. [/sarc]
It’s just another sad attempt by the Leftists to distribute morality to the usual suspects: gays, women, minorities and economic status. Wealthy people on the political Left get a special dispensation and somehow become saints because they have bowed their heads in some kind of shame at the true immorality by which they garnered their money but without giving any of it up except to put in Obama’s campaign coffers.
To simply parrot the Left’s idiocy about the 1% puts you on the right side of the issue of having lots of money and so you become invisible while anyone with money on the political Right is then supposedly left high and dry and exposed for all the world to see – unrepentant, head unbowed, and so a filthy and diseased capitalist. I’m surprise the Times doesn’t run Aesop’s Fables.
This will backfire when we find out that Obama eats horses.
Funniest, I don’t find Mitt Romney’s name on the list with Oprah Winfrey, Tom Cruise, John Travolta, Jim Carry, Harrison Ford, Bill Gates, or Paul Ryan as super rich celebrities that own 50 million dollar plus aircraft. I guess it’s ok if you espouse the right politics. Does Romney own a mega-yacht with a helicopter pad that regular graces the Monaco harbor? He drives a Cadillac, yes, not a million dollar Aston Martin custom built hybrid, *cough* DiCaprio.
Jim Carrey (not “Carry”) is Canadian. Do you really want to compare a rich American like Ann Romney to a rich Canadian, even if they earned those riches in the same country? They may get different tax treatment for all I know….
He’s running for President, dummy. Candidates for President can’t dock yachts in Monte Carlo and drive Aston Martins. They can, however, install elevators for their cars.
Actually I know what dressage is (but I didn’t know how to spell it until your article posted). My boss who works 9 to 5 for a little bit more than I make used to be into it as a young woman. She owns only a small townhome, borrowed the downpayment from her parents. She is definitely not the 1 percent but she talks about dressage enough that I now watch it on the olympics. Oh yeah, the olympics, dressage — it’s there every single year folks.
You attack the rich in order to become rich.
It’s a very profitable strategy.
Just ask Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Jeremiah Wright,etc.
Oh, and of course, Barak Hussein Obama.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKpONH7hFbE
Oh, the hypocrisy in New York Times. They admire the wealthy lifestyles of the Kennedys and of all the zillionaires that surround their Sun King Obama and his obviously luxury besotted wife, but to engage in dressage…no,no.( I believe that Jackie Kennedy was a horse woman too, by the way.) My daughter and most of her friends were into horseriding when they grew up. My daughters cousin went on with the dressage, it´s horseriding that certainly requires patience. It´s very much a girls sport over here and it doesn´t have to cost so much more than for example ice hockey. I think it is a healthy lifestyle, a great hobby that teaches discipline, responsibility and how to respect animals. I think that Ann Romney sets a good example with her hobby. The fact that she is a horse woman makes me like her even more. She is rich and can afford to own her horses and so what ?? I am amazed to read about the envy of this. In the US ???
It grinds my soul to a weary nub each time I read an article written by, I assume, an adult, and, on a site devoted to news and politics, I admit I further assume some editorial oversight takes place, yet the proofreading is sorely lacking. When I see “their” where “there” should be, by way of an actual example here, it goes far beyond a mere misspelling. Not having been pointed out by spell check it suggests the writer and any editor on staff does not know which is used when. And that, my friends, is very sad indeed.
Is it any wonder the presidents speeches are being written at an 8th grade, (or lower), comprehension level? Could it be so that the pundits, bloggers and commentators can follow along?
If I seem overly snarky, so be it. It is frustrating and a little frightening to watch George Orwell’s fictional newspeak develop around the world in my lifetime. And not by some sinister shadowy government plot, but from the people themselves.
President’s.
See how easy it is? My typing is quite dyslexic, and I shudder when I read how my comments come out. (Well, I’m have to work for a living.) I suspect a lot of this is put out pretty quickly, and not proofread until later – budgetary issue, and perhaps the hours at which it’s published.
(A spell-checker will not fix “their”, of course.) In my case, I’d have to open some other program and run it; I can’t install one here. I used to do that on the pre-web internet, but a single comment would take an hour.
I have. See?
This year, the Democratic Obama machine believes in three ways to win a Presidential campaign.
Attack. Attack. Attack. Even Ann Romney’s favorite horse show event is a target of opportunity.
Why is it the Democrats do all the attacking and the Republicans waste time playing defense?
My considered conclusion is that the Republican Romney people, for the most part, when it comes to coming up with an overall, effective campaign direction are clueless. Which is one reason why Obama still has his head above water in the polls as we sail into June.
As far as hit pieces go, the Democratic machine can either do their own commercials or have the main stream media do it for them. SNL. Letterman. The NY Times. It’s a nice choice to have, one the framers of the constitution never envisioned when they conceived of a free press. But that’s the hand we’ve been dealt.
But instead of trying to make the most of it, the Romney people and Republicans in general are media wise clueless. Republican political hacks haven’t had an original idea since their Daisy ad of 1964. Sad but true.
Since I want Obama to get the beating of his life in this upcoming election, I’ll give the Republicans and Romney, free of change, an example of a great area of attack that would be something of a torpedo below the water line of the SS Obama.
To set it up.
Everybody remembers Monica Lewinsky’s sexcapades with Bill Clinton. But apparently the Romney people don’t remember the rise in teen oral sex as a result. Yes, out of the mouths of babes, teens admitted to emulating the President, which sounds lewd enough in itself, but was a fact of life.
Fact is, the President sets all kinds of examples for the country. John Kennedy didn’t like wearing hats which virtually put the old fedora out of business.
In other words, since Obama is President, he sets examples.
Now if the Democrats had a Republican (Romney) running for President who admitted to using all kinds of drugs including cocaine during high school and college and probably beyond, the Democrats would have a field day with this kind of information. Don’t forget it’s all in Obama’s book, “Dreams from my Father”.
Headlines. Ads. News stories would be popping up like paparazzi flash bulbs circling Lady Gaga, accusing Romney of leading a generation into everything from crime to drug addiction to death.
With headlines like this.
Romney captures the young generation: hook, line and cocaine.
Romney’s cocaine use: getting a generation of kids hooked.
My son is dead because he wanted to be cool like Mitt.
You get the picture.
Because any President sets examples for the youth of America, a severely negative behavior is a basis for a huge, long lasting, multi-media attack, hit piece.
I’d love to hear the discussion on a pro Obama Sunday morning feckless edition of Meet the Press talking about the cool, possibly still hooked-on-drugs President maybe still doing blow in the White House. And what do his daughters think about his drug use? What does Michelle think? Did Michelle ever do drugs? Lots of juicy questions could be asked.
So what do we have?
Obama gives us the ammunition to help blow him out of the water and the Republican (Romney) media misfits don’t even see it. It’s laying at their feet and they don’t pick it up.
This is incompetence at the highest level. And this is just one of many examples how to blind side the anointed one with the kind of attack that would have his people reeling till November 6, 2012.
Romney people: I’ve just given you the equivalent of the Daisy ad. Stop playing defense.
Attack.
rachel. Surely you saw how Romney’s henchmen utterly destroyed Newt Gingrich’s candidacy. The could quite easily do the same to Obama; I hope it’s in their plans of strategy but won’t be surprised if they remain reticent. Why? Two words: Affirmative action. Just as white people can hardly go around shooting blacks on account of self defense without getting into a lot of hot water, the same goes for attacking them in print or even verbally. Pervasive white guilt & the principles of affirmative action guarantee patterns of treating these “gentle souls” with kid gloves. Such serves as a perpetual forcefield of protection that surround this “special” group of people to which, by the virtue of the color of his skin, President Obama belongs.
I think they are doing very well, so far.
And one more thing. Ann Romney has a serious interest in horses and the outdoors,she has a healthy hobby that requires discipline and responsibility.This tells a lot about her personality. Compare this to Michelle Obama. I just read that this almost 50 year old woman said in an interview that she really would like to be like Beyonce, another luxury besotted silly person. And it doesn´t surprise me the least. Michelle Obama appears to be utterly shallow, with no serious interests or hobbies whatsoever. And I would like to ask the readers of NYT: Who do you want as an example for your daughters ?
Well said.
Anne Romney has done nothing that JACKIE KENNEDY hadn’t done. In fact, her “horsey” style was lauded and written about countless times in the NYT. What a load of crap that paper has become. Hope I am still alive and kicking to see it go down in flames. Someone should ask them if they want to do a posthumous critique of Jack Kennedy’s wife.
Yawn. I’m still awaiting the Gray Old Ladys’ investigative piece on why Michelle O is unable to pracatice law in Illinois.
I used to love looking through my former roommate’s copy of the Sunday times, which was chock full of hit pieces on the “evil rich Republicans” and the evil that they do.
Then I would skim the real estate section or the NYT Magazine and look at the photos of the huge beachfront Hamptons compounds for sale – hey this one’s only 20 million dollars!
Remember Times readers, it’s only wrong to be rich if you’re a conservative.
So now we know how a possible, future First Lady spends her own money.
Can they now investigate and tell us how the current First Lady is spending our money?
Let’s compare the amount of their own money that the Romney’s spent on the evil dressage since Ann took it up to the amount of the People’s money that the Obama’s have spent on their globe trotting vacations since 2009. I bet some of the Romeny’s tax money went to fund those khobi steak dinners that Obama seems to love so much. The paper of record seems to be going the way of Time Magazine. They are both closer to papers you scan while waiting in line at a supermarket than to the paper once known for “All the News That’s Fit to Print.”
“Do the editors really think even their own readers are that dumb to fall for it?”
Oh, they know they’ll fall for it! They don’t think their readers are dumb, they think their readers are looking for ammunition. It’s a case of the sleazy arming the nasty.
Does anyone believe that the people that the NYT is pretending to reach out to, the regular Joe’s and Janes of America, do in fact read the NYT? Why, Even the self proclaimed elites are no reading the NYT judging by its reduced circulation. So what is the objective of their tactic…the ones reading the Times do not require another reason not to vote for Gov. Romney. No one thinks he has a “prayer” of getting one vote from this group.
Reading this story in the NYT I come away with two perceptions about the Romneys. 1) Mrs. Romney is to be admired for taking on a difficult sport in her 50s in order to battle a difficult medical condition. This shows her tenacity and strength of character. 2) Mr. Romney is a loving husband who generously supports his wife’s passion for horses and her desire to fight the degenerative effects of MS. This also shows strength of character. Who wouldn’t want to be married to such a great guy?
I think the hit piece backfired. Wouldn’t any rich Democrat do the same for his wife who was battling a serious illness? John Edwards for example? Oh, wait…….
William McGowan’s “Gray Lady Down” documents the institutional bias at the NYT.
Very good book.
Howell Raines’ memoir, My Times, is also worth a read. Published in the Atlantic.
Ann Romney should have done what Michelle Obama did: get a $300,000 a year “community outreach” sinecure – no real work required – and have the chutzpah to call it public service.
Yes, but what inquiring minds really want to know is. . .
Does the horse really belong to Ann Romney, or is it somehow connected with Sarah Palin, and her son Trig, whom, it is rumored, was actually fathered by BRPLZG, the Dark Lord of the Evil Space Empire? Hey, I’m just asking questions—what’s wrong with that? Ann is rich, Palin is rich, they’re both conservatives and BRPLZG is known to practice a kind of dressage sport on his home world, using giant, three-legged gorillas, instead of horses! Can’t you see the connection? Wake up, sheeples! I hates them conservative women, my precious, I hates them, Prescioussssss. . . .
/Sarc. off.
P.S. I must have missed the part where Ann Romney announced her candidacy for, well. . . anything.
Wow I guess Im also an elite because I spent last weekend at a “gasp” dressage show. Dressage is actually a very demanding sport that takes years to master. Its pretty impressive to get your gold medal while battleing MS. Its wonderful that Ann hells support the Olympic Equestrian team. If this is the best they’ve got then Romney is in good shape.
Dressage isn’t all that high class. All you need is a horse, training in dressage, a proper outfit, and lots of time to practice. Many people of very ordinary means participate.
The Romneys use ther own money for luxuries. The Obamas enjoy luxury at the expense of increasingly impoverished voters.
Most liberals are hooked on O-P-M (other people’s money)
The Romneys made their own money. Mr. Romney’s father was a very skilled and creative man who was a great asset to this country. The Romneys don’t rely upon government largesse to pay for anything. Mrs. Romney has had two very serious diseases and should be able to do whatever keeps her well and reasonably content. To criticize her for dressage is very petty, particularly when Mrs. Obama and her daughters travel the world with a huge entourage at government expense.
When the end comes for the NYT, and it is coming, they will not understand what happened nor why. It is truly sad to see a lady turn to prostitution in her old age.
PS. The Romney’s don’t eat horses!
The Daily Duranty is going to push the class warfare, racial warfare, religious warfare meme as hard as they possibly can because the JournOlista conspiracy is alive and well.
They just went deeper underground so we can’t see or hear their communications and intercept their stated intentions.
We are on the side of the angels and before we can blow a horn on them they will do everything they can to Trip Gabriel.
Let’s be open about this. They don’t like capitalism, don’t like capitalists, REALLY don’t like successful capitalists and they despise our Constitution.
The only “capitalists” they like are the ones who kneel at the altar of leftism and slam the free market from their mansions, compounds and secluded enclaves in Hollywood and the Hamptons or Martha’s Vineyard. For this they get absolution and propagandized protection.
Expect more of the same from the rest of these traitors. What separates us from lesser nations…is the fact that we tolerate them and allow them their traitorism.
What weakens America is that we encourage it by our silence and meek response to that traitorism.
One one hand, the NYT is losing readership and advertisers at a prodigious rate. On the other hand, they demonstrate day after day that they are a tool of liberals in general and Obama in particular. No one there seems to be able to connect the dots.
Somehow I missed the same type of stories about rich people out of touch with middle America when John Kerrey ran for President?
I am sure it is just a coincidence.
You’re forgetting the infamous John Kerry kite-boarding photo. My wife was stumping for Kerry back then and remembers one gentleman who would simply not vote for Kerry because of it.
So the NYT hates the filthy rich Romneys and their rich 1% sport. Well the same b%^$@#&s hated the Palins who were so dang normal and middle class. The b%^$@#&s are never satisified if the person is a Republican and even worse if a conservative. Their hit job on McCain in 2008, their favorite
Republican, speaks volumes.
I can’t believe anything they print; even on the news pages much less their feature and editorial pages. I have enough waste paper to recycle to take that rag, even if it was free. What a waste of trees or recycled paper. Do they even use recycled paper?
I don’t even believe NYT obituaries…
Well, that makes sense, because a lot of those people vote.
When did Ann Romney decide to run for president in her husband’s place? The nyt seems to know something we don’t…. or maybe not. I wouldn’t use the nyt to wrap dog poop.
As I posted yesterday (with apologies for the shameless link promotion),
At age 50, Ann Romney took up dressage at age 50 as a therapy for multiple sclerosis.
At age 50, Barack Obama Legalized Horse Slaughter for Human Consumption.
In my younger days, I used to ride, dressage (we called English back then) instead of western. Was I rich? Not by any means. And I used to own a Cadillac (which I guess made me a suspect in the hated 1% category). Now I own a Porsche. How do I sleep at night? Just fine – and I can’t wait to vote in November. What will the NYT say when Obeyme goes down to a crushing defeat?
“70. Fausta
As I posted yesterday (with apologies for the shameless link promotion),
At age 50, Ann Romney took up dressage at age 50 as a therapy for multiple sclerosis.
At age 50, Barack Obama Legalized Horse Slaughter for Human Consumption.”
Just as I said above, Romneys don’t eat horses, they ride them and love them.
Apparently you don’t like my posts! Where are they? Not just the one above about the choice of meat for the Romneys vs the obamas, but the double down on Ann Romney because they can’t find anything on a squeeky clean Mitt.
Relaaaaax. Posts often take quite a while to show up. This site doesn’t reload properly for some reason.
What else do you have Mr. President ? Does Mrs Romney eat Kobe Beef ? If she does she pays for it herself; she does not charge the tax payer. The American voter has seen all this before, it means nothing and people wonder why the Obama Reelect Media is floundering. Amateur. Have fun with all of your hobbies, Ann – to hell with the Rosens.
My sister used to show horses when we lived in Iowa, she showed dressage. We were middle class, lived in a town of 1600, my Mom, from Iowa, farm family, 7 kids, loved horses, had one since she was a teenager, I grew up around horses. About as “cow pie” as you can get.. Brother these people are REACHING, desperate for anything to bring them down..
Well! Color me shocked that, for the first time in the history of the republic, a rich person is trying to become its elected leader (and his wife is pretty well off too). Extra! Extra! And all that.
I had the same reaction to the Times article. It reminded me of the NYT’s decision years back to run as a front page story Maureen Dowd’s summary of Kitty Kelly’s hit job biography of Nancy Reagan–and Dowd’s being rewarded with her own editorial page column not long after.
A friend of mine, definitely not a jet-setter, reminded me that his daughter–now a veterinarian with a practice well short of ministering to horses of the super-rich–has participated in dressage events since her early teens. When he was doing the financing out of his college professor’s salary it was a bit of a strain on the family budget but manageable. His daughter, self-supporting now for a long time, still competes. Over the years, she has used two horses, both given to her in payment for her professional services. Of course, Ann Romney is better financed, and we need a government program to deal with such egregious examples of inequality.
Do the editors really think even their own readers are that dumb to fall for it? Yes they do and for good reason. Question is will they fall for it again in 2012. And that is a scary thought.
DRESSAGE is NOT an elitist sport. When my daughter was 14, a friend from church gave her an Arabian stallion.. didn’t want to transport the horse back to Mich. when they moved. I bartered some painting work (I’m a contractor) for Dressage lessons at a local horse stable facility. the trainer, the helpers, and other riders, were most kind, friendly, hard working, and pleasant to be around. Sorry for the stupid stereotypes from a biased source with a bent motive. But alas, we live every day with it, in soooo many ways. Stay stable, fret not, and remember the whole duty of man… “Fear God, and Keep His Commandments”. From that will flow wisdom, balance, and the final answer to man’s false wisdom, meanness, and disgrace.
The LA Times ran with a version of this story too. The comments that followed it were priceless. My favorite which will have to go without attribution: “I’m supposed to be more worried about how the Romneys are spending their own money than how Obama is spending mine?” Whoever you were that said that, brilliant.
Likeability is all that Obama supposedly has. He has no positive record, and he’s basing his likeability asset on polls. He hopes to compare favorably to Romney on that score, thus the need to make Romney unlikeable, out of touch, THE OTHER. Obama is trying to say he is one of us and Romney is not.
Tough sell.
And you have to ignore your pocketbook, the price of gas, and rising crime due to unemployment to concern yourself with trifles such as who you’d prefer to have a beer with…
Still that’s their strategy…. Romney’s likeability deficit.
Telling me Ann Romney rides horses for a debilitating disease and her husband rides with her for support is no way to accomplish that, BTW.
Elegance on a horse: what a refreshing new image for America’s First LADY.
I’m no Romney fan, but I have to agree with you. It would be a nice change to have a First LADY again.
It would be the first time since the Reagan years, as far as I’m concerned.
Wonder why they are losing money? Frivolous and out of touch with concerns of the American people.
Funny how they fail to mention that Mrs. Romney spends her and her husband’s money, while Mrs. Obama spends millions of taxpayer dollars for her vacations.
And yes, whoever said “I’m supposed to be more worried about how the Romneys are spending their own money than how Obama is spending mine?” was brilliant.
We know that Obama has ridden a horse twice. (Unless he is not their father.)
How about the elitist game of golf, that obozo plays with great regularity.
Would be interesting to know if he played as much golf, when it was on his dime, or is he really taking advantage of this benefit. If he played as much golf prior to being president, then that is continuing in a life style, and no bones. If he didn’t play this much, then he is, in the vernacular a pig feeding at the pubic trough, getting what he can.
so before another hit piece on people that have their own funds, and can do with them as they see fit, let’s get an answer to the golfing question.
Hey, here’s a question for you all
What’s the difference between the New York Times and Hustler magazine?
Answer:
Nothing, apparently.
The difference between Hustler and the New York Times is that the NYT doesn’t write about fantasies of getting oral sex from conservative pundits like S. E. Cupp. Yet.
Here’s one link:
http://abcnews.go.com/US/fake-explicit-photo-conservative-commentator-se-cupp-hustler/story?id=16425538#.T8RIFlLzh9Q.
Dressage is all about discipline and class.
That cannot be reconciled with the Socialist Leadership goal of reducing EVERYTHING except their perks to the lowest possible denominator.
“Do the editors really think even their own readers are that dumb to fall for it?”
Apparently the answer is yes otherwise they wouldn’t have made the effort.
Ann Romney spends lots of money on her hobby, a horse sport called “dressage”.
Michelle Obama spends $467,500 on a short vacation in Spain, in August 2010.
The big difference: Ann Romney was spending her own money – Michelle Obama was spending the taxpayers’ money.
Ann Romney spends lots of money on her hobby, a horse sport called “dressage”.
Michelle Obama spends $467,500 on a short vacation in Spain, in August 2010. (And, to top it off, leaves her husband, the President, back home in Washington.)
The big difference: Ann Romney was spending her own money – Michelle Obama was spending the taxpayers’ money.
Stomach churning HYPOCRISY is a trait which Left Wing moonbats share with their compatriots the MUSLIMS.
There is a class of people in the US who engage in pecuniary envy and want to bring down the rich, sometimes referred to as the “view from the pushcart”. We also know them as the Left. They infest the newsroom at the Times. They are not swing voters, and they have little control over swing voters because swing voters do not read the Times. What I am really looking forward to is September, when they bring out their big guns and seek to swiftboat the Romneys. That is what I love about the democratic process. And I certainly hope that Mitt has his own swiftboat up his sleeve. Bring it on!
Romney mistreats a DOG – Obama EATS a Dog
Romney is a rich self made man – Obama is a rich AFFIRMATIVE ACTION no work man.
Romneys wife does not work and has expensive hobbies – Obama’s wife does not work and has expensive (for the STATE) holidays
Romney was a SUCCESSFUL Venture Capitalist, Bain has an 80% success rate – Obama is an abject FAILURE as State sponsored Venture Capitalist 0% success rate.
Romney has five sons and 16 grandchildren – Obama has IMAGINARY sons including the THUG Trayvon Martin
“Raser Technologies. In 2010, the Obama administration gave Raser a $33 million taxpayer-funded grant to build a power plant in Beaver Creek, Utah. According to the Wall Street Journal, after burning through our tax dollars, the company filed for bankruptcy protection in 2012. The plant now has fewer than 10 employees, and Raser owes $1.5 million in back taxes.”
“ECOtality. The Obama administration gave ECOtality $126.2 million in taxpayer money in 2009 for, among other things, the installation of 14,000 electric car chargers in five states. Obama even hosted the company’s president, Don Karner, in the first lady’s box during the 2010 State of the Union address as an example of a stimulus success story. According to ECOtality’s own SEC filings, the company has since incurred more than $45 million in losses and has told the federal government, ‘We may not achieve or sustain profitability on a quarterly or annual basis in the future.’”
“Nevada Geothermal Power (NGP). The Obama administration gave NGP a $98.5 million taxpayer loan guarantee in 2010. The New York Times reported last October that the company is in ‘financial turmoil’ and that ‘[a]fter a series of technical missteps that are draining Nevada Geothermal’s cash reserves, its own auditor concluded in a filing released last week that there was “significant doubt about the company’s ability to continue as a going concern.”‘ First Solar. The Obama administration provided First Solar with more than $3 billion in loan guarantees for power plants in Arizona and California. According to a Bloomberg Businessweek report last week, the company ‘fell to a record low in Nasdaq Stock Market trading May 4 after reporting $401 million in restructuring costs tied to firing 30 percent of its workforce.’”
A solar firm given three billion, losing $401 million because they fired 30% of the workforce. “Abound Solar, Inc. The Obama administration gave Abound Solar a $400 million loan guarantee to build photovoltaic panel factories. According to Forbes, in February the company halted production and laid off 180 employees.
Beacon Power. The Obama administration gave Beacon — a green-energy storage company — a $43 million loan guarantee. According to CBS News, at the time of the loan, ‘Standard and Poor’s had confidentially given the project a dismal outlook of “CCC-plus.”‘ In the fall of 2011, Beacon received a delisting notice from Nasdaq and filed for bankruptcy.”
These are just tip of the iceberg. Everything Obama’s touched in terms of public equity has gone bankrupt. They’ve laid people off. And it’s not been his money. It’s been ours that he has lost.
There’s a solar outfit. “A company called SunPower got a $1.2 billion loan guarantee from the [regime], and as of January, the company owed more than it was worth. BrightSource got a $1.6 billion loan guarantee and posted a string of net losses totaling $177 million.
And, of course, let’s not forget Solyndra — the solar panel manufacturer that received $535 million in taxpayer-funded loan guarantees and went bankrupt, leaving taxpayers on the hook.”
71% of Obama’s Energy Department grants and loans, like the ones listed above, went to people who were bundlers and members of Obama’s national Finance Committee or they were large donors to the Democrat Party.
Bain has an 80% track record.
Obama is an 0-fer.
With thanks to Rush Limbaugh for exposing this.
Mitt Romney did not mistreat a dog.
I *did* know about dressage & Lipizzaners–& I’ve always been indifferent toward horses.
The N.Y. Times is bad but nothing compares to the daily barrage of leftist propaganda coming from Yahoo news and Google. On top of that, any comment that criticizes Yahoo for running blatantly false stories winds up on the cutting room floor. Yahoo and Google are important parts of the media attack on Romney and the Republicans and they should be exposed for their bias.
Yes of course the Times et al hate White Republicans, especially the women, but now we know they also hate the Olympics, as dressage is an Olympic sport. (I betcha that more than a couple of the kids at Sasha and Malia’s elite private school do some horseback-riding after school. Maybe even dressage.)
At the age of two, I always carried the New York Times as I practiced walking. Still small,I used to go to the corner newstand and buy the Sunday Times. All you saw were two legs and this big Newspaper. As a high school student I read the Times every day.(I also supported the UN but then there was a lot of good done by that 53 member organization.) I was a true New Yorker who knew how to fold the paper so I could read it standing up in the subway
So it was with regret that I had to stop buying the Times because of its ant-Americanism and Anti-Semitism.
Soon the Times will be no more. It’s fall has been a tragedy as in its hey day it gave full coverage to events all over the globe. It’s unlikely that there will be in depth coverage world wide ans the Times afforded during its salad days.
I read this and thought of NYT as Seinfeld talking about disliking people with ponies:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXy0tZ5eCG4
I recall some dem presidents called FDR and JFK who had a fair amount of money. But somehow that was good. In Jackies case her rich born mannerisms and interests were celebrated as elegance and class. Lesson, it is only safe to be rich if you are a dem. And unlike FDR and JFK Romney earned most of his wealth on his own. Once again the double standard for dems is quite evident.
Oh, yes, Lennon, the guy who bought multiple adjoining apartments at the exclusive Dakota building, one which was continuously climate controlled for just his fur coats. Oh, but don’t say anything, he wasn’t running for president, so it doesn’t count. Of course, as has been pointed out, was discussed when John Kerry was running for president and had an heiress for a wife. Oh no.
It’s a matter of court record. Ann Romney was the defendant in a fraud case. It was alleged that the buyer of her horse for $125,000 was not informed that the pre sale tox screen revealed that the horse had four different tranquilizing drugs in its system at the time of the pre sale examination performed by the seller’s vet. A second examination was conducted by the buyers vet after the sale and he diagnosed the horse as permanently lame. Ann Romney may not have known that the horse had been drugged. The question is, why in the world did the Romneys who are quarter billionaires force the buyer to sue in order to recover her money. Why didn’t they just refund the money and take the horse back. It’s a refection on their values and morals as is this bloggers deception that Gabriel’s article was about a rich woman being slammed by Dems for owning an expensive horse.
As a professional horseman for over 40 years, I can tell you something about lame horses in the higher levels of competition, they all go lame. It is not question of “if”, it is a matter of “when”.
It is a horseman’s responsibility to recognize the slight indications of lameness and lay up the horse to keep from ruining the horse. When an expensive horse is sold to a new rider and trainer, the seller assumes the buyer isn’t a complete blithering idiot; since, a sale can go south fairly quickly if the new rider and trainer are oblivious to the horse’s feedback on over training and pure stupidity.
Stupidity is responsible for much of the premature lameness that ends many equine careers. The rider cries to her trainer, “He can train through next month and we will lay him up then. I must make the big show in West Palm Beach, everyone will be there.” Thus a rider’s vanity destroys a horse’s career and soundness. Does it sound hard to believe? I have seen it happen a thousand times.
Did the reporter check into the ability or competency of the buyer? Hell no!
Two of the drugs were administered by the vet at the Alamo Pentado clinic for a pre-purchase exam. The horse must stand still for radiographs. The other two drugs are common place and could be residual traces from an earlier vet procedure. I read the article in the NYT and was surprised to find it on the front page. All things considered, after knowing wealthy horse owners all my life, I breathed a sigh of relief upon reading the article. There are many wealthy horse owners, many of whom are major Lib donors, some are truly sick despicable people, but the Romney’s seem to be among the best of the best.
Many people ride to create a sense of identity, some see it as a means of self-indulgence, and others like to associate with other wealthy people. Ann Romney has one of the best reasons to ride that I have ever heard, but there are a few others who ride for therapeutic reasons and for a love of the horse. Oh, by the way, the three Olympic equestrian sports are dressage, three day eventing (three parts with dressage as the first of three days of competition) and show jumping. As a young man, I rode eventers and loved it; although, it is an extremely dangerous sport. Many of you are confused and are relying on faulty information that is as shallow as the NYT article.
Dressage is a difficult sport that is supposed to make riding look effortless. You can do it on a thousand dollar horse or a million dollar hose. It is the journey, not the destination that is significant.
If you think it is for sissies, pay for a lesson and throw a leg over a 1500 pound warmblood that can move as fast as a cat.
This story would really bother me if there was anyone remaining who still reads the NYT.
First and for most if I hear one more uneducated idiot say that this sport is for the 1% wealthy and elite my head will spin off. I make my living in this sport and for starters the horses do not cost 6 figures in all cases….as a matter of fact in very few. Most are purchased as foals, very reasonably priced. ( cheaper than what you would buy a second hand car for) and brought up in selective care with hopes of being an international competition horse. They don’t just appear 6 figures or better out of the womb. These horses are raised and trained with care and time and a lot of work! Second. This sport is as huge on an international level as it is on a national level. Riders of all sizes, ages and ethnicities partake in it and it is NOT a sport for those who are wealthy or elite! Not even close! Many are riding donated horses and do their best with them, with the average lesson costing between $25-$45 dollars a week. Some students work to ride. So attacking Ann Romney for her riding is ridiculous when this country has far bigger issues to contend with AND they don’t even have their facts straight! Last I checked journalism was suppose to be responsible….but I guess that doesn’t have to happen for NYT! Mean while Michelle Obama is monitoring my kids drinks and foods in her PUBLIC school and no one says a thing about that!
I couldn’t care less about Ann’s horse habits. What I DO care about is their refusal to release their tax returns. Even Mitt’s father released his…. two years might enough to buy a car or house, but sorry, if you want to sit in the Oval Office, I need a far better financial picture.