The ever diligent reporter, and I use the term loosely, found that Romney has the horse listed as a business expense while he told Bob Schieffer that dressage was therapy for Ann's Multiple Sclerosis.
Let's look at the horse first. A dressage horse is very highly trained, often more so than its rider. If you own a dressage horse for professional competition then it would qualify as a business expense, would it not? The horse was not purchased specifically for Ann to ride for therapy.
However, riding for therapy is indeed used to help those who suffer from MS, be it in the dressage ring or elsewhere. It helps maintain flexibility along with hip, pelvic and trunk motion. It certainly helps with balance. There are so many things riding therapy helps with beyond the physical too. A sense of accomplishment, relief of stress, relaxation and the sheer joy of being in fresh air and sunshine.
That Mrs. Romney's MS is at a point where she can partake in such activity is wonderful. That she is enthused about the sport to the point of investing in a horse and being able to participate in it's training is even more so.
But no. O'Donnell has to try to make something sneaky, underhanded and ugly about it. Insinuate it's not Ann's horse and the business deduction is fake because she doesn't ride it is so off base I'd like to smack the sneer off his face.
Actually we don't know if she rides it or not. Obviously she doesn't in competition any more than most show dog owners show their own dogs or race horse owners ride their own horses.
Mr. O'Donnell should do his homework before castigating the intentions of some one's ownership of something that is none of his business in the first place nor presume to know what is best for treating what can be a debilitating disease when he obviously doesn't.
They say never believe anything you read on the web. I understand that. Truth gets skewed. Sometimes intentionally, sometimes not. What Mr. O'Donnell did is more than skew the truth. He showed himself to be uninformed, spiteful and mean spirited. Maybe I shouldn't, but I'm inclined to believe that is the truth.
2 comments:
O'Donnell's point was that Dressage can easily cost a Million Dollars. That's quite a sum, if you're buying the horse as treatment for an MS patient. My daughter has MS, and it's a good thing owning a Dressage Horse isn't suggested treatment. If it were, she could just as easily ride a quarter horse.
By the way, in case you haven't noticed, the Republicans are about as nasty and mean spirited a group of people as you are likely to encounter. They are putting party above country, and I consider that reprehensible.
I don't disagree that both parties have their reprehensible idiots holding forth. I have to say too, both parties are putting party before country.
As for Romney and dressage, why is it anyone's business in the first place? Especially since it's Ann?
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