The Spectacle Blog
Below is a story I wrote for the Spectator last May. I honestly believed it would be become a major part in the campaign. Instead, dead silence. Even after a couple of people mentioned it at the Republican Convention, no one followed up. The New York Times has run one front-page story about how Mitt Romney cut someone’s hair when he was 16 and another “analyzing” his support of the Vietnam War while in college. But they are blithely uninterested in how he has behaved as an adult in a position of responsibility.
So here it is again. At a time when the Republican candidate is being portrayed as a cold-hearted businessman interested only in profits and shipping jobs to China, it seems as if it ought to have some relevance.
By William Tucker
Here’s a story that may help New York Times columnist Gail Collins get over her obsession with the incident of Mitt Romney and the dog on the car.
In 1996, two years after Romney had returned to Bain Capital after running unsuccessfully against Ted Kennedy for Senate, Robert Gay, a partner at Bain, came to him and confided that his 14-year-old daughter Melissa was missing. She had sneaked out of their Connecticut home three days before, gone to a rock concert in New York City and hadn’t been heard from since.
Gay was embarrassed about confessing his dilemma and didn’t expect anything more than a little commiseration. Instead, he was amazed at Romney’s reaction. The co-founder of Bain immediately informed the other partners of the situation, then closed down the firm and mobilized a temporary move to New York City to search for the girl. As the New York Times reported it at the time:
Bain Capitals Partners closed down the firm and drew on friendships and connections to find volunteers for the search. R.R. Donnelly, the firm’s printer, printed more than 300,000 fliers bearing Ms. Gay’s picture and last known whereabouts. Duane Reade, a drugstore chain in which Bain Capital is an investor, had clerks at 52 stores insert fliers in shopping bags. Price Waterhouse, which does the firm’s accounting, sent nearly 100 volunteers to distribute the powers, and Goldman Sachs, Bankers Trust and Morgan Stanley dispatched more than 60 people.
Command centers to dispatch volunteers and get in touch with the press were set up at the Marriott Hotel and La Guardia Airport, the Connelly offices and the Pierre Hotel in Manhattan. Volunteers with cellular phones fanned out to clubs like the Limelight and the Tunnel, the Lollapalooza concert at Downing Stadium on Randall’s Island, parties in Tompkins Square and Central Park, to Madison Square Garden and the Port Authority.
The Boston Globe, which covered the story day-to-day, filed the following report:
Yesterday, in their first day of searching, [Bain Executives] pounded the pavement, plastering the city with 300,000 fliers and quizzed teen-agers at concerts and parks.
But as of last night, Melissa Gay was nowhere to be found.
“Our children are what life is all about,” said W. Mitt Romney, founder and managing partner at Bain Capital. “Everything else takes a back seat.”
Six days later, the Marriott Hotline received an anonymous call from a teenage boy asking if there was a reward for the missing girl. The caller immediately hung up but police traced it to a house in Towaco, New Jersey. As the Globe reported:
[A]fter attending a rave concert on Randall’s Island… she took the drug Ecstasy and then “wandered the city.” During her wandering, her father said, she met a young man who took her to his parents’ [New Jersey] home. The young man, whose name was not released, kept her in the home without his parents’ knowledge, the police said.
Melissa was discovered hidden in the basement, still recovering from an overdose and shivering through detoxification. Doctors said later that had she not been found, she might not have lived another day.
Six months later, in a end-of-year review, the Globe again revisited the story:
Last week, the partners of Boston’s Bain Capital Inc. drew up their annual list of accomplishments: Number one was the week they spent last July combing Manhattan in search of Melissa Gay, the missing 14-year-old daughter of one of the partners.
“It really overshadowed everything we did from a money standpoint,” said Mitt Romney, the Bain Capital founder who won the 1994 Massachusetts Republican Senate nomination partly on his reputation as a venture capital wiz. “The days and nights spent looking for Missy Gay were more valuable than some financial home runs that made the front page of the Wall Street Journal. I mean, money is just money.”
Nor were the Bain partners unaffected by their odyssey through the dark recesses of New York City:
“It was a shocker,” [Romney] said. “The number of lost souls was astounding.”
Romney said one partner still talks about a runaway he spoke with in search of information about Melissa.
“The girl asked, ‘Why are you looking for her?’ and he said, ‘Because her parents miss her,’” Romney said. “She replied, ‘I wish my parents missed me like that.’”
Romney has never made much of the incident, but in 2007 Gay insisted on making a commercial for the New Hampshire primary. He appeared on camera saying:
My business partner stepped forward to take charge. He closed the company and brought almost all our employees to New York. He said, “I don’t care how long it takes, we’re going to find her.” He set up a command center and searched through the night. The man who helped save my daughter was Mitt Romney. Mitt’s done a lot of things that people say are nearly impossible. But for me, the most important thing he’s done is to help save my daughter.
Despite Romney’s reticence, the story is beginning to make the rounds. It appeared on Snopes.com in January and was recently fact-checked by Jacksonville’s Florida Times-Union, which found it is all true. The liberal press probably will ignore it as long as possible and then try to find some negative way to spin the story. One respondent on the Jacksonville website has already given it a try:
Romney had an unrealistic response to a bad situation. Flying 30 workers to NYC to search for a girl, shows his concern, but was a ridiculous waste of resources that turned out not to be needed. Not the response I would want from a President.
Still, it’s a revealing candid shot of the Republican nominee for President.
Had Obama done something like this in his life — not that he ever could have — Hollywood would be making a movie of it right now. But with Romney the pattern seems to be that the liberal press is happy to ignore it while conservatives are embarrassed because it makes Romney look too soft. I think one Huffington commentator said it best: Mitt Romney is much more than a great leader. He is a great man.
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http://spectator.org/blog/2012/09/27/no-one-wants-to-meet-the-real
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Bob Grant| 9.27.12 @ 12:09PM
Sorry,
It doesn't fit the narrative so it didn't happen.
Fiscal| 9.27.12 @ 1:27PM
There is no question that Romney is a good guy -- and for most people, so is Obama. The question is whether being a "good guy" means you make a better President. I don't think it's true with Obama and I don't think it's true with Romney. We can certainly find many examples of how people not as good do a good job in their chosen profession.
Romney is not losing because people don't think he is a good guy, he is losing because of a lack of ability to communicate, no sense of political discourse, contradictions to what he has said in the past, and the fact that he is running a lousy campaign.
There is a saying that good guys finish last -- and in this case, it may be true.
Oldefarte| 9.27.12 @ 1:34PM
Romney won't be the only one that "finish last" in this matter. The USA as we know it or have so, will cease to exist within two years if THE ONE is re-elected. Think Mexico or Cuba on steriods!!!!!
Fiscal| 9.27.12 @ 1:50PM
Nonsense!!! Obama will not "ruin" this country -- he's not strong enough to do that. Romney isn't either. What's hurting this country is that we have extremists on the right and the left that adhere to ideology rather than facts and good practices. The right is trying to make us all Christians and put us into war the left wants a centralized government to increase control. Both parties refuse to respect our liberty -- the thing that made this country great. It is this lack of respect for liberty that is hurting our country.
Crassus| 9.27.12 @ 2:07PM
These extremists on the right you speak about are mostly fictitious and have no real power. The extremists on the left sit in Congress , the White House, and the Supreme Court. GMAFB with the "make us all Christian" and "put us into war" cliches. Your boy Ron Paul lost.
Fiscal| 9.27.12 @ 2:16PM
The extremists on the right control the House, and you know it. Are you saying you don't want to outlaw abortion and gay marriage? Romney is "my boy" and I don't, for one minute, believe that he really wants to implement the extreme right agenda. He did so only to get elected but as with most issues, he doesn't have any problem reversing what he's said in the past....
Crassus| 9.27.12 @ 10:33PM
Don't sh!t me, Junior. There are no extremists controlling the House. Just a bunch of RINO wimps who barely believe in anything. Give me the names of these extremists. You can't because they're aren't any, at least in the positions of leadership. They don't control anything except in your pea brain. GMAFB with these damn cliches. That's so 2005.
CforUS| 9.27.12 @ 3:11PM
Think about what you are saying. "Romney is not losing...."? What on earth makes you think Romney is losing? Is it the polls? The majority of the polls that have been published in the past 3 weeks are mostly taintend and slanted to demonstrate a trend away from Romney. Most of these polls were done with a voter sampling that is not even close to reality, let alone most are not even of likely voters. The reality is that if both BO and Romney get all of their bases to vote for them, which is very likely, the election will be decided by roughly 6 percent of voters (Independents and others). That's voters that actually show up to the polls. It's VERY far fetched that Romney is actually "losing" right now. If as you say "Romney is my boy" you need to get to the polls and possibly tip the scales away from the current Marxist agenda.
Bob K| 9.27.12 @ 8:43PM
Romney hasn't lost yet. Check here Wednesday November 7, 2012.
geronl| 9.27.12 @ 3:24PM
Would that be the Mitt Romney who created RomneyCare? The pro-abortion Mitt Romney? The Governor who endorsed Gay Pride Marches for children?
Paul McGrath| 9.27.12 @ 4:21PM
I have been saying this for months: Mitt Romney is a great man. His education is impeccable. He married a wonderful woman and raised a successful family. He was extraordinarily successful in business. IN fact, he's never been unsuccessful in anything. He succeeded in winning the governorship of one of the most liberal states in the nation. He is an honest, humble man, and generous to a fault.
Is he a perfect conservative? No. But he is by far the best Republican nominee for president since Ronald Reagan.
I am not saying this because I want him to win--although I obviously do--I am saying this because it is true.
Quartermaster| 9.28.12 @ 1:04PM
You're right he's not the perfect Conservative. He's not even close as he isn't conservative except relative to the Democrats and he would fit in quite well with them. The MassDems hated him only because he had an "R" after his name.
Quartermaster| 9.28.12 @ 1:04PM
You're right he's not the perfect Conservative. He's not even close as he isn't conservative except relative to the Democrats and he would fit in quite well with them. The MassDems hated him only because he had an "R" after his name.
Quartermaster| 9.28.12 @ 1:04PM
You're right he's not the perfect Conservative. He's not even close as he isn't conservative except relative to the Democrats and he would fit in quite well with them. The MassDems hated him only because he had an "R" after his name.
Stumpy Pepys| 9.27.12 @ 4:53PM
With a tip of the hat to Letterman, here are the top-10 reasons NOT to vote for Mitt Romney:
1. Handsome with gracious, statesmanlike aura.
2. Been married to one woman his entire life, and has been faithful to her, including through her bouts with breast cancer and multiple sclerosis.
3. No scandals or skeletons in his closet.
4. Can't speak in a fake, southern, "black preacher voice" to pander to (or insult) an audience.
5. Highly intelligent. Graduated with honors from both Harvard Law School and Harvard Business School ...and his academic records are NOT sealed.
6. Doesn't smoke or drink alcohol, and has never done drugs...too square for today's America.
7. Represents an America of "yesterday", when people believed in God, went to Church, didn't screw around and worked hard to become successful!
8. Has a family of five great sons....but of course, they were raised by a stay-at-home mom, and that "choice" deserves America 's scorn.
9. He's a Mormon. We need to be afraid of a strange religion that teaches its members to be clean-living, patriotic, fiscally conservative, charitable, self-reliant, and honest.
10. And finally . . . pundits say because of his wealth, he can't relate to ordinary Americans. I guess that's because he made that money himself, as opposed to marrying into it or inheriting it. Apparently, he didn't understand that actually working at a job and earning your own money made you unrelatable to Americans.