"I See Utah, I See France"
As we wait for the serious stuff to start in Iowa, here's a bit of silly fare from Laura Vozzella, Baltimore Sun columnist extraordinaire. She writes this today about Mitt Romney's underwear of choice ...
The American electorate has matured in the years since Bill Clinton got that boxers-or-briefs query. These days voters only want to know if Mitt Romney wears Mormon underwear.
Romney has declined to answer questions about it, and his big speech on Mormonism steered clear of holy skivvies. Anybody out there who thinks presidential unmentionables should remain unmentioned, read no more. Because I know somebody who has seen Romney's underwear. One pair of it, anyway.
On the eve of the 2002 Olympics, The Sun's Candus Thomson was one of a handful of reporters invited to dinner at Mitt and Ann Romney's Park City, Utah, home, a $5 million "cabin" on Rising Star Lane.
The Olympics CEO and future Massachusetts governor talked about his role in the Games as a waiter served a luscious spread that included sea bass, wine and mixed drinks. When it was time to go, Romney suggested that everyone visit the bathroom on the way out, since the outside temperature was well below zero and Salt Lake City 50 minutes away.
Rather than make the reporters line up to use the facilities off the kitchen, Romney sprinted down the hallways of his home, pointing out other bathrooms. Thomson ended up in the one off the Romneys' master bedroom.
With its Pendleton wool shower curtain and lodge-style furnishings, the bathroom was the best Thomson had ever seen - a final, luxurious touch to an evening that should have softened up even the most hard-bitten reporter. But Thomson, ever on duty, noticed a pair of underwear hanging on the back of the door as she reached for the knob to leave.
Not that she'd really care about her host's undies. (Assuming, of course, they were his and not somebody else's.) That is, unless five years later, he was running for president, and TV talking heads were wondering aloud if he wore regular underwear or the Mormon kind - a garment similar to an old-fashioned union suit that's sacred to Mormons and, well, a little odd to the rest of us.
"I never thought I might have peeked at the underwear of the next president," Thomson told me. "It was just going to be the answer to a bar trivia question someday, you know, good for a free drink."
The answer, which should be good for a free drink anywhere but the Romney White House: regular, off-the-rack Fruit of the Loom briefs, size 34.
I ran all that by Romney spokeswoman Sarah Pompei. She was not amused and not commenting.
Hotline's reputation deserves to drop like a safe for printing such filth. An article about a candidate's UNDERWEAR? What are you folks thinking? Such a "story" has no place in civil society. I doubt even the National Enquirer would stoop this low. This is yellow journalism at its worst.
This story makes me giggle...
To anyone who thinks underwear is FILTH, I dare you to not wear it for a week, I'm sure you'll change your mind.
Sure, the story is gossipy. But this is a blog. Romney is a celebrity. In these United States, it is entirely acceptable to report celebrity gossip.
This isn't CNN, the author freely admits that underwear is merely trivia, and yet so many Romney supporters are getting their panties in a bunch...
Perhaps our next president will even be human enough to admit that he poops.