Maybe this is nothing. But in case it’s something, I’m mentioning it now, so it’s on record before tonight’s debate.
Early in the first presidential debate, Barack Obama repeatedly stated that Mitt Romney had a plan to cut taxes by $5 trillion in the next decade. Romney’s response (lie, actually) was that he didn’t have a $5 trillion tax cut plan, and that “Look, I’ve got five boys. I’m used to people saying something that’s not always true but just keep repeating it and ultimately hoping I’ll believe it. But that is not the case.” If you think Romney was, in a not-too-roundabout way calling Obama “boy”, you aren’t wrong.
Early in the vice-presidential debate, Paul Ryan told a story to illustrate Mitt Romney’s great compassion. It was a story about a family whose sons had been paralyzed in a car crash. Romney showed up unannounced, bearing gifts, expressing sympathy and offering to defray expenses. If you think Ryan shouldn’t have brought up devastating car crashes to an opponent whose young wife and infant daughter were killed in a car crash 40 years ago, you’re not alone.
These could be coincidences. They could be accidents. They could mean nothing. They could merely be obtuse comments by a presidential candidate who’s ignorant of the history of using “boy” to demean African-American men, and a vice-presidential candidate who’s ignorant of an event that happened when he was two years old.
They also could be, in one or both cases, intentional debate tactics aimed at rattling Obama and Biden, attempting to throw them off-balance emotionally.
If so, depending on one’s view, they could be savvy, hardball tactics used by candidates who want to win a campaign; or they could be dirty, below-the-belt tactics used by candidates of a party that venerates Lee Atwater and Karl Rove as exemplars of great political operatives. Heck, it doesn’t have to be either/or; it could be both/and.
Just something to watch for in tonight’s debate.
Crossposted at: http://masscommons.wordpress.com/
