Defending Mitt Romney’s Purchase Of ‘Chinese-Made’ Toy At Costco

Since former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney‘s* defeat in the 2012 presidential election, a certain segment of the public has developed an almost Sasquatch-like fascination for sightings of the would-be, won’t-be POTUS, if Sasquatch were an obnoxiously rich guy who constantly turns up in downscale settings. The latest example of these is Gov. Romney’s visit to a Costco store in La Jolla, which prompted gossip website TMZ to not only report on Romney’s purchase of an allegedly Chinese-made Maisto toy car, but to offer some political commentary that might not be entirely fair.

Romney’s visit to Costco, coming, as it did on the heels of populist hero Joe Biden‘s visit to the warehouse retailer, created a stir, and even moved The Atlantic Wire‘s Alexander Abad-Santos to wax quasi-poetical on the contrast in shopping styles:

That, on the left folks, is the cart of a common Costco-shopping man. Notice the symmetry and perfect, Tetris-like precision fit that Biden’s cart is sporting and the undulating cauldron of entropy on the left topped by generic paper towels?

As anyone who has ever shopped at Costco knows, however, the cart you start out with isn’t the one you leave the store with, so no matter how carefully you group your booty while you’re shopping, the frenzy at the checkout line will likely scuttle all of that planning.

But the real takeaway from Romney’s shopping trip, according to the syndicated TMZ television show, is that Mitt Romney is a huge honking hypocrite. After picking through Mitt’s purchases, which included “Bisquick, a bunch of wrapping paper for Christmas, fruity snacks,” and “a can of nuts,” also noted that he bought “Maisto model cars. Which besides being fantastic stocking stuffers, are manufactured in China, which is weird, because Mitt hates China.”

They then played a clip of Romney, during the presidential campaign, saying “I’m going to make sure China is recognized for the currency manipulator and intellectual property thieves that they are.”

Oof! T-M-Zing!

It’s never any fun being politically torpedoed, but by TMZ? That’s too much, even for Mitt Romney, so I would like to offer my help.

It is true that, during the presidential campaign, Mitt Romney was a vocal (and dishonest) demonizer of China, and his purchase of a Maisto toy at Costco can be viewed as contradictory to his campaign rhetoric about protecting American jobs, but according to Wikipedia:

The May Cheong Group is based in Hong Kong and their products are made in China and Thailand (Rixon 2005, 64). The factories in China and Thailand manufacture 1:12, 1:18, 1:24, 1:25, 1:27, 1:43, 1:31 and 1:64 scale replicas. Most models are officially licensed products, based on popular vehicles.

So, the toy that Romney bought might have been made in Thailand. Or it might have been made in China, but the toy was officially licensed, so it, at least, doesn’t constitute intellectual property theft.

Finally, Mitt Romney lost, and is now pursued around Costco by TMZ, so who cares?

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.