Mitt Romney Repeatedly References Height Of Trees In Michigan

[cash__whatiwant]

Mitt Romney's last few Michigan stump speeches have included an unusual plank -- his appreciation for the apparently perfect height of the state's trees.

"I love this state," he told an audience Tuesday. "The trees are the right height."

On Friday afternoon, Romney reprised the comment, saying, “This feels good, being back in Michigan. You know, the trees are the right height."

But these statements are just the latest salvos in Romney's longstanding fascination with the stature of his home state's trees. HuffPost dug up some earlier comments along the same lines.

Here's Romney in November 2011:

“I love being in Michigan,” Romney said at the social club. “Everything seems right here. You know, I come back to Michigan; the trees are the right height. The grass is the right color for this time of year, kind of a brownish-greenish sort of thing. It just feels right.”

And back during the last presidential race, in January 2008:

"What a thrill it is to come back to Michigan, particularly in the winter, where the skies are cloudy all day, trees are just at the right height, almost all the cars you see are American-made -- the way they ought to be," Romney told an enthusiastic crowd at Lawrence Technological University in metropolitan Detroit.

Romney's relationship to Michigan's trees, however, wasn't always so cordial, according to his mother. As a teenager, he allegedly punched one.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/24/mitt-romney-michigan-trees_n_1299937.html

[MrScorpio]

1. He's pimping himself for that all-important tree vote here in Michigan

The Tree Lobby has the entire state in its arbornistic grip.

[elleng]

2. Sounds autistic to me.

'High achieving?'

[Politicalboi]

3. At least for his ilk

He's lucky he didn't hug that tree. Or maybe the tree he punched wasn't tall enough for him.

[davidthegnome]

4. I've got this funny mental image...

of Romney walking around with measuring tape and measuring the trees as well as he can. "Yeah... just the right size.."

[jberryhill]

5. How does size matter?

[orwell]

6. I guess he just likes...

...sprouting wood.

[Blue_In_AK]

7. Maybe it's some local inside joke or saying,

kind of like Alaskans say "We don't give a damn how they do it Outside." People who don't live here might raise an eyebrow, but WE know what we mean.

Any people from Michigan here who might know?

[JNelson6563]

12. Michigander here

Never have I ever heard anything about the height of our trees before Mittens. We might get snobby about the lakes (being as ours are "Great" and all) and the fact that we're not Ohio ( ) but the trees? No.

Just more delusional blatherings from the clueless one.

Julie

[Blue_In_AK]

15. Thanks.

In other words, he's just majorly pandering.

[1620rock]

8. Maybe he meant they were the right height for Michigan??

Perhaps if the Michigan trees were growing in Wisconsin, they would look odd.

[tanyev]

9. Tall enough to touch the sky, short enough to reach the earth.

Just right.

[left is right]

10. it’s jis attempt at a rebuttal to the old saying

“You can’t go home again.” In his clumsy way he is saying that he is back in Michigan and everything is just as he remembered it as a teenager. Michiganers(?), I suppose are supposed to be flattered that despite all of the economic downturns, they have managed to preserve the things that are really important things like family and community and beautiful landscaping.

It of course doesn’t matter to Mitt that families are struggling to feed, clothe, and provide shelter for themselves or that whole communities have been shuttered. If I was from Michigan, I would find his words highly offensive because they say that he is unconcerned about the reality of life in these times

[GoCubsGo]

11. That makes far more sense than any other thing I have heard on this.

And, I think he may be continuing to harp on "tree height" because in his infinite wisdom, he feels that since he put the phrase out there, he needs to stick with it so it doesn't appear to be another blunder. It's kind of like when a tries to jump up onto something and misses, and then walks off with that "I meant to do that" attitude.

[woo me with science]

13. I think it's a reference to the Rush song, "Trees."

I have heard quite a few Republicans mention it when trying to describe Obama as a socialist who wants to chop down all the wealthy and make everyone the same.

The irony is that he is as much a one percent corporatist as any of them.


RUSH LYRICS

"The Trees"

There is unrest in the forest
There is trouble with the trees
For the maples want more sunlight
And the oaks ignore their pleas

The trouble with the maples
(And they're quite convinced they're right)
They say the oaks are just too lofty
And they grab up all the light
But the oaks can't help their feelings
If they like the way they're made
And they wonder why the maples
Can't be happy in their shade

There is trouble in the forest
And the creatures all have fled
As the maples scream 'Oppression!'
And the oaks just shake their heads

So the maples formed a union
And demanded equal rights
'The oaks are just too greedy
We will make them give us light'
Now there's no more oak oppression
For they passed a noble law
And the trees are all kept equal
By hatchet, axe and saw

[Lars39]

14. Goldilocks Romney

[MisterP]

16. Brad Dourif once punched a tree repeatedly