The Washington Post, the paper that brought you 100 or so daily stories to torpedo George Allen’s campaign, and later, the JournoList, pulls its dress over its head and tut-tuts its full Have You No Shame Ma’am pretend mock-dudgeon mode at Ann Romney:
Now, nobody who is in the public eye every day gets off gaffe-free or phrases everything just as intended. Thank goodness, too, or our already tightly scripted politics would be even more devoid of humanity and our elections even more in thrall to those scary voices in the ads.
But was Ann Romney’s over-the-top assertion that Obama’s campaign strategy can be summed up in two words — “kill Romney’’ – even an oopsie? I don’t think so, because later in the same joint CBS interview with her husband, she interrupted him to repeat herself.
Asked about the president’s suggestion that Romney lacks compassion, she said, “It makes you realize they’re going to do everything they can to destroy Mitt … I feel like all [Obama’s] doing is saying, ‘Let’s kill this guy.’ ’’
Goodness, madam, didn’t we agree to demilitarize the language of politics after Gabby Giffords was shot last year? I don’t think she was being intentionally incendiary so much as gleefully clueless.
No she isn’t, as these two headlines today at Twitchy make clear:
- “Bigots: Roger Ebert, Salon: ‘So what’s the deal with magic Mormon underwear? Gay?’”
- “Liberal blogger calls Romney ‘Hitler’ because of Swiss bank account, Obama press secretary chimes in.”
As Michael Potemra writes at the Corner:
I mean, it’s hardly a secret that Obama’s presidency has been a huge disappointment; he may very well win this November, but if he does, it won’t be because Democrats are thrilled with the job he’s done and will successfully communicate this to independents, but because the prospect of having the Republicans back in power is so terrifying to them, and they will be communicating that to the rest of the electorate. That unnamed Democratic strategist was analyzing, quite correctly, the enthusiasm gap that the Democrats will have to compensate for by drawing horns and a tail on Romney.
Harry Truman would have certainly understood and approved of the Godwin-esque strategy at work.
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