From 2007: Gov. Mitt Romney meets a medical marijuana patient--Oct. 6 - YouTube
Essentially, a cancer patient tells him that medical marijuana is the only thing that helps him manage pain. Synthetic marijuana (marinol) makes him sick. He then asks if Romney will have him and his doctors arrested for smoking medical weed. Romney goes all stone-faced and proceeds to ignore him.
Classy.
Nice.
He distinctly said “I’m not in favor of medical marijuana” and moved on. You can approve or disapprove of that position, but he didn’t equivocate; he didn’t ignore the man; and he didn’t vary his position by audience. And I am not a Romney fan.
I am not a Palin fan either, but I think people put much too much emphasis on silly “Gotcha” questions. Romney has a position and stuck to it. Where’s the news story?
Because having a position and sticking to it is not enough. That’s simple stubbornness. Having a position challenged, and defending it in public would be admirable. Turning your back on a constituent and refusing to acknowledge his (perfectly fair) point is childish.
We’re pitting people for what they did 4 years ago? Shouldn’t pit threads be somewhat topical?
Next up: Windows 98 sucks!, followed by Damn you Clinton for pardoning Marc Rich!.
Here you go. Topicality. He hasn’t changed his position.
Your OP isn’t pitting him for his position, it’s pitting him for being rude to some guy four years ago.
I suspect that, since synthetic marinol doesn’t work for this guy and regular weed does, the relief he feels is at least partly psychosomatic. So you aren’t going to be able to convince him of anything, and you are just going to look like an asshole trying to do it. You can’t argue with a guy in a wheelchair, which is why he was used in this set up.
If you want to play the game like that, Romney could have said “Of course I am not going to arrest you - I am not a policeman”. But he didn’t. He recognized it for what it was, restated his position quire clearly, and moved on.
Regards,
Shodan
Actually, it’s pitting him for both.
Which is what makes him look stupid. He has no intention of considering any special cases, any subtleties, any shades of gray. Marijuana is bad. Period.
That’s just dumb.
I’m not questioning your sincerity here, but lots of studies which I am not going to look up at work but am pretty sure were done with scientific rigor have shown that marinol’s efficacy is not nearly that of regular marijuana.
So, you know, I think you’re sincere but wrong.
If you want to assume that anyone who disagrees with you about medical marijuana is dumb, that’s your right.
This is an appeal to emotion. Fine, the stoners scored their gotcha.
Regards,
Shodan
Wait, what? I have no particular doubt that the stoners are with him on this, but the guy in the wheelchair wasn’t exactly just a casual weed-smoker.
And yeah, it’s dumb not to consider actual medical cases.
And before you go accusing me of being a stoner, I haven’t smoked in years. I’ve posted about it here before. I have no axe to grind.
Good call. And bravo for calling out another poster who is probably a political ally. We are definitely entering what golfers refer to as the “silly season” as the primaries/election approaches.
What’s a “gotcha” question? Is there even any such thing for a campaign candidate, as long as it’s a question that addresses a candidate’s political positions? I’d argue “no”. And he didn’t answer his question at all. If he had answered his question, he would have said, “Yes, I would approve of your being arrested” (taking into account the semantics of the situation).
What he said, in effect, was that there is no consideration he would give to anyone who finds that medical marijuana is more helpful than marinol. That’s stubborn, unconsidered, and cowardly. He has made up his mind, actual experiences be damned. The marijuana issue is not, nor should be, an absolutely yes/no issue.
I am open to correction, but I have not seen much more than anecdotal evidence that marijuana does any better than standard painkillers - synthetic, natural, or any other kind.
I am in favor of legalizing the stuff, but not because I think it is of much use clinically.
Regards,
Shodan
The man is currently running for President of the United States! Everything in his adult life is fair game, unless he’s disavowed and apologized for it.
Tell you what - I will start a GD thread and see what comes of it.
Regards,
Shodan
And how do you know that?
Edit: I had to re-watch the video a few times and I changed my opinion. I think what he displayed was indifference. The man was clearly suffering.
I don’t know it for certain.
I have started a GD thread, should you care to discuss it.
Regards,
Shodan