No More Dog Fights?

For the last six months, we have been treated to periodic stories in the main stream media about the time, decades ago, when Mitt Romney loaded up his family in a station wagon for a vacation and put the dog in a pet carrier lashed to the roof. The story had no message other than a simple one: Romney must hate dogs! The story was used to mock Romney on all sorts of media. Then about ten days ago came the responsive story. In his first autobiography, president Obama mentioned that he had eaten dog as a boy growing up in Indonesia. The story made various internet sites and talk radio. It got no mention, however, in the main stream media. All those shows and papers that had discussed Romney's dog on the roof were just silent. After all, putting a dog on the roof for a few hours does not hold a candle to actually eating a dog, even if Obama was a boy when he did it.

Over the weekend, Obama blew the story out of the water; no one could keep a lid on it now. At the press dinner Saturday night, Obama joked: "What is the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull?" This is Sarah Palin's famous joke from the 2008 Republican convention acceptance speech. Palin's answer was "lipstick". Obama changed the answer; his answer was "a pit bull is delicious!"

So Obama himself is now joking about his eating dogs. It was no accident. Let me translate this into political reality. Someone in the Obama campaign determined that dog lovers would much more easily forgive Romney for putting the dog on the roof than Obama for eating Fido or Spot or whatever the dog's name was. The campaign had to put an end to the whole story line immediately or it would come to haunt Obama. The decision was to turn it into a joke.

I think it was not a great decision. There are some people who cannot forgive cruelty to dogs and eating one is about as cruel as can be. This joke provides big publicity for a story that otherwise might have faded away. There is, of course, always the good news. At least Obama did not serve dog at a state dinner.