It was just a few days ago that the Mittster recorded an ad for Indiana Senate candidate Richard Mourdock. Mourdock, you may recall, was the Tea Party backed candidate who ousted long-time Republican Dick Lugar in the primaries. Lugar's crime? He had the temerity to work with Democrats in Congress. That's a no no in the Tea Party.
Now there's usually nothing wrong with presidential candidates running ads for members of their own party. Happens all the time. Except in this case, Mr. Mourdock had some rather, shall we say, unusual views about rape and abortion that until a recent debate he had skillfully managed to keep to himself. Remember that old saying you learned when you were a kid: "Better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool, then to open it and remove all doubt?" I'm guessing Mourdock was absent when they taught that lesson, because this is what he said during his now infamous senior moment:
"The only exception I have to have an abortion is in the case of the life of the mother. I struggled with it myself for a long time, but I came to realize life is that gift from God. I think that even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended to happen."
Richard Mourdock now joins the ranks of Todd (legitimate rape) Akin, Paul (pit of hell) Broun, Sarah (I can see Russia from my house) Palin and all the other clowns who comprise the bulk of Republican Party; the same Republican Party that Mitt Romney has been trying so hard to run from and damn near succeeded.
You'd think, given the toxicity of the inflammatory comments and what's at stake, the former governor of Massachusetts would act swiftly to denounce Mourdock. After all, he spent the better part of his last debate with Barack Obama doing everything except dry hump the President's leg on foreign policy. And yet, strangely, not only hasn't old Thurston Howell III failed to do so, he hasn't even pulled his ad. Even with the remaining sane members of his party imploring him to do so, Mittens steadfastly refuses.
What that should tell you is that, despite his recent transformation into Moderate Mitt during the debates, Romney is every ounce the man we saw during the primaries and throughout most of the campaign. And if he gets the opportunity, he will, no doubt, kowtow to the most extremist elements in the GOP as president.
Make no mistake about it. The only reason Mitt Romney closed the gap against Barack Obama is because he managed to convince a lot of low information voters that he wasn't one of the lunatics at the asylum. This episode threatens that canard, because it exposes Romney for what he has been most of his political life: nothing more than a snake oil salesman who will say and do anything to get elected. He's been running a con for the last three weeks, hoping the public wouldn't catch on.
That's the problem with playing Houdini. No matter how hard you work at keeping your slight of hand a secret, eventually the audience figures it out.
Link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/23/richard-mourdock-abortion_n_2007482.html
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