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Did you go dancing this holiday weekend? Did you get incredibly sweaty? Did you see an old friend in the club at 2:00 a.m. who greeted you with an unfortunate hug and and then commented that you must have been dancing your little heart out, while casually wiping the sweat off his hand? Embarrassing! But at least you didn't have a dozen reporters there to chronicle your Independence Day perspiration, like poor Mitt Romney. Not only did Romney have to meet his frenemy, the similarly-resume'd 2012 rival Jon Huntsman, at a New Hampshire parade, but tons of people were there to see him "dripping with sweat" by the end of it. Oh, the indignities one must suffer to become president of the United States! But Romney wasn't the only one to have a cringe moment over the holiday weekend.
Bring It On Romney and Huntsman met each other in Amherst, New Hampshire July 4, and managed to smile while doing it. "Welcome to New Hampshire," Romney told Huntsman, who said thanks. "It’s not Beijing, but it’s lovely," Romney said, according to The Washington Post's Nia-Malika Henderson and Rosalind S. Helderman. "The air is breathable," Huntsman responded. What did it mean? The New York Times' Jim Rutenberg offered this analysis:
One can parse these sorts of candidate interactions to ridiculous degrees: Was Mr. Romney subtly digging at Mr. Huntsman for his service to Mr. Obama? (Relaying the Beijing comment later, Mr. Romney told a group of reporters, “You all can decipher that.”) What about that whole “Welcome to New Hampshire” thing? Given that the state is a must-win for both men, was it a sort of “Welcome to the N.F.L.” taunt?
We humbly submit that a more apt reference would be the 2000 cheer battle classic Bring It On, because politicians' behavior is usually more clearly understood when viewed through the prism of the nakedly Machievellian behavior of teen girls. Just look at these Mean Girls smiles: