January 26, 2012

Romney’s Obama Dog Whistle?

By Karen Donley

That’s quite an interesting use of a slogan here.

I can’t remember ever seeing a “Nixon’s Shifty,” “Carter is Soft” or “George H. W. Bush is Out of Touch” sign behind a candidate. And the “ISN’T WORKING” — do you think that’s an attempted dog whistle? Isn’t working… food stamp president…. are they saying he’s a lazy n-word? Seems they may be stringing that stuff together with an ulterior motive.

One other point: Many Americans are out of work and have been for some time. Maybe these citizens have given up looking in this climate. Still, it’s a minority of people who are jobless. “Bob isn’t working” is a remark you make when you blame Bob for his situation. His unemployment becomes partly if not mostly his fault. It’s a little dig his mother-in-law takes at him whenever asked. Her response isn’t, “Bob can’t find a job,” or “Bob works in a field that has been hard hit by the recession.”

Tons of conservatives say it every day about their son-in-law, their neighbor, the mildly disliked spouse of a cousin. It’s a subtle dig someone takes to say “the situation is Bob’s fault.”

Finally, isn’t the slogan just a little bit hypocritical coming from a guy whose been bragging about being unemployed?

– Karen Hull

(photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images caption: Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney delivers a speech at the National Gypsum Company January 24, 2012 in Tampa, Florida. Romney’s speech was billed as a “prebuttal” to tonight’s State of the Union speech by President Barack Obama.)