Mitt Rides the Red Orange-Plus Line

Even if (as is our dream) Bostonist were the scriptwriter for an absurdist political sit-com, we could not have come close to crafting the amusing scene that unfolded around Mitt Romney as he actually rode the T yesterday to prove to all of us that orange-plus ain't that bad. First, he couldn't say how much a subway ride costs. Then he was harangued by a man (unnamed and homeless, according to the Globe) about his presidential aspirations. Then he ran into Bostonist's favorite would-be star of an all-Boston version of The Surreal Life, Heidi "Cat Lady" Erickson, who derided him for (surprise) killing her cats. Even the usually sedate and good-natured former governor Dukakis, an actual regular T rider during his tenure and afterward, got in a subtle dig, telling the Globe, "All I know is that I'm riding the T for 35 cents [the senior citizen discount rate], the best value in America."

All that Bostonist can say is, we're glad the Governor's back in town, since it seems lately that his most boneheaded policy pronouncements are usually made during visits to conservative early-primary states important gubernatorial trips. Just yesterday, Romney's spokeperson had to defend the Governor's order (via the Department of Public Health) that hospitals cross out "father" on the birth certificates of babies born to lesbian couples and write in "second parent," an order that originated, it appears, in a speech given in North Carolina. (The Guv, by the way, says he can't promulgate gender-neutral birth certificate forms without an order of the legislature, but in fact, the laws already give the Commissioner of Public Health, whose boss is the Governor, the power to determine the nature of required paperwork.) Perhaps with today's continued scary weirdness in the London subway (underground, tube, whatever), we can expect to the Governor to raise the mass transit terror alert level to "extremely bright, Fanta-like orange," necessitating even more T rides and saving the Commonwealth from more presidential-race-inspired foolishness.

Photo courtesy of flickr.com / user: Ron's Log