Wednesday, presidential candidate Mitt Romney was campaigning in a New Hampshire diner.
The waitress there has three sick children, and like most regular people, is struggling terribly to get the health care her family needs and is often not able to keep her head above the rising tide of costs.
Governor Romney was there telling people that to win the “war on terra” we need to win Muslim hearts and minds by giving Arab countries free American medicine and technology.
While I’m not opposed in all instances to foreign aid, it was positively SICK to put helping the other side of the world ahead of addressing the dire need mere feet away from him. He ignored his own countrymen!
And the waitress called him out on it! Here’s the video.
“How ’bout the USA?” she shouted. This is not someone pushing an ideology. This is a very sympathetic woman who just wants to survive, just wants some justice (the theme of this blog).
For her to be suffering like this in the richest nation on Earth is not just.
Romney debated her. Romney ad-libs some noncommittal blather about his state’s health plan, but gives no clear indication of what he would do as president to help (the issue isn’t even addressed on his web site other than saying “individuals have responsibility for their own health care”). Then he retreats from the woman and talks to other diners.
I loved this video. I LOVE IT when candidates (of any affiliation) run head-first into real people and the reality of their plight. This is one of the best moments of the ’08 primary season so far, which typically is inauthentic as hell, just canned sound-bites.
Mitt Romney got hit like a freight train. PWND.
I hope this spreads all over the ‘net (“goes viral.”)
Justice, justice you shall pursue!
Nick