Was Romney "joking" when he said he didn't know why plane windows don't open?

[MisterGamut]

People are saying Romney was actually joking when he said he didn't know why aircraft windows don't open. Now. I'm no Cal Lightman, but I think I can at least read expressions well enough to know when somebody is making an "obvious" joke. There's no sly grin. There's no tell-tale head tilt. His eyes are wide open - as if to say, "Seriously, I mean this," when he declares that closed plane windows are "a real problem." So I'm calling BS on the "He was joking" excuse.

[Enrique]

1. yes, and it wasn't a bad joke

he's a liar and a greedhead and I can barely stand the sight of him, but he got off an ok joke there.

[BREMPRO]

2. i wish this video wasn't edited right after he said it..

it's really hard to tell without the rest of the statement.. how he continues after he said it..seems like it's being manipulated to look like he wasn't joking.. that's a faux news tactic... when i read it i was sure he was an idiot.. after seeing this not so sure now..

[MisterGamut]

6. I don't disagree

I was actually trying to find that video. Think Progress and Maddow both make the same edit, and those are the only two versions I can find. There has to be unedited video available though.

But since I was more concerned with his expression at the time he was speaking, it wasn't quite so critical.

[monmouth]

3. He was joking when he said it. n/t

[SDjack]

4. I think he was joking. But not a good idea when your wife feared for life.

She probably knows that he is that way, and let it roll off her.

[starroute]

5. He could have also meant it humorously but also believed it

As I said on another thread, it's commonplace after a situation that could have been life-threatening to relieve the tension by saying something relatively light and trivial. (This is also the mechanism you see in the "everybody laughs" endings on old TV shows.)

In this case, Romney may have been displacing any anxiety over his wife by griping about those windows. He meant it casually, he may even have expected a laugh, but that doesn't mean he doesn't believe it's true.

And the "there's a problem" phrasing he used was almost exactly the same as his complaint yesterday about unions making campaign donations to Democrats.

So even if it was done jokingly, that doesn't get him off the hook.

[MisterGamut]

7. He was being light at first

When he's talking about not being able to get air from outside, he's trivializing as a way of easing the tension, but his tone shifts and he becomes serious. Like in the fund raiser when he is talking about his Dad being from Mexico but he doesn't get the "benefit" of being Latino. "Seriously though - it would help ..." that wasn't said jokishly. And neither was the part about it being a "real problem" that aircraft windows don't open. At least - not so you could gauge it from the tone.

Plus, as the video shows, he smirks when he's annoyed (Corporations are people, my friend,) he smirks when he's being devious (His administration, their administration spoke ... the president takes responsibility...,) and he smirks when he's making a joke, so it gets a little difficult to judge - which means people who are saying you can tell that he was joking are being disingenuous.

[cyclezealot]

8. Actually , Mitt shows his problem solving skills.

Joking or not.. In terms of fire fighting capabilities.. Let's open up those windows.. The lack of oxygen might put out the fire. Fires can't burn without oxygen.. the passengers might suffocate , but the fire would be out.
But , hold onto Fi-fe . Wind blowing through the windows at 500 MPH.. Anything unattached might be sucked out the window..