How does a TV show set in the 1960s try to find relevance by commenting on the 2012 presidential race? In the case of AMC’s hugely popular “Mad Men,” it pokes fun at presidential hopeful Mitt Romney’s dad.
And that has angered a third generation of Romney. Mitt’s son Tagg tweeted angrily about the reference to his grandfather as a “clown” in Sunday night’s show.
"Seriously, lib media mocking my dead grandpa?" Tagg Romney wrote on Twitter on Monday.
"George Romney was as good a man I've ever known," he added in a later tweet. "Inspirational leader, worked for civil rights, promoted freedom. We need more like him."
The storm-in-a-TV-cup started with the character of Henry Francis, who works for New York City mayor John Lindsay — who at the time the show is set was a Republican, although he later switched parties and became a Democrat.
In the clip, Francis, played by actor Christopher Stanley, is heard on the phone saying, “Tell Jim his honor’s not going to Michigan. Because Romney’s a clown and I don’t want him standing next to him.”
George Romney was governor of Michigan in 1966, the timeline for Sunday’s show. He ran for president two years later.
The show about advertising executives in the 1960s often references the news of the day. Early episodes centered on the 1960 Kennedy-Nixon election.
According to The Hill, “Mad Men’s” executive producer, Matthew Weiner is an outspoken liberal.
In an appearance on "Real Time with Bill Maher" on Friday, Weiner said,"There is a concentrated effort, like a football game, to win politics, to win back the Senate, the White House, the Congress, everything by the Republican Party, and they will literally grab on to anything."
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