Politico takes a page from Breitbart.
The problem is they’ve done it so poorly their naked opportunism reveals only corruption. Talk about torturing a meme to drive hits to your site. I’ll bite, because the Politico team deserves the attention in the form of derision for this one.
It’s one of the most dishonest, contorted and contrived pieces you’ll read on Mitt Romney, but what the Politico team conjured up out of thin air against Democrats is downright scurrilous. Oh, and for good measure they throw in the war on women, via Hilary Rosen and Ann Romney, because you wouldn’t want to miss the hat trick when you’re pulling out all the stops.
If Mitt Romney could be “Draperized” he’d actually have a better chance of winning in November.
From Jonathan Martin and Maggie Haberman, no less:
The Draperizing of Mitt Romney is under way.
He may not drink or cheat, and he lacks the fictional ad-maker’s charisma, but Democrats, despite the potential perils of such a strategy, remain determined to paint Romney as a throwback to the “Mad Men” era — a hopelessly retro figure who, on policy and in his personal life, is living in the past.
Romney doesn’t drink or cheat, and he also lacks the third fundamental element of the fictional ad-maker, charisma, but never mind all of that, Mitt Romney is Don.
It gets worse when Martin and Haberman decide to play the Mormon card out of thin air, attributing it to Democrats.
What Democrats won’t say, even under the cloak of anonymity, is that the highly charged discussion of Romney and gender opens the door to an even more combustible topic: the candidate’s membership in a church that encourages women to stay at home and handle child-rearing.
Obama and his advisers will never overtly go there, of course.
But in appealing to the female vote, the president has held out his own family’s experience of trying to juggle dual careers with child-rearing — an implicit contrast with his GOP rival.
“We didn’t have the luxury for her not to work,” Obama said last week at a White House forum on women in the workplace, noting that Michelle Obama “gave it her all to balance raising a family and pursuing a career.”
Last time I looked evangelicals, Southern Baptists and other fundamentalist religions all choose to embrace the roles of women staying at home to take care of child-rearing. The home-schooling, as Michele Bachmann revealed, extends well beyond Mormonism.
While acknowledging that Democrats won’t mention Mormonism, “even under the cloak of anonymity,” their fantasy Draperizing of Mitt Romney opens a non-existent door to hit Romney on religion.
It’s a twofer for traffic.
Trading on “Mad Men” popularity as a safe opener, the poison political pill of hitting Democrats via the Mormon card that hasn’t been played, which Debbie Wasserman-Schultz has said is off limits, is irresistible for the popular beltway spinners. Politico actually believes it’s a dying urge for Obama reelect to mine Mitt’s Mormonism, but also that it wouldn’t backfire horribly. The charge comes without proof, without even an infamous blind quote or on background source, but out of the fevered corners of Politico’s insider gossip mill.
As someone who makes Politico a first stop for morning news, especially Mike Allen’s Playbook, I’ve seen Jim VandeHei on his PoliticoLive C-SPAN show say that Romney’s Mormonism should be in the conversation. But the way Politico weaves it into this story stretches the journalistic bounds.
This is a scurrilous piece of business from Jim VandeHei, but from John Harris it’s absolutely stunning.
It’s a bipartisan alarm that should make Democrats, as well as Romney supporters, take note of what they’ll receive in a 2012 political year that’s shaping up to be a battle to the bottom.
More time and bytes wasting on religion. Religion poisons everything.
I think the idea of children being raised by their own parents is much better plan than having the government raise our children. Staying home to raise children is great. Having the government raise your children, is a bad idea. If you want to talk about religion then lets do it. Lets get all the cards out on the table. First we will look at the Mormon relgion – I think we can all agree that if you are not a member of “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints”, it seems very odd and perhaps it may appear heritical. Lets look at President Obama’s religion and the Church he went to for over 20 years, was married in, and had both of his daughters baptized in. Lets get all of the cards out on the table for the Trinity United Church of Christ. When we look at this Church and “Rev. Jeremiah Wright, it clearly looks like Barack Obama’s Church was run by an ignorant hatemonger. It is obvious that Presidnet Obama and his campaign team do not want religion brought into this race. Obama will always lose on this point. People who stay home to raise their children are some of the most important people and strengths we have in the USA.
Huh? Government raising children? How did that get in here?
Really Rick~ How about an example?
I agree that staying home and raising kids is a noble thing if you can afford it but so is working three jobs to feed your kids.
People home school for a variety of reasons, there is even a movement of liberals who are home schooling. Some do a great job and I know some who do. Some are just trying to keep their kids in a bubble and not exposed to thoughts and ideas that might challenge their parents ideology. That is no way to build a strong a cohesive country.
I have always found that exposing kids to the widest range of thinking makes them acutalized adults. People who are afraid that their teachings won’t stay with their kids must on some level feel awfully insecure about the rightousness of their teachings.
I hear what I taught my daughter coming back to me over and over as I watch her raise her son.The Golden Rule has always worked for us.
Religion poisons everything is the thesis (or subtitle, at least) of Hitchens’ God is not Great.
He tells it (here) and writes it (here) much better than I.
When the parents are out working, who is there to raise the children?
Oh good grief. Your piece of sanctimonious drivel is one of the best posts I’ve seen around here as far as advocating voting for Obama. Government raising your children. So you’re implying that every working woman has the “government” raising her children? Wow, you guys are on a roll when it comes to ticking off women. And I think the GOP is the one that doesn’t want the religion card to come up because Obama’s church is old news. Jeremiah Wright was in the ad cycles time and again back in ’08. The problem with Romney’s religion is that the GOP base thinks it’s a cult. The Southern Baptists and evangelicals have been told for years that they aren’t Christians and that they are practically devil worshipers. The GOP is the one that always plays the religion card discussing everyone’s religion but now that Romney’s religion is a negative they don’t want it discussed.
Personally I wish we would drop all references to religion in political campaigns as we are a secular nation not a theocracy and a person’s religion should not matter. The president is the head of state NOT the head of a church or a religion.
1. There’s nothing inherently wrong with women choosing to stay home and raise children ( I would take issue with it being the hardest job there is ) that came out of the entitled narcissism of the seventies. The problem arises when they are told this is what they should be doing.
2. Mormons are good business people and hard workers. It’s hard to hold that against them.
3. In the sixties corporations were run by boards, not investors, and corporations had more of a connection to the communities they were in. Wall street firms were partnerships and the partners had a stake in the success and reputation of the firm. People like Romney may as well be aliens in trying to link them to the moderate republicanism of the sixties.
Taylor, i’m still waiting for your summary of last week’s Mad Men show (Season 5, episode 4). Is Don Draper really a killer or was it a dream. Show son guts, take a stand.
1. Another “Mad Men” reference? Really?
Hey, Taylor- the show ain’t that popular. It’s on a B-network nobody watches. I can’t imagine that one in fifty even makes this connection. I have no idea who Don Draper is, nor do I care. But whatever, it’s your blog.
2. I don’t care what the Republicans do- the Democrats shouldn’t touch Romney’s religion with a ten-foot pole. Religious tolerance might be last shred of it’s progressivism it has left.
Two things: 1) Since you don’t watch Mad Men how can you judge it’s popularity or its critical acclaim? secondly, “…the Democrats shouldn’t touch Romney’s religion with a ten-foot pole. Religious tolerance might be last shred of it’s progressivism it has left.” Today’s Democrats (I’m looking at you Obama) are the Republicans of the 1960′s. There hasn’t been progressives in charge of the Democratic Party since 1988. Today’s Republicans are fascists; all the moderates and many conservatives have been driven out office or defeated in primary challenges by tea-baggers.
1. Umm, it’s called “ratings.” I get that Mad Men is “critically” popular. That doesn’t mean a lot of people watch it. Next time ask me something harder, like “how do you know the sun is hot? Have you ever been there?”
2. Yes, the Republican party is Fascist. So is the Democratic Party. They are both wholly corporate-owned. Which is why I find the idea of voter fraud rather funny- why would anyone cheat to vote for Tweedledum over Tweedledee?
Ooh, you read the ratings. Did you read the ratings after you lit up your Marlboro and walked across your living room to change the channel on your RCA Victor TV? The idea of ratings is from the 1960′s. Today, we have multiple showings, DVRs, On-Demand, internet viewing, iTunes sales, Blue-ray Box sets of previous seasons, syndication, cross-promotion, branding, shall I stop here.
Thats a hugh mistake to go after Romneys religion. There are many religions that I don’t understand, but I respect everyones right to practice their own religion. If some decide to go after Romney for his religion, its a sure fire way to get the large Mormon populations out West to go to the polls and donate a hugh amount of money to Romney, maybe they already will, who knows.
The irony is that the GOP has already gone after Romney’s religion. Did not one of Rick Perry’s evangelical supporters say something about that?
Like I said above, why are we discussing religion in a political contest? I don’t think it’s relevant.