This may get hidden, but in honor of the Romney campaign I'll quote my old Drill Sergeant anyway ...

[11 Bravo]

To a recruit at Fort Bragg, NC, in 1970, who continually dropped his pugil stick: "Boy! You could reach into a barrel of pussy and pull out a dick!"

I believe that the SGT was trying to indicate to the recruit in question, who was standing next to me at the time, that the recruit was not meeting the Drill Sergeant's expectations. (And the worst mistake of my then 19 years on this Earth was to laugh. I received a horizontal stroke, and after falling to the ground I was hit in the gut so hard that I couldn't breathe for a good 45 seconds. Trust me, Drill Sergeants do NOT want you to laugh ... even when they are REALLY funny!)

But back to my initial point, has there been a more clueless candidate in modern history than Mitt Romney? Is there a single constituency which he needs to sway that he hasn't somehow managed to alienate? Yeah, he will win the rich white guy vote in a walk. And that should be just about it.

Keep reaching into that barrel, Mitt.

[Fire Walk With Me]

1. He doesn't care.

He's incredibly rich. If he's not elected, he's still incredibly rich.

[11 Bravo]

2. I disagree. I think that if the American people resoundingly tell him, "HEY, MITT ...

not only are you not entitled to SHIT, but we also don't LIKE your smarmy ass", he might just get his feelings hurt.

[donnasgirl]

12. when he loses

He will go home and throw a hissy fit and cry in his millions asking why doesn't anybody like me.He reminds me of Frank Burns from mash.

[zbdent]

5. Well, he is trying to buy the ultimate orgasm ...

full power (and with a "liberally-biased corporate media" to boot, licking said boot) ...

[crunch60]

13. Romney is only where he is, because his corporate overlord's are pouring Millions $$

into his campaign. No restrictions, perfectly legal thanks to Citizens United. Romney, out of touch flip flopper, is their puppet of choice for the White House, and he will serve them well if he wins this election.

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. Recruit thanks for the laugh

so you know, getting physical like this is no longer allowed, not with ths all volunteer force.

I never did, but there were other creative ways to make the point.

At ease recruit. You just made me laugh hard. Yup, not only can see it, bit know what you mean.



On the bright side he did not really hurt you...there was a potential there.

Oh and Romney not only wants it...but feels entitled to it.

[11 Bravo]

6. Yeah, I know Drill SGTs can't smack the boots around anymore. And it didn't really hurt as much ...

as it stunned me. After all, I wasn't the one who kept dropping the fucking pugil stick! All I did was laugh! (But like I said, I found out that they REALLY didn't like it when you laughed!)

[AnotherMcIntosh]

15. "can't smack the boots around anymore"? I wonder if they always officially prohibited from doing so

We had a DI who genuinely killed Japs in WW II plus Koreans and Chinese in the Korean War. They didn't have a term for it at the time, but he was probably suffering from PTSD. He was one serious and often irrational SOB. He also drank too much coffee. At one time, one of the boots from Kansas refused to accept his limitations and just say that he wanted out. I was supposed to be one of the lifeguards with a whistle and a 16' fiberglass pole (they never told me whether I was supposed to use the pole to pull people in or to push them away). While this particular recruit was swimming and trying to qualify, the DI was screaming at hime and getting more and more agitated. At some point, the DI had enough and jumped off the side of the pool with his boots on the guy from Kansas. I thought that he was going to kill the guy. He didn't, but it sure made for an interesting day.

I wonder whether any modern DI is suffering from undiagnosed PTSD.

Who is going to tell him, "You can't smack the boots around anymore?"

[RZM]

4. That barrel also contains his potential running mates

And he'll probably get the same results as the recruit.

[Bucky]

7. Romney will reach out and appeal to the self-delusional & quick fix constituencies.

Don't laugh, they make up a healthy chunk of the electorate. This election won't be a walk. If Obama breaks 52% I'll be shocked. If Romney squeaks it out, I won't be. There's still a lot of hurt out there and the Republicans are masters of deflecting the blame and offering "fucked up, but they sound good" solutions.

[emulatorloo]

16. That's pretty much how I see it too. Media won't fact-check his lies, and

he's got Rove and the Koch Bros billions to run a 24/7 SuperSwiftboat campaign to try to drive up Obama's negatives with low info voters. It is gonna be real close, I am tired already thinking about how much GOTV I need to do to fight all the bullshit these creeps are gonna pull.

[bluedigger]

8. I suspect that Romney is more likely following my DI's admonition.

"If you ain't cheating, you ain't trying!"

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

9. Or, he should follow my bayonet/hand to hand instructor's advice.

After having us poke bags of something with our bayonets, and wrestle around the dirt, he said, "If any sonovabitch gets so close to you that you gotta fight him with a knife or your hands..use your feet...and run like a stripey assed zebra."

The only really sound advice I ever received in boot camp, and the kind Romney would be wise to contemplate before his ass-whuppin'.

[craigmatic]

10. That is by far the funniest thing I've read today.

[pasto76]

11. What was the hardest part of basic training? "Not laughing"

they do some funny shit dont they. Still makes me laugh

[cbrer]

17. As fucked up as a soup sandwich

Or even better:

More fucked up than a football bat!

D.I.s come up with some truly choice verbage. How better to describe the quality of candidate that the GOP puts forth this fine election year?

And by the way 11B, thanks for your service...