Ann Romney's relief...

[WilliamPitt]

[yashoo]

1. Not to mention that

the white house doesn't have a CAR ELEVATOR

[calimary]

23. Welcome to DU, yashoo!

Glad you're here. Glad she won't be our First Lady. I rather like the one we already have. We've won this, but now we have to protect and build upon our winnings.

[patrice]

2. ... and WORK for us!

[BainsBane]

3. or worry about Mitt's mental stability

now that he won't have the emotional toll of being President. The rest of America is also relieved for our own mental health.

[grantcart]

4. One of the things that really bothered me is the fact that Ann has MS and I can't think of anything

that would add more needless stress than what he has been doing for the last 5 years.


If he had won it would have been 8 years more for here.


Stress is not good for a person with MS.


This demonstrates how ego centric this guy really is.

[femrap]

9. That is the Mormon

Religion. Women are to bear, rear, and love. You know, be a Welcome Mat to wipe one's dirty shoes upon. She accepts that role.

I wonder what would have been her 'cause' if she had been 1st lady???? Teaching little girls how to be eye candy and appear stupid????

She must have thought about this and told some of the other repugnants.

[calimary]

24. I find myself wondering if maybe she's secretly relieved that mittski lost.

From what I've read and understand, stress is indeed bad for an MS sufferer. She seems to have her condition well-managed, but MS doesn't just go away after awhile. And it's still incurable, so far. The job of First Lady is HUGELY stressful and demanding, and that's just the First Lady activities. The First Lady also gets to sit there and grind her teeth while she watches her husband being attacked. I mean - think of what Michelle Obama has had to endure! Talk about suffering! That's not easy for ANYONE, much less somebody who needs a stress-free environment to maintain near-normalcy. She can go back to being a private citizen immediately, and do her little horse thing and her little mom and grandma thing without too much interference from the public or media or gossips or other prying eyes. She doesn't have to be a front-line public figure anymore. I'd guess that's gonna be healthier for her, and I suspect that it's probably occurred to her as well.

[WinkyDink]

27. "It's OUR turn."

[Anthony McCarthy]

5. Finally, something we can agree on

[grasswire]

6. I just saw a bit on TV about that house

It's valued at 188 mililon dollars. Sixteen bedrooms, 30 bathrooms. And it belongs to you and to me!

[Anthony McCarthy]

10. Sounds like a friggin' hotel

How can anyone feel at home in something like that?

[stevenleser]

15. Most of it is not the home part.

I guess its like living in a large apartment in a big apartment building. Most of that building is not your residence.

[BouzoukiKing]

19. No president should ever feel at home in that house.

And the best of them have pointed that out. Even some of the worst.

It isn't their home. They're borrowing it from us - strictly as a matter of convenience.

[WinkyDink]

30. Yeah, how can anyone live in the PRIVATE QUARTERS? How DOES Queen Elizabeth manage to survive in

Buckingham Palace?

[Ter]

51. The Romney's house or the White House?

n/t

[grasswire]

62. the White House nt

[calico1]

7. Plus...

Being FLOTUS is hard!

[onehandle]

8. CROWN DENIED

[WinkyDink]

31. Heh. The neck always reveals the age.

[maddiemom]

45. Zsa Zsa always used to say that after a certain age you have to choose

between "your face and your fanny." Her face looked pretty good for a lot of years, although she got pretty plump. An older, European generational thing? Our obsession with being thin doesn't wear well on the face and neck.

[WinkyDink]

49. Yes, adipose tissue does help the older face! ;-)

[n2doc]

11. well there is this:

[stevenleser]

16. I think he has $250 million in one of his many accounts.

We really dont know how much he is really worth with all of the money sequestered in various numbered accounts all over the world.

I suspect his real worth is in the billions.

[Rocky2007]

46. His talk of $1m here and there don't work

for me at all. 100M or 500m seems to fit Mitt much better. I vote for a 100B + or - !

[WinkyDink]

32. In ONE place. Then there's the OTHER $750 million.

[libdem4life]

12. They are both ill ... she physically, he mentally. Go home.

[WilliamPitt]

13. Um...

My wife has MS, too. Should she also go away because she's sick, too?

Rethink what you just wrote, friend.

[libdem4life]

17. I apologize deeply ...I meant out of the stressful political life. First Lady.

I meant the same about Mitt's mental health...not to offend any with same...he needs to be at home where he can be taken care of.

[ywcachieve]

39. Please don't try to personalize this.

You know what the poster was talking about. This has nothing to do with your wife, or anyone else. This is about Ann Romney and the stressful job of being the first lady. She has no place there.

I wish your wife well. Maybe some day they will find a cure for it. I hope so.

[WilliamPitt]

41. Yeah, no, you're right

A straightforward reading of that post above is obviously out of bounds. "They are sick, she physically, he mentally, and should go away."

Yeah, no, you're right, it's me.

[libdem4life]

43. Please accept my best wishes for your wife. I cannot imagine the stress.

[WilliamPitt]

44. Thanks.

Sorry. It's a sensitive issue.

[maddiemom]

47. My mom had it from her mid-thirties and lived until 91, quite active well into her seventies.

From her understanding, from her doctors (and she was even treated at Johns Hopkins), a lot of unexplained neurological diseases get lumped under MS.

[tpsbmam]

56. Not a good idea, though, to be questioning peoples' diagnosis because of that.....

Misdiagnoses happen all the time and yes, people may be diagnosed with MS when it's something else, but it's not a great idea to suggest on a thread about MS (or a sub-thread) that people may have been misdiagnosed.

This comes from someone diagnosed with MS for 26 years......no doubt about it.

[maddiemom]

63. Not questioning ANYONE'S diagnosis.

Just mentioning my mother's experience. Her MS (or?) didn't follow the usual patterns for the disease, I, too, know several other people who definitely have or had MS. Obviously diagnoses have improved from fifty years ago.

[momsrule]

14. This is your mom speaking

Now play nice. I do not care for her remarks either, but we should gine the spousal thing a rest.

[calimary]

22. Understand, fellow mom! However...

there's the matter of her being a full-on, willing participant. She is NOT a non-combatant. Neither was cindy mccain. Neither was Hillary Clinton. Neither was that wretched imperious barbara "beautiful mind" bush. When they step forward and campaign, when they do NOT stay quiet and meek and in the background, when they speak up and say stuff that gets reaction. When they're players, and they're sent out to make campaign appearances (because they're the "secret weapon" or perceived to be popular with voters and desirable to have out there in a high-profile position, or it's presumed they can reach the hard-to-reach voter groups or warm up the women), and they speak about issues, then they're fair game.

She was no shrinking violet. She was not declared out-of-bounds. She was not someone you never saw or heard. She was not kept off the dais or the set of the TV show or the magazine profile. She was not muzzled, but highly quotable (saying all the wrong things of course), and she made no attempt - nor did the campaign - to downplay her role. She didn't mind speaking up and she vigorously defended her husband.

So no, she was NOT a non-combatant. She was out there, with sleeves rolled up, boldly taking the podium or the microphone, high profile all the way. She was fair game. Like it or not.

[ThomThom]

60. yes she was

but I still have to wonder about her comments about Mitts stability and the family stories that weren't funny. Maybe she didn't want the job or knew he was not up to it but was afraid to tell him.

[lpbk2713]

18. No lakefront view, not out in the country.

It would definitely be a step down from what they are accustomed to.

[maddiemom]

50. But there's still Camp David, isn't there?

[lpbk2713]

54. Dumbya was the most vacationed President ever.

I'm sure they would have given him a good race for that title.

[calimary]

20. And a lot of "the help" lives there, too.

And the riff raff are in there all the time, filing through the downstairs on those damned White House tours. EEEUUUUWWW!

[SCVDem]

21. Every picture I see of her

makes her look constipated.

The rest of them she looks mean.

She reminds me of Leona Helmsley.

[blondie58]

25. as a woman who also has MS, i have often worried

About Ann's health. Stress is a big problem. And I often wondered, how does she cope with the fatigue? The indescribable, to the bone fatigue that appears with no warning?
Oh, silly me. She has the money to have hippotherapy anytime she wants. Yeah and people to cook and clean for her. And money for massages.

I hope your wife is doing well. I remember when she was diagnosed.
It is like being a member of a special club. Only not one you want to belong to.

[Lilma]

38. I agree with you

about the fatigue and not wanting to belong to the club. Hippotherapy does work because it mimics the human stride. I have given the lessons and taken them.

[vinden]

26. I would expect that Rmoneybags and her

I would hope that Rmoneybags and her would have had the conversation about her health and whether she could handle the responsibilities of First Lady, before he thrust her into the national spotlight. Or maybe he just wanted the position so badly that it didn't matter . . . in any case, I wish them both well and could not be happier that we'll have Barack and Michelle for four more years.

[reformist2]

28. I don't think she ever wanted it - she just let Mitt steamroll over her wishes.

[lunatica]

29. Well my relief is not so secret!!

[heaven05]

33. I

question whether she really has MS.

[Lilma]

40. Why?

MS has several ways to present itself. It often strikes and then "appears" to go away. Just to come back years later. Each time it comes back it leaves you a little more disabled.

[heaven05]

53. ok

yet just feel they were using that to get some kind of sympathy vote. Just the way I feel and I'll only believe them when I see her debilitated. They lied tooooooooooooooooo much.

[leftyohiolib]

34. "I DIDNT WANT THAT STUPID JOB ANYWAY" !!

[Figaro78]

35. No sympathy for her...none

Ann Romney's millions gave her access to the finest medical services money could buy yet she
wanted to see a president installed who would have gutted--if not utterly destroyed--Medicare
leaving the less fortunate to suffer and die from lack of adequate health care. This selfish, heartless woman deserves no sympathy. She is best ignored and forgotten.

[haikugal]

42. Well put...I agree 100% for the same reason!

[heaven05]

55. yep

+1000

[tpsbmam]

58. Because of that, I agree, Figaro78, and more....

I've been diagnosed with MS for 26 years. I'd just returned to school (grad school) when I was diagnosed. My first symptoms, I'm sure of it, were the fatigue I complained to my GP about years before I was diagnosed (because my left side went mostly numb). Yet I finished full-time grad school while also working 20 hours a week to pay the bills (worked in my field) and then worked in my high stress field for a number of years. Because of the way things worked out when I finally was disabled enough I couldn't work I was shut out of Medicare through a bizarre loophole. The first time I've had insurance for many years was through the ACA -- my state brought in the federal Inclusive health and I got insurance despite multiple preexisting conditions (I was still rejected by BCBS). And Romney wanted to kill that off for me and for the millions of other Americans who previously couldn't get health insurance.

Yeah, I have to admit it. I have zero sympathy for her.

Oh, and P.S. Meant to add welcome to DU!

[Plucketeer]

36. And also glad

Obamacare will cover the servants!

[Scootaloo]

37. I wonder if ROmney would have tried so hard...

If he knew he would be taking a 90% pay cut?

[libdem4life]

48. I thought it was pretty well known that neither she nor any of the sons wanted him to run.

I hold "Bishop" Romney and his huge Rich Male Mormon Supremacist ego completely responsible. Ann is a Mormon wife and is not allowed to go against her man. She has MS and her sons were worried about her. And if her horse issues have to do with hippotherapy...I've seen that used and it's usually suggested when everything medical science can do, doesn't help.

But as to supporting her Mate for Life...She HAD NO CHOICE. I don't think most non-Mormons appreciate that dreadful fact.

[PoliticalBiker]

52. LMAO!

Besides, there's no car elevator close by.
And the thought of having to come and go in a noisy helocopter?

[argiel1234]

57. Stop it. This is Hard

[Tom Ripley]

59. Your subject line created a horrifying image in my filthy mind

[L0oniX]

61. ...and she thought the SS was Secret Servants!