Meet Mitt Romney's Garbageman
The AFSCME —a public employee union representing state, county, and municipal workers— has a series of truly bizarre anti-Romney political ads out.
Two of the ads, including the one below, feature individuals who have worked as garbage collectors servicing the neighborhood surrounding the Romney home in La Jolla, California.
A third ad features a man who repairs firetrucks in the La Jolla area. All three allege that Mitt Romney doesn't care about them and the important work they do. They believe that Mitt Romney is opposed to paid opt-in local services like trash collection, and that they'll lose their jobs if Romney is elected.
Does Romney have some anti-trash pickup policy that none of us are yet aware of? Perhaps he'll clarify in the debate tomorrow night.
(h/t Rush Limbaugh program 10/2)
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Comments:
May '11
Re: Meet Mitt Romney's Garbageman
RightinChicago: @thelonious... I'm not one to split hairs, but I actually said he looked stoned and I think he does.
It flavors the conversation in my opinion. I'm not denigrating him as a garbage-man. I'm denigrating him as a shill for a feckless and mean-spirited sitting President. I find the idea of a public servant defaming one of his customers a helluva lot more offensive than saying someone is overweight and looks stoned. If I can't mock someone like old Dick here, something is very wrong. · 10 minutes ago
Denigrating this man for looking fat and stoned doesn't strengthen your argument and comes across as mean spirited and makes you sound juvenile. It reminds me of the left mocking Rush Limbaugh for being fat. It's just mockery for mockery sake. It doesn't prove a point. It's fair to say this man is a pathetic pawn or shill of a leftist organization.
Sep '10
Re: Meet Mitt Romney's Garbageman
So, does Obama run out with a big pitcher of Kool-Aid whenever he hears a garbage truck drive by?
Sep '10
Re: Meet Mitt Romney's Garbageman
JustinC: If he thinks he has it bad, try the DMV lady or the real estate tax assessor. They're not invisible, they are loathed. Perhaps he should be happy with being invisible. · 1 hour ago
Edited 1 hour ago
Sometimes the DMV lady goes out of her way to earn that hatred.
Jul '12
Re: Meet Mitt Romney's Garbageman
It is mean spirited. I have zero respect for old Dick. Conservatives are constantly mocked and ridiculed for no good reason. Old Dick has earned it with interest. I'm not interested in occupying some phantom high ground while our enemies drag us through the mud. I'll reiterate this. I hate the Left. They deserve no quarter from me. They can't be reasoned with or talked to. This is their choice. I'll mock and make fun of people like this from now until Doomsday because they deserve it. They've earned it. It's the wages of their own sins. You may sit atop your white horse and pretend were fighting an honorable war. We're not. The Left fights as ununiformed combatants and are thus not worthy of the civilized rules of war. I'll take pot shots at them any time I can. It's not like I swore or even called him a name.
Jan '11
Re: Meet Mitt Romney's Garbageman
I can't hug my garbageperson, I'm at work when he or she comes by
Jun '12
Re: Meet Mitt Romney's Garbageman
Jojo: I'm guessing old Dick doesn't care about the non-union guys who are going to be dragging their aching bodies to work in their 60's so their taxes can pay his pension. · 14 minutes ago
Edited 13 minutes ago
If the pension schemes in California implode as expected ol' Dick may be dragging himself to work long past 55 to make ends meet.
Nov '11
Re: Meet Mitt Romney's Garbageman
The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act requires employers to provide notice 60 days before plant closings and mass layoffs. The law is intended to give workers time to get their affairs in order and, hopefully, to line up other jobs. Obama has asked defense contractors to delay issuing these notices until after the election. How much concern is Obama showing for these workers?
Aug '10
Re: Meet Mitt Romney's Garbageman
thelonious
It's fair to say this man is a pathetic pawn or shill of a leftist organization. · 1 hour ago
Sclera and defensiveness met in the alley. The public unions cannot do any good anywhere,anyhow. It's all about the me me me and the benjamins for me.
Shame on you all, this is not the point. Thelonius only salvaged the argument with more disparaging remarks. This poor sap from AFSCME has been trotted out by his peer group to make an Obama ad. Pretty standup cred in Cal, and the negativity will never ,never register past the balcony where we choirmembers sit and snark.
Stoned garbagemen fall off trucks, therefore it's unlikely. Stoned actors do not get filmed , therefore it's unlikely. Presidential candidates do not know their garbagemen at their 2/3/4 th home, but the tape exists of Gov Romney running a trash route in Mass, highly unlikely but so sweet !! And the TRUTH. Obama probably wore a helmet.
May '10
Re: Meet Mitt Romney's Garbageman
Does he pick up Romney's trash because he cares that the Romney home is clear of trash? Of course not. He picks up the Romney's trash because he gets something for himself by doing so.
If this guy had studied Basic Economics, he might be something other than a sanitation engineer today. But again, maybe the living he earns is reward enough. I do hope that one of these days Mitt finds it within himself to get out there and give the guy a "good job!" and a little hug. That would be gravy.
Apr '11
Re: Meet Mitt Romney's Garbageman
What he is looking for is a "participation" trophy. I get it. No one wants to be invisible. But once again, if you depend on others to have an opinion of yourself, you are likely to be disappointed and depressed some of the time.
His worth comes from a job well done, visible or invisible. We should be kind to people. But to expect allocades everytime we pick up the garbage...well it begs the question: what job are you being paid to do?
We all have jobs where we appreciate people who tell us "well done". But this ad isn't about Mr Hayes and his bad feelings about being ignored. What it appears to be is a hit job.
It is the person that did that ad that assumed that being a garbage man, Hayes is in a low self esteem position and how Mitt caused that by neglecting a personal relationship. The film maker is making Hayes visable, but in a degrading manner.
From the day Mitt Romney collected the garbage in Mass. and mentioned how these men are invisible, I don't think Mitt Romeny takes them for granted.
Shame on the cheap point being made.
Apr '12
Re: Meet Mitt Romney's Garbageman
Have you given your garbage man a gatorade today?
Here in Toronto, the mayor has privatized sections of the city garbage and they get the garbage cleared far quicker too.
Jun '12
Re: Meet Mitt Romney's Garbageman
Take a moment to look at the Yahoo Posting of the video. While the article is standard MSM reporting, the comments are not. People HATE this commercial and what it assumes of its audience. Hmmm, maybe Paul Rahe has something here....
Jun '12
Re: Meet Mitt Romney's Garbageman
This is a desperate ad. Almost insulting to the target audience.
Jun '12
Re: Meet Mitt Romney's Garbageman
Indeed.
All those who think Obama is cruising to victory, heed this. Confident campaigns don't run ads like this.
The desperation and fear are palpable.
Sep '12
Re: Meet Mitt Romney's Garbageman
Ok, the typical Obama voter: when not worrying about "lady parts," they are hugging the garbage man and talking on the Obama phone. Boy, have I had my priorities all wrong.
Re: Meet Mitt Romney's Garbageman
After my garbageman finishes hurling my bins hither and yon, I serve him a five course meal and give him a foot massage. It is the least I can do. Mitt Romney (who can afford to give him a five course meal on a private jet) would just spit on him and say, "Out of my sight, you bacteria laden peasant!" as he feeds caviar to his borzois.
Jul '10
Re: Meet Mitt Romney's Garbageman
It could be privatized, certainly. But the government would have a "proper role" either way, whether the garbagemen were direct govt employees, or worked for a private contractor overseen and paid by the government.
Garbage pickup is a public good in many ways. After all, you wouldn't want to live next door to someone who "opted out".
Sep '11
Re: Meet Mitt Romney's Garbageman
Frozen Chosen: I've never heard myprivatetrash collector complain like this.
One more reason to privatize services whenever possible.... · 15 hours ago
That, plus, if they leave the lids off, you can fire them and get someone who puts them back on.
Dec '10
Re: Meet Mitt Romney's Garbageman
Don't have time to read the whole thread right now, but want to comment on this as I deal with it as a Councilman.
Picking up municipal trash is, in my view, generally a legitimate function of local government, at least in denser neighborhoods.
The problem is in municipalities private haulers will cherry-pick-- with lower prices-- areas of town that for geographical reasons are easier to service. This means that the houses that these haulers will not service at cheap prices-- often inhabited by lower income folks-- have to have their garbage picked up by someone or else you have a public health hazard for everyone.
It is a bit of a sticky wicket, but the bottom line is this: In such municipalities if you select a cheap trash hauler you're probably going to pay the difference in higher taxes. So you either restrict private access to easy-to-serve neighborhoods, or jack up taxes.
Generally speaking, I prefer the former.
Re: Meet Mitt Romney's Garbageman
Richard, I wish Mitt Romney could take some debate lessons from you. I've noticed you use this shrewd tactic in several conversations.