President Barack Obama won the election. The people spoke. Move on, get over it without being ugly.
"The Fox and the Grapes" is one of the traditional Aesop's fables. Although the fable describes purely subjective behavior, the English idiom “sour grapes” is now often used for envious disparagement of others, such as Mitt Romney’s negative statement, “Obama was re-elected because of his small gifts.”
The fable of “The Fox and the Grapes: Driven by hunger, a fox tried to reach some grapes hanging high on the vine but was unable to, although he leaped with all his strength. Defeated, as he went away the fox remarked, “I don't need sour grapes.”
In her version of “La Fontaine's Fables,” Marianne Moore underlines this ironical comment on the situation in a final pun, "Better, I think, than an embittered whine."
Former U.S. first lady Barbara Bush, who endorsed Republican Mitt Romney, would seem to agree. She said on Thursday she's ready to move beyond this year's campaign season, ""People spoke. Move on, get on with it . I want to do other things and not to be ugly."
The premise of the fox that covets inaccessible grapes is taken to stand for people who speak disparagingly of things that they cannot attain. Romney would do well to take this “sour grapes” story to heart and get on with his life. The Republican candidate for president lost the election, and that as they say is that!
