Romney loves Snooki

[RecycleMichael]

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/romney-owns-loving-snooki-takes-campaign-daytime-tv-200630208--election.html

Mitt Romney snores, loves Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and secretly admires Snooki on MTV's "Jersey Shore." Ann Romney hogs the blankets, irritates her husband by leaving the cap off the toothpaste and once walked in on former President George W. Bush getting a massage while exploring the White House.

"He was covered up, but I was so embarrassed that the next time I did see him, I didn't know what I was going to say to him," Ann Romney confessed during a joint interview with her husband on Friday with ABC's "Live! With Kelly and Michael." "We were going down the elevator from the White House going to an event together, and I walked up to the elevator and am just like blushing, blushing, blushing. And he looks at me, and he winks as he does and says, 'I look pretty good, don't I?'"

The taped interview, set to air Tuesday, offered an unusually candid glimpse of the Romneys, as the Republican presidential nominee seeks to lose his reputation of being a stiff and sometimes awkward candidate on the stump. Recent polls have shown that Mitt Romney trails his rival, President Barack Obama, when it comes to "likability"—especially among women voters, who are considered to be a key voting bloc in November.

On Friday, Romney offered a side he rarely shows to the public—a jokey, sometimes hokey candidate who called peanut butter sandwiches and chocolate milk "a guilty pleasure" and said he'd like Gene Hackman to play him in a movie—in part because his loved his work in "The Birdcage," a film about a man who introduces his fiancee's parents to his gay father and his partner.

When his wife, Ann, was asked what her husband wears to bed, Romney offered up an unusually saucy answer. "I hear the best answer is as little as possible," the GOP candidate told hosts Kelly Ripa and Michael Strahan. The Romneys also owned up to loving their iPhones and dished on their pop culture favorites, citing "Modern Family" as their favorite TV show. Asked if they watch Kim Kardashian's reality show, Ann Romney replied, "Who keeps up with the Kardashians? Who can keep up with the Kardashians?"

As for Mitt Romney, he followed in the footsteps of his former rival John McCain and admitted he likes Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi on MTV's "Jersey Shore." "Look how tiny she's gotten," Romney said of the MTV star, who recently gave birth to her first baby. "She's lost weight. She's energetic. Just her spark plug personality is kind of fun."

[Ed W]

...Romney offered a side he rarely shows to the public—a jokey, sometimes hokey candidate who called peanut butter sandwiches and chocolate milk "a guilty pleasure" and said he'd like Gene Hackman to play him in a movie—in part because his loved his work in "The Birdcage," a film about a man who introduces his fiancee's parents to his gay father and his partner.

The bit about chocolate milk as a guilty pleasure jumped out at me, Michael. You have to wonder if Snooki gives rise to guilty pleasures, too.

But the chocolate is far more disturbing.  As you know, Mormons avoid caffeine because it's a mild stimulant.  Yet chocolate contains many of the same alkaloids as cocaine.  Is Mitt telegraphing that he's secretly a drug addict?

Should we trust the levers of government to someone who...let's be frank...won't be at his best when aides wake him at 3AM. When I'm up that early, I'm completely incapable of civilized behavior until after having a cuppa.  But then again, I'm not the leader of the Free World, either.  If Mitt wakes at that hour, we might find ourselves invading Finland.

Ben Krull has a piece in today's Post Gazette on this very issue.  He mentions the enormous difficulty of staying awake through "snore-a-thon budget meetings" and similarly dull speeches, but he offers this telling piece of wisdom from Chairman Bill:

Mr. Clinton told CNN's Wolf Blitzer. "I can't tell you how many times I found myself nodding off while meeting with Al Gore, even with the help of a double-espresso."

http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/opinion/perspectives/waking-up-a-sleepy-campaign-the-question-is-where-do-they-stand-on-coffee-653521/

Granted, Al Gore is an extreme case, and there's still not much in print about the military's attempt to weaponize the Gore Effect for battlefield use, but I think it emphasizes the importance of caffeine in our federal government.

We really have to wonder what keeps Mitt Romney awake some nights, and if it involves Snooki and Gene Hackman, do we really want to know?

(Seriously, go read that piece in the PPG.  It's funny!)