Regarding, Romney’s speech to the NAACP on Tuesday, Nancy Pelosi told Bloomberg Television, “It was a calculated move on his part to get booed at the NAACP convention.”<\/p>\n
She wasn’t the only one to see it that way.\u00a0 Many pundits have by now made this assertion as well. It’s hardly a tinfoil hat theory, but rather stating the obvious.<\/p>\n
Breaking it down for the more gullible, here’s the scam:<\/p>\n
Romney knows he’s not going to get more than the smallest fraction of the black vote.\u00a0 Yet, going to the NAACP, the nation’s oldest, and most respected civil rights organization, is what one is expected to do. So how do you make it pay?<\/p>\n
You use it to excite the base.\u00a0 That’s Rovian politics and the Southern strategy.<\/p>\n
Romney stood up and said what he “believes” in, showing the right-wing of his party he’s not afraid to say something that won’t be popular (to people who wouldn’t vote for him anyway).\u00a0 But beyond that, referencing the Affordable Healthcare Act in particular was important.<\/p>\n
Since the Supreme Court ruled that mandates are constitutional, the popularity of health care reform has risen.\u00a0 The more people learn about what’s in the Act, the more they like it. \u00a0 Immediately after the ruling, Republicans tried to portray mandates as a “tax” on the middle-class.\u00a0 But that’s a hard sell. Most voters already have\u00a0 some form of health insurance and won’t be subject to mandates.\u00a0 Those who are ineligible for Medicare, Medicaid or employer health insurance welcome the low-cost options which the Act will bring them.\u00a0 Everyone is\u00a0 excited by the idea that they won’t be dropped because of pre-existing conditions,\u00a0 face “caps” on needed services, or have to drop their children when they turn eighteen.<\/p>\n
The Affordable Healthcare Act is the biggest legislative success of Obama’s first term.\u00a0 As the Act becomes more popular, so does Obama.\u00a0 Making his biggest success into a liability is necessary.\u00a0\u00a0 One way to do it is through a strong visual showing a group of prominent black people booing Romney for deriding “Obamacare.”\u00a0 The term itself implies not an act of Congress, reflecting the will of the American people, but rather something imposed on them by a usurper (and one with a funny “foreign” name). \u00a0 Adding the audio-visual of a group of NAACP members\u00a0 booing Romney for being against “Obamacare” reinforces the message that this government “giveaway” will take something away from hard working whites, something that black people want.\u00a0 It portrays Romney as standing up for the beleaguered white taxpayer who is sick of supporting “entitlement programs.”\u00a0 It references Reagan’s “welfare queens” as well as\u00a0 his challenging\u00a0 Gorbachev to tear down the wall.<\/p>\n
That the Affordable Healthcare Act is so misunderstood may seem truly shocking to people who live in countries like England or Canada (or most of the developed world for that matter) where health care is understood to be a basic human right.\u00a0 However, the idea that this legislation was a threat to “ordinary” Americans has been a major part of the strategy against it and has been exploited ruthlessly, with false claims that it would lead to taking away Medicare, the very successful single-payer system of health insurance for elderly Americans.<\/p>\n
The NAACP gig offered Romney a chance to face down a group\u00a0 (the blacks) and show white southerners and teabaggers that he was one of them, despite his elitist background, magical underwear and flip-flops on issues most near and dear to them.<\/p>\n
In case he didn’t rile the NAACP crowd enough with his reference to Obamacare, he also managed to say other things designed to not exactly endear him.\u00a0 He specifically referenced his defense of “traditional marriage.”\u00a0 While much has been made of the opposition to gay rights by some black churches, the NAACP has come out strongly for marriage equality, and then there was his reference to his “kitchen cabinet” in Massachusetts which\u00a0 included\u00a0 African Americans.\u00a0 The mostly older crowd he addressed remember too well the history of blacks in the kitchen, and of white politicians meeting with black leaders on the down-low.<\/p>\n
More evidence that this was staged came when it was spin time.\u00a0 At a fundraiser later that same day, Romney quipped, “. . . if they want more stuff from government tell them to go vote for the other guy — more free stuff.”\u00a0 This is a line that he’s used before when talking about contraception as part of health care and even student loan reforms.\u00a0 While the Republicans scream class warfare whenever the conversation turns to ending the millionaire tax cuts started by President Bush, they never miss an opportunity to imply that cuts to program that benefit the majority of Americans — healthcare, student loans, education, even essential services, are necessary, and anyone who implies differently is looking for a “giveaway” or “free stuff.”\u00a0 Deregulation of corporations (which are “people too, my friend”) and tax breaks for the ultra-rich must be retained at all costs if we are to be truly “free.”<\/p>\n
Will this strategy work to defeat Obama?\u00a0 The scary thing is maybe it only has to come close.\u00a0 Coupled with a massive effort to disenfranchise likely democratic voters in swing states, and unlimited campaign spending, Romney has a good shot at winning, no matter what the polls say. And that’s without even taking into account the possibility of actual fraud via faulty recording by electronic voting machines that leave no paper trail.\u00a0 While a Romney “victory” might look suspicious if the polls show a 10-point Obama lead, they won’t if it’s close.\u00a0 In a land of paperless ballots, close may be good enough.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Regarding, Romney’s speech to the NAACP on Tuesday, Nancy Pelosi told Bloomberg Television, “It was a calculated move on his part to get booed at the NAACP convention.” She wasn’t the only one to see it that way.\u00a0 Many pundits have by now made this assertion as well. It’s hardly a tinfoil hat theory, but … Continue reading Romney\u2019s Rovian Strategy<\/span>