Hundreds of millions of dollars and years of lies have not done it. They've thrown everything they got at Barack Obama and still more people like him than not. They've used dog whistles and more. And it hasn't worked. Time is running short and they are getting more and more desperate.
So they lied about welfare and work, and they believe the only way to win is to go full racism, with "sensitivty," so they can have a shred of deniability for the gullible media. Klansmen in a three peice suit, with their hoods left at home.
An interview with American Crossroads president Steven Law (Karl Rove's group that takes secret corporate and millionaire donations) shows their desperate plan:
Swing voters are "resistant" to the idea that Mr. Obama is radical or ideological, although Mr. Law believes that the administration's relaxation of work requirements in federal welfare rules [THIS IS A LIE REPEATED BY THE WALL STREET JOURNAL AS TRUE] could change that perception. "You can tell they're landing punches," he says of the Romney campaign's recent effort to raise this issue.
But the punches have to be targeted very carefully. Recent focus groups have convinced Mr. Law that the issue is "definitely resonating now with swing voters, including those who were Obama voters in 2008." And yet, he adds, "We also picked up conflicting emotions: The economy is so lousy for middle-income Americans that the same people who chafe at the rise of welfare dependency under Obama don't automatically default to a 'get-a-job' attitude—because they know there are no jobs."
Mr. Law concludes that welfare reform could be a "powerful issue to talk about this fall, but it needs to be done sensitively. Right now it may be more of an economic issue than a values issue: In other words, more people on welfare is another disturbing symptom of Obama's broken-down economy, rather than an indictment of those who are on welfare or the culture as a whole."
Wall Street Journal:How to Beat President Obama
But they are going to do it sensitively:
So Law and other Republicans aren't recommending a slashing, Gingrich-style, culture-warrior attack on "welfare queens," but they do see a political benefit in trying to cast Obama as a believer in free government handouts. It's a message that more than a few Democrats believe privately to have a racial subtext -- the AP suggested as much last week -- which gets to Law's point on the need for the attack to be "done sensitively."
Politico, Burns and Haberman: Crossroads chief: Welfare message could change core view of Obama
In other words, they are going to scream out over and over that "the black guy is giving your money away to black people," and then deny they are being racist as they hope that ignorant (and racist) white folk buy the lie.
IT. AIN'T. GONNA. WORK!!
It's not 1968 when Nixon could run a racist campaign under the rubric of "law and order." It's not 1988 when George Bush I could "Willie Horton" Dukakis.
This is a sign that the Republicans are flailing and failing. The more the overt racist calls, the more you know they will lose.