# Romney - the problem is that you can't open airplane windows **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [September 24, 2012, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-the-problem-is-that-you-cant-open-airplane-windows/635709 "2012-09-24T21:12:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Enkel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/df705f/32.png) [@Enkel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enkel)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2012, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-the-problem-is-that-you-cant-open-airplane-windows/635709/1 "2012-09-24T21:12:33Z")
Seriously! This is our Republican candidate? This is beyond not knowing how a grocery store scanner works. [http://thinkprogress.org/election/2012/09/24/899441/romney-plane-windows/?mobile=nc](http://thinkprogress.org/election/2012/09/24/899441/romney-plane-windows/?mobile=nc) > [@](#): > > “When you have a fire in an aircraft, there’s no place to go, exactly,” he told the LA Times. “And you can’t find any oxygen from outside the aircraft to get in the aircraft, because the windows don’t open. I don’t know why they don’t do that. It’s a real problem.” That’s what a double degree, Harvard education gets you? ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2012, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-the-problem-is-that-you-cant-open-airplane-windows/635709/2 "2012-09-24T21:13:50Z")
C’mon, Mitt! It’s like you’re no longer even trying to win this thing! ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2012, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-the-problem-is-that-you-cant-open-airplane-windows/635709/3 "2012-09-24T21:15:19Z")
In case you forgot what industry Romney’s father worked in, it was the auto industry and not the airline industry. :smack: Yikes. That’s just dumb. ---
**Author:** ![Enkel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/df705f/32.png) [@Enkel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enkel)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2012, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-the-problem-is-that-you-cant-open-airplane-windows/635709/4 "2012-09-24T21:18:37Z")
Well, once Mitt is POTUS, every passenger will have a little automatic window opening button on their arm rest. Take that you terrorists! ---
**Author:** ![Jas09](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d07c76/32.png) [@Jas09](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jas09)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2012, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-the-problem-is-that-you-cant-open-airplane-windows/635709/5 "2012-09-24T21:18:45Z")
I do love it when he speaks extemporaneously (and I’m being completely sincere here). There is just something so quirky and slightly nutty about it - as if every little thing is a new discovery to him, or a new revelation. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2012, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-the-problem-is-that-you-cant-open-airplane-windows/635709/6 "2012-09-24T21:23:25Z")
I think this will be the best quote of the entire 2012 POTUS campaign. ---
**Author:** ![Enkel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/df705f/32.png) [@Enkel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enkel)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2012, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-the-problem-is-that-you-cant-open-airplane-windows/635709/7 "2012-09-24T21:27:56Z")
Quote from the linked articles for those who worry about context: > [@](#): > > Romney’s wife, Ann, was in attendance, and the candidate spoke of the concern he had for her when her plane had to make an emergency landing Friday en route to Santa Monica because of an electrical malfunction. > > “I appreciate the fact that she is on the ground, safe and sound. And I don’t think she knows just how worried some of us were,” Romney said. “When you have a fire in an aircraft, there’s no place to go, exactly, there’s no — and you can’t find any oxygen from outside the aircraft to get in the aircraft, because the windows don’t open. I don’t know why they don’t do that. It’s a real problem. So it’s very dangerous. And she was choking and rubbing her eyes. Fortunately, there was enough oxygen for the pilot and copilot to make a safe landing in Denver. But she’s safe and sound.” The comments on Think Progress are funny! I like the one who complains that they can’t look out the window to see how the dog is doing. They need to create a ‘reel’ of how the late night comedians handle this one! ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2012, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-the-problem-is-that-you-cant-open-airplane-windows/635709/8 "2012-09-24T21:30:11Z")
Is there any chance, possibly, he was trying to be funny? ---
**Author:** ![Enkel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/df705f/32.png) [@Enkel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enkel)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2012, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-the-problem-is-that-you-cant-open-airplane-windows/635709/9 "2012-09-24T21:30:24Z")
This brings to mind the question… Just how many times can you jump up and down on a d\*ck before it finally falls off? ---
**Author:** ![Jas09](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d07c76/32.png) [@Jas09](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jas09)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2012, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-the-problem-is-that-you-cant-open-airplane-windows/635709/10 "2012-09-24T21:31:33Z")
It’s certainly possible - he does seem to have a very quirky sense of humor. That or he really is a robot and wasn’t programmed with information about airplane windows. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2012, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-the-problem-is-that-you-cant-open-airplane-windows/635709/11 "2012-09-24T21:32:02Z")
And remember: Mitt’s the grown-up in this race. His wife says so. ---
**Author:** ![Enkel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/df705f/32.png) [@Enkel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enkel)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2012, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-the-problem-is-that-you-cant-open-airplane-windows/635709/12 "2012-09-24T21:34:17Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > Is there any chance, possibly, he was trying to be funny? We’d need video to be able to tell for sure… I think it was a fund raiser… so there probably isn’t any video (they’re probably strip searching the people now before they get in) Poor Mittens… the one time a fund raiser video could have proven he was just joking instead of dumber than a box of hammers… and there probably won’t be video. ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2012, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-the-problem-is-that-you-cant-open-airplane-windows/635709/13 "2012-09-24T21:35:08Z")
> [@Jas09](#): > > I do love it when he speaks extemporaneously (and I’m being completely sincere here). There is just something so quirky and slightly nutty about it - as if every little thing is a new discovery to him, or a new revelation. This one looks like he started off to say something that was not unreasonable–something that might be paraphrased as “If there’s a fire in a plane, there’s nowhere to go to escape it, so it’s particularly scary.” Then he had some tangential thought about fires in enclosed spaces using up oxygen, and wandered off into wacky land after it rather than sticking to his theme. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2012, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-the-problem-is-that-you-cant-open-airplane-windows/635709/14 "2012-09-24T21:36:46Z")
> [@Enkel](#): > > We’d need video to be able to tell for sure… I think it was a fund raiser… so there probably isn’t any video (they’re probably strip searching the people now before they get in) > > Poor Mittens… the one time a fund raiser video could have proven he was just joking instead of dumber than a box of hammers… and there probably won’t be video. I ask because Dennis Miller was at the fund-raiser, so perhaps Mitt was trying to be lighthearted. ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2012, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-the-problem-is-that-you-cant-open-airplane-windows/635709/15 "2012-09-24T21:40:09Z")
What exactly was he trying to say but failed in doing so? Was he trying to say if smoke gets into the cabin that there is no way to do an air exchange with the outside air? Of course doing that by opening the windows would be a stupid way of going about it but don’t airplanes exchange air with the outside air? ---
**Author:** ![DianaG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7ab992/32.png) [@DianaG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DianaG)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2012, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-the-problem-is-that-you-cant-open-airplane-windows/635709/16 "2012-09-24T21:40:28Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > Is there any chance, possibly, he was trying to be funny? I’m just gonna save myself some typing, here… [When every word that drools out of your mouth is stupid, it’s hard to tell which ones are sincerely stupid and which ones are ironically stupid.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=15520944&postcount=17) ---
**Author:** ![Enkel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/df705f/32.png) [@Enkel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enkel)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2012, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-the-problem-is-that-you-cant-open-airplane-windows/635709/17 "2012-09-24T21:41:53Z")
[snark] Oh… is Dennis Miller still a comedian? He hasn’t been funny in years… [/snark] I like how Mitt wants to get more oxygen to a fire on board… brings to mind comments about going down in a great big ball of flames. ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2012, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-the-problem-is-that-you-cant-open-airplane-windows/635709/18 "2012-09-24T21:46:25Z")
His policies and convictions are made of the finest weaksauce, distilled for six years in weeping willow casks. But this nitpickery of trying to find things to make him look generically dumb (hur hur, he thinks planes should have windows!) is missing the mark. Yes, he says some actual dumb things, and many of those dumb things reflect on who he is, what he values, and define his political monkeysphere. This, though, is not one of them. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2012, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-the-problem-is-that-you-cant-open-airplane-windows/635709/19 "2012-09-24T21:48:54Z")
I agree it has no political significance, but it’s still dumb and funny and can (nay, must!) be appreciated on that level. ---
**Author:** ![steronz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steronz/32/11765_2.png) [@steronz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/steronz)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2012, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-the-problem-is-that-you-cant-open-airplane-windows/635709/20 "2012-09-24T21:53:02Z")
> [@Rhythmdvl](#): > > Yes, he says some actual dumb things, and many of those dumb things reflect on who he is, what he values, and define his political monkeysphere. This, though, is not one of them. I thought that at first too. Then I thought, “His instinct here is that aeronautical safety engineers have simply overlooked this problem.” This “those bone-headed engineers” mentality isn’t that far off from the all-too-common “those bone-headed climate scientists” mentality, or “those bone-headed ‘environmental engineers.’” Then I thought, “Meh, he was speaking off the cuff, who cares.” But then I thought, “Wait, I want a president who doesn’t automatically think he knows better than trained professionals unless he has some time to think about it. His first reaction should be to trust those who have much more experience than him in a given field.” [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romney-the-problem-is-that-you-cant-open-airplane-windows/635709.md?page=2)