My Monday column dives into familiar waters with the release of a new Karl Rove Crossroads GPS commercial and the continued use of the "lazy and shiftless" dog-whistle:
Desperate to reverse the losing streak of the last three weeks, the Romney campaign and its surrogates have, once again, rolled out the racially antagonistic "Obama Is Lazy" line of attack. It's nothing new, of course. Republicans and the Romney campaign have been beating this meme to death for quite a while now. Romney rolled out the "Obama Isn't Working" banner last April, and by the way, no, I'm not making that up. It's an official campaign slogan. In fact, they created a website called "obamaisntworking.com" while also reigniting the theme for the general election earlier this month.
In conjunction with the April roll-out of the campaign's first major foray into the Southern Strategy, Romney said, "I must say I scratch my head at the capacity of the president to take four hours off on such a regular basis to go golfing. I would think you could kind of suck it up for four years, particularly when the American people are out of work." He continued, "I know prior Presidents have gone to Camp David and have been able to get a little rest and get away from the demands of Washington, bring some of their key advisers there and focus on solving tough issues. I would not be jetting around the world and using four years in office to see the world, but instead I would consider the four to eight years in office as a time to get America back on track."
Romney, who famously capped off his dismal nominating convention by cruising around on his yacht for a long weekend, spoke those words on the Bill Cunningham radio show. You might recall Cunningham from 2008 when he spoke at a McCain event and repeatedly emphasized the president's middle name -- another shameless use of Southern Strategy politics. To his credit, McCain repudiated Cunningham and never invited him back.
Elsewhere, conservatives have taken to calling the president a "vacationer-in-chief." Even golf enthusiast John Boehner once said, "This is the biggest job in the world and I’ve never seen a president make it smaller."
Coinciding with the relaunch of Romney's "Obama Isn't Working" theme, the latest iteration of the archaic and unspoken but certainly intentional "lazy and shiftless black man" attack happens to be hilariously ironic. Continue reading here...