September 25, 2012 by David K. Sutton
The One With Romney and the Airplane Windows
If you didn’t hear about this one, Ann Romney’s plane had to make an emergency landing over the weekend when the cabin began to fill with smoke. At a fundraising event in California, with his wife at his side, Mitt Romney said:
When you have a fire in an aircraft, there’s no place to go, exactly, there’s no — and you can’t find any oxygen from outside the aircraft to get in the aircraft, because the windows don’t open. I don’t know why they don’t do that. It’s a real problem. So it’s very dangerous. And she was choking and rubbing her eyes. Fortunately, there was enough oxygen for the pilot and copilot to make a safe landing in Denver. But she’s safe and sound. – Mitt Romney quoted by LA Times – Mitt Romney pulls in $6 million at Beverly Hills fundraiser
A lot of media outlets jumped on these comments, portraying Romney as silly for thinking airplane windows should be able to open. I know it was featured on The Rachel Maddow Show last night, with similar snark-tinged coverage.
OK, get ready for this, because you aren’t going to see this too often on this blog… I think the media could have just left this one alone. Was Romney serious when he said this or was he joking? I saw the video, it didn’t sound like a joke but apparently some people think it was. I’m not sure if it matters either way. It was Romney’s usual stiff, weird, uncomfortable style of speaking when he’s off-the-cuff. And on top of that, it was pertaining to something that could have been a really serious problem. I mean, smoke filling an airplane cabin, even if it turns out to be minor, is still a big scare. I can pardon Romney for being slightly less coherent when talking about this event that happened to his wife. In the end it might have been minor event, but think about if it happened to someone close to you.
That’s why I think this is one story the media could have just let go. It was pointless to cover it. I’m only covering it to point out how petty the media can be at times, including Rachel Maddow. Just because I’m liberal and I don’t support Romney, doesn’t mean I need my bias on full display for each event in Mitt Romney’s world.
