Being a robot is hard. You aren't familiar with human social customs, and that can result in any number of gaffes, as Mitt Romney has proven time and again. But recently he and his staff behaved in such a disrespectful way at a campaign stop that we're beginning to wonder if maybe he's not really a robot but actually a real human jerk. Or maybe he's both? A jerkbot!


Either way, Dianne Bauer sure doesn't think very highly of him any more. He and his campaign held a roundtable discussion last week at the cafe she owns in Council Bluffs, Iowa. She says from the start his staff was "arrogant" and didn't treat her or her business with any respect. She reports, "Stuff got broke. My table cloths they just got ripped off, wadded up and thrown in the back room." They also damaged a truck she owns, and they even broke a picture of her father and an emblem he'd given her that were on display in the restaurant.

What's more, even though Mitt Romney was at the event, she never got to meet him. She says, "Every time we tried to go out or look, secret service was right there." When it was over, nobody—not Mitt, not anyone from his staff—ever bothered to thank Bauer for allowing them to use/trash her cafe. Now that's just bad manners, folks.


After her complaints to a friend were overheard by reporters, Mitt Romney himself called her to make nice—but naturally he just ended up making it worse. After explaining that the fact that she hadn't met him was all because of a misunderstanding, he said, "Well, I'm sorry your table cloths got ripped off, wadded up and thrown in the back room" in a tone that Bauer didn't like. She says, "I took it as mocking. We're the ones he's wanting to get the votes from, you'd think we would have been treated better." You would think, wouldn't you? She also asked a very valid question: "With how he treated me, is that how he's going to treat others? You know, if he gets in office is he going to be that way to us little people?" The pets of America have probably been asking themselves the same question ever since the doggy roof ride story surfaced.

For their part, besides Mitt's misfire of a phone call, his campaign has apparently asked for an itemized list of everything that got broken and has promised to reimburse her. Bauer, who has hosted politicians before, still seems very unimpressed with Romney:

With Rick Perry he made a point of stopping in the kitchen before he ever went to the other side to address the public and the media to thank us and introduce himself to us. That's what I thought we would get here, just normal. This was all out, like you'd think Obama was here.

Oh snap! You know you're in trouble when you've been out-niced by Rick Perry.

Cafe Owner After Hosting Romney Event: "I felt like it was a mocking" [KPTM]