Opinion As American as apple pie
Republican attacks on Obama have focused on his foreignness,but it is Romney who seems out of touch
Republican attacks on Obama have focused on his foreignness,but it is Romney who seems out of touch
MAUREEN DOWD
Usually,at this stage of a presidential campaign,Republicans are doing a much better job of sullying the Democratic candidate as un-American. Michael Dukakis was accused of having a funny last name. John Kerry was faulted for acting French and eating Philly cheese steaks with Swiss cheese. And the GOP has had so much practice over the last four years at skewering Barack Obama as an existentialist socialist apologist for America with a secret foreign birth certificate that it should be like shooting mahi-mahi in a barrel. Yet this weeks Republican attacks have been so shriekingly shrill,they make Poppy Bush campaigning at a New Jersey flag factory back in 1988 look like a masterpiece of subtlety.
I wish this president would learn how to be an American, said John Sununu,the former New Hampshire governor,last Tuesday during a Romney campaign media conference call. (He later apologised.) He also went on Fox News to assert that the president has no idea how the American system functions,and we shouldnt be surprised about that,because he spent his early years in Hawaii smoking something,spent the next set of years in Indonesia…and frankly,when he came to the US,he worked as a community organiser,which is a socialised structure.
The ever-delightful Rush Limbaugh weighed in: I think it can now be said,without equivocation without equivocation that this man hates this country. He is trying Barack Obama is trying to dismantle,brick by brick,the American dream. He continued: He was indoctrinated as a child. His father was a communist. His mother was a leftist. He was sent to prep and Ivy League schools where his contempt… was reinforced. As it was for the Bushes and Mitt Romney?
But that nonsense sounds reasonable compared with Michele Bachmanns McCarthyesque charges that the Muslim Brotherhood is infiltrating the US government. She ludicrously cited Hillary Clintons trusted aide,Huma Abedin,the Muslim daughter of professors of Indian and Pakistani descent,as someone who shouldnt have a security clearance. Its hard for the haters to get traction when the president and his wife are looking so all-American,smooching for the kiss cam at the US vs Brazil basketball game as the lovely Malia excitedly looked on.
Campaigning last Tuesday in Pennsylvania,Romney called Obamas course as president extraordinarily foreign. But it is the Mitt-bot who keeps getting caught doing things that seem strangely outside the norm to most Americans.
Americans have been trained to be wary of Swiss bank accounts and tax shelters in Bermuda and the Cayman Islands. Guys who have those in the movies are always shady and greedy. George Romney set the gold standard by releasing 12 years worth of tax returns. But his sons refusal to release a decent sampling is so suspicious that even some top Republicans have balked. Why would the scion of a political family who always wanted to be president tangle himself in a cats cradle of tax trickery in the first place?
Romney contended that he had no role at Bain after 1999 when some of its companies went bankrupt,shipped jobs overseas and fired workers. He remained chairman of the board,CEO,president and only stockholder until 2002. Other than that,he had nothing to do with the place. Aside from his time running the Salt Lake City Olympics,Romneys whole life,from his $250 million fortune to his tenure at the cultish Bain to his Mormonism,seems like its secreted in a hidden shelter.
Like W.,hes coming across as the privileged kid who grew up at the country club and got special deals because of his dad,but then runs around claiming to be a self-made businessman. That lack of self-awareness,and Romneys refusal to take responsibility for his own company,are disturbing traits in a leader.
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