The last wretched and pathetic week of the Obama campaign reminds me of the final wimpy gasps of the campaign of Michael Dukakis back in 2008 when dwindling numbers of left-wing Democrats gathered around Hollywood actors. In a sort of be-in experience, they could be heard moaning about how "frightened" they were for the future. Now we have Obama's top 1%er friends over at the mega Ad Agency Goodby Silverstein creating a commercial in which they employ children to sing a "We are the World" type ditty asking us to: "Imagine an America Where strip mines are fun and free. Where gays can be fixed And sick people just die and oil fills the sea." Here in Boston, we have Boston Phoenix chief political writer David Bernstein predicting that if Romney is elected the atmosphere will become unsustainable within a couple of decades due to the alleged pollution Romney will cause. And, or course, their is the ongoing alleged war against women being waged by the Republicans. Apparently even this, the centerpiece of the campaign, hasn't gone off all that well given that in recent polling indicates that Romney has moved toward closing the gender gap. Maybe women aren't as easily "frightened" as President Obama assumed they would be.
Of course there is the old chestnut, the charge of racism being trotted out by Chris Matthews, a charge that will no doubt grow cacophonous in the final desperate days. Let's examine that very serious charge briefly. Obama won handily in 2008 garnering over 5% over his Republican opponent Senator John McCain. Does this mean that this 4% and over that is now supporting Romney have decided, sometime during these past four years, that they no longer like African-American men and women? Have they decided that since President Barack Obama is African-American, and since they no longer like African-Americans, they can therefore no longer support Obama as President? Oh yes, that must be why Obama has slipped in the polls.
And then there is the charge of Republicans supporting rape. Oh yes, that's a good one. Last I checked it has been liberal judges, appointed by liberal Democrats, who have been handing down lenient sentences for rapists these past several decades. It was liberals who have decriminalized activities that were once considered rape. I would even venture to speculate, and this is sheer unsupported opinion, that the majority of those accused of rape these past several decades have themselves been liberals.
Expect Obama to throw the kitchen sink at Romney in these last decrepit days of his campaign. Perhaps the one mistake made by the Obama people was to go out with that ad accusing Romney of murder last summer. One would think they would've waited 48 hours before the polls opened for that one. Well it backfired.
