New York Times drifting into self-parody territory

Those photo editors at the New York Times think they are really clever, diminishing GOP enemies by cropping photos so that the target appears as a small object at the bottom of a picture. They used this device with Paul Ryan to great effect, and now are back in the game with John Boehner, post convention.

Speaking of stupid New York Times propaganda, the desperation is showing through in this op-ed by Marie Myung-Ok Lee taking offense at Mitt Romney's preference for muffin tops.  Ms. Lee, who teaches writing at Columbia University dons the cloak of her parents' victimhood in order to see the heinous nature of Mitt Romney.

My father's story, like many immigrants', is one of hardship. He survived famine conditions during the Korean War and never let that experience stray too far from his consciousness. Our cabinets were comically, cornucopically stuffed: every bag of free peanuts from the airlines, the logos changing with the mergers (Northwest Orient, Republic Airlines, Northwest Airlines, Delta), those doll-size paper tubes of salt and pepper that came free with my father's lunch in the physicians' dining room, Saltines and oyster crackers and pharma-company-sponsored bags of potato chips.

During the Korean War, when everyone was hungry, he told me, Koreans would take garbage and boil it to make a kind of stew. Of course that seems disgusting, he said. But it was better than going hungry. Despite being a physician, he happily ate foods tipping into rancidity. He drank sour milk. He reheated coffee. He once bought some Sheba Tender Terrine with Turkey and Chicken dinners, impressed by their cheapness, and would not be dissuaded from finishing his supply when we informed him with horror that it was cat food. Once, during a vacation, we forgot to refrigerate the doggie bag from dinner, and it sat in the warm hotel room overnight. Someone's move to place the funky bag in the garbage the next morning set off my father's immigrant mentality inner-motion detector. He wouldn't listen to our pleading - we were sure he'd be dead of ptomaine poisoning by noon - as he ingested the entire contents of the carton. 

Now the public editor Arthur Brisbane is no longer at the Times, providing a link to the world outside the progressive bubble, the paper is spinning off into self-parody territory. This is going to be an amusing campaign season.

Carol Brown adds:

Marie Myung-Ok Lee, in a recent NYT op-ed, suggests that Romney's preference for eating only the top of the muffin symbolizes the cold callousness that is, apparently, Mitt Romney. And she points out that the campaign made a major misstep in telling the story.

Some supporters of Mitt Romney, in an effort to make him seem more human (or at least humanoid), have been disseminating a story, first told by a biographer, about how their candidate has a charmingly eccentric habit: he eats only the tops of muffins. His theory is that during the baking process, the butter sinks to the bottom. This story conveys so many things: our guy is an everyday Joe - he eats muffins, not crumpets. And look, even his breakfast is an opportunity to make disciplined decisions - just think how he'll do with the budget.

The Romney campaign clearly hasn't thought about how this anecdote will play to a crucial voting bloc: Asian immigrants.

Ms. Lee shares the story of her parents' immigration to the United States from Korea and how they struggled, scavenging food to survive. Like so many immigrant stories, her parents' story is deeply touching. But bashing Romney for preferring muffin tops as a glaring symbol of what an insensitive, out of touch, rich man he is, is a bridge too far.

...My father passed on a few years ago, but last week's Republican convention seemed custom-made for him: Mr. Romney's chiseled, MacArthuresque look, his Harvard creds and blond wife, a Burberry love of all things Anglo-Saxon and, possibly most appealing, the easy-to-understand if not-quite-truthful theme of "We built it." That, of course, is the immigrant story in a nutshell.

So why did Mitt Romney have to go ruin it with the muffin tops?

I suppose we could all stop ruining things if we didn't say a word, didn't make a move, just stood silently in a corner and disappeared. That, it seems, is what the left would like us to do.

Unfortunately for them, we will not intimidated, petrified that any utterance will be contorted into some awful thing, fearful a step in one direction or another will be spun as some dreadful sign.

And just to set the record straight with a bit of fact-checking:

Mitt Romney is not "humanoid." He is human. And yes, he is, indeed, handsome. Since when did that become a crime?

Governor Romney did attend Harvard. Is that an outrage because he is a Republican?

Ann Romney is actually a brunette who dies her hair blonde. A lot of women dye their hair. Most of us also wash, dry, and occasionally cut our hair. One can only imagine the laundry list of offenses in these activities!

As for Burberry, Mrs. Romney's clothes don't really reflect that taste. But I do see women who wear that designer. Including Asian women. (And while on the subject, I must comment that the way "Asian" was used in this op-ed piece. Asian? Really? So in other words: China, Japan, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Korea, India......Why even Israel is part of Asia.)

But I digress.

As for the swipe at Anglo Saxons for no good reason, why must certain groups (such as Anglo-Saxons) reject their heritage while others are encouraged to embrace their heritage?

"We built it" is entirely truthful.

And finally, to return to the heart of the matter: the muffin top.

A lot of folks have creative ways to eat a treat while avoiding too much fat. Why I would think even the first lady would applaud Romney's efforts! (sarc off)

The left's list of grievances appears infinite.

Get over it, already!

Our society is about to collapse from crushing debt. Our economy is in a shambles. Iran is on the verge of becoming a nuclear nation.

Can Mitt Romney please enjoy his breakfast in peace?