Head Tale

Watched the Netflix exclusive documentary “Mitt” tonight.

It promises to be a behind-the-scenes look at Mitt Romney’s rise to Presidential nominee beginning with his losing effort to secure the Republican nomination in 2008, his successful effort to gain that nomination in 2012, only to ultimately lose to Barack Obama.

You can find reviews saying this documentary could’ve changed the election in Mitt’s favour by humanizing him and reviews saying it wouldn’t have helped.

– it did humanize him (a bit) for me but, no matter how much he loves his grandkids, I still think he’s ultimately a smug rich bastard who doesn’t care about most people (or to be charitable, if he does, he thinks they don’t work hard enough or are getting what they deserve or God didn’t smile his light on them or any of that other similar right-wing dreck rather than being a truly empathetic human being.)

– I think the multiple scenes of him picking up garbage in hotel rooms was meant to humanize him but it just screamed “control freak” to me.

– a *real* humanizing moment is when he gives his wife’s butt a pat at one point as they’re about to head out to some event!

– it’s a pretty sympathetic portrayal (to be expected to get this level of access) so it glosses over a lot of his more controversial moments (47% percent comment) or spins others (the exchange with Candy Crawley about Benghazi that probably cost him the second debate)

– it was interesting that very soon after that section, they show him also “losing” a debate with his son about what kind of food is available in the Delta section of La Guardia airport.  Was the point that his loss to Obama wasn’t important or that Romney gets confused sometimes or what?  I’m not sure but it was an interesting juxtaposition.

– Paul Ryan, in only a couple appearances, comes across as a total jock-head bro.  Another highlight is somebody coming into their suite on election night saying they lost Wisconsin (Ryan’s home state although Ryan doesn’t appear to be in the room) and then the Romney family has a mini-debate about whether they want updates like this on camera

– they actually have a good answer for the “He has an elevator for his cars” slam at one point by explaining he had it put in for his wife who has MS.  He *doesn’t* acknowledge that this is still *extremely* fucking unbelievable to most normal human beings.

– speaking of swearing, I love how all the Romney family (and there are a LOT of them – what do they have? Eight boys or something?) are always saying “Oh my gosh!” about everything.  So cute.

– they’re also always praying and saying that Mitt running is God’s will and as an interesting thought experiment, I challenge you to watch these sections while pretending you know nothing about religion (Mormonism or otherwise.)  Do they sound crazy or what?

– if Romney reads this and offers me a million bucks, I will rescind all criticism of him! 😉