In the last few days, I have seen a great many pundits on television discussing the nature of the presidential campaign. Some have offered interesting insights; others not so much. What has struck me, though, is the decision by the Obama campaign to use race as its main argument for the moment. The Obamacrats are attempting to paint Mitt Romney and the entire GOP as racist. It is an amazing strategy.
Let me give you an example. As many of you are aware, Romney has been very critical of the decision by Obama to allow waivers of the work requirement that was the principal accomplishment of the welfare reform of the 1990's. That requirement forced a big portion of welfare receipients to either work or go through job training in order to keep getting their payments. It was remarkably successful; the number of people on welfare fell dramatically with most of them returning to the workforce. Obama's plan to waive this requirement brings things back to where they were prior to the reform. Some of the items that have been proposed for these waivers include counting "bed rest" as work, counting personal hygiene as work, describing dance lessons as job training, and the like. In short, the Obama waivers would eliminate the work requirement.
For the last week, I have seen one liberal pundit after another annouce that Romney's criticism of Obama over his destruction of welfare reform is racist. Rachel Maddow called it "obviously racist" last night. Another pundit said that the criticism was equivalent to "communing with the Klan". Their reasoning is all the same. In essence, they argue that white America equates welfare with blacks, so any criticism of Obama's handling of welfare has to racist.
I know that this reasoning is ridiculous. I even feel foolish calling it reasoning. But the comments have been repeated in place after place in the liberal media. Without a doubt, this is the talking point selected by the Obama campaign to counter Romney's attack on the Obama position.
As I have watched this nonstop injection of race into the campaign by the Obamacrats, I have been wondering if they understand what they are doing. Sure, they know what words they are saying. Clearly, they understand that they are sticking race into the campaign by falsely accusing the other side of doing just that. I believe that they think that they are revving up the African American portion of the Obamacrat base. I get all that.
What I wonder though is if these liberal pundits realize that they are also stoking enormous anger in the conservative base. Even worse for the libs, they also are driving away the few independent and undecided voters left in the electorate. I believe that these racial attacks by the liberals are more likely to motivate conservatives to vote than the African Americans at whom the comments are directed. In modern America, to be falsely called a racist is not a minor thing. A great many conservatives worked long and hard to get welfare reform passed through Congress and signed by the president. It was not racist then, and it is not racist now to criticize Obama for undoing that reform. Watching the Obamacrats use personal attacks rather than logical thought to support Obama's actions is infuriating. There are also undecided voters who are listening to these statements. It does not take a genius to realize that except for true believers, no one will accept criticism of Obama for undoing welfare reform as having anything to do with race. The racist rhetoric makes the Obamacrats look nasty; it also makes clear that they have nothing meaningful to say on point.
It may take a while for the full impact of this exchange to manifest itself. When it does, however, I believe we will see higher levels of turnout among the GOP base and a slide of some of the undecideds to Romney.
I just wonder if the Obamacrats know what they are doing?
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