"I think being a woman is like being Irish." — Iris Murdoch

I doubt that Mitt Romney will get many votes from Massachusetts -- not because he's Republican, no.  Just think: he was actually elected Governor here.  But no one from Massachusetts will vote for him again, because WE KNOW HIM.

And now America is getting to know him, and so...  his dog is becoming a campaign issue [emphasis added]:

... Mitt Romney put his Irish setter into a dog carrier on the roof of his station wagon for a 12-hour trip to Ontario in 1983 [and this] has become a surprising flashpoint in the presidential campaign...

"Well, I am a dog owner, and I can say with certainty that strapping your dog to the roof of the car for a 12-hour drive, windshield or no windshield, is, well, nuts," David Kravitz wrote on BlueMassGroup, a liberal blog. "It also strikes me as classic Romney: it solves a problem efficiently, in a business-like manner, and with no regard whatsoever for the suffering that the solution may cause."