I first heard this on a segment of the “Today” show this morning… Matt Lauer asked John McCain in an interview if McCain thought it mattered that none of Mitt Romney’s 5 sons have served in the military. Fortunately, McCain answered that he didn’t think it did.
Should it matter? Shouldn’t children choose their own careers?
Romney’s response was the first thought that popped off the top of my head when I heard about this ridiculous question, ”My sons are all adults and they’ve made decisions about their careers and they’ve chosen not to serve in the military and active duty and I respect their decision in that regard.”
If a parent expects or pushes their children to serve in the military (or anything else) to benefit their own career, wouldn’t that be selfish? That sounds like helicopter parenting at its worst. And those actions would not demonstrate the leadership skills we should be looking for in the next President of the US.
I also have 5 sons and I would hate for someone to judge my ability to do a job because my children didn’t choose a certain career.
I think more people took offense to his following statement, saying his sons were serving the country by working to get him elected President.
Romney was the one that put his sons on the campaign trail. He is the one parading them around as models of a good family. He is the one supporting the war. If he was a true patriot he would be embarrassed that his children have not volunteered. If Iraq is a threat on par with Nazi Germany, like the neocons say, then Romney’s children should be volunteering. If they are not Romney should be embarrassed of their cowardice. If he is not embarrassed it means two things. One he would rather have others fight and die, or two he really doesn’t believe the war is that important but supports it as a political ploy.
constructivecriticism, I agree with you. Most people certainly do not agree, me included, that the level of service offered by serving in the military and campaigning for Dad are on an equal level.
Sean, I can see where you’re coming from. I don’t know how much he encouraged them in the campaigning and how much of that was their choice. If they’re going to choose their own career, they certainly should choose to campaign or not on their own too.