The "You didn't build that" line from President Obama's recent speech in Virginia seems to be the salvation that the Romney campaign is looking for. In trying to divert attention away from his tax returns, and the revelations that his time at Bain Capital extended longer than he's said it did, the hope is that a distorted, clipped sentence can be the equivalent of a political "Get out of Jail Free" card. It's not working so far, and it may have helped to bring an exceedingly ugly image to light. More on the other side of the orange curly-Q.
In seeking to pounce on one sentence, in the hope that the larger message will be overlooked, the Romney campaign uses images of Jack Gilchrist of Hudson, New Hampshire. He tells President Obama to stop demonizing his success, even though there's no indication that Obama said anything like that at all. And then Mitt Romney's voice tells us that he does, in fact, approve this message.
I googled Hudson, New Hampshire in order to find out a little bit more about it. And I came to Hudsonrepublicancommittee.org, which has a posting that spotlights the video that Jack Gilchrist appears in. It's dated July 19, which was the day the video was released by the Romney campaign. Before that, there was a post dated July 7, just after our nation's birthday. That posting consists, in its entirety, of one single image:
Disgusting on every level
Really? A black man, with a chain around his neck, being dragged off a pedestal? This is the man that I and millions of other Americans voted for in 2008, and will vote for again in November. But to disrespect the presidency in this way, while also throwing in a hideous racial angle, really tests the limit of human decency.
There's no indication that Jack Gilchrist is actually a member of the Hudson Republican Committee. But whether he is or not, his town, and his company, and his party and its presumed standard bearer this fall, have all found a place on the same website as this repugnant image.
The Romney campaign must renounce this image at once, and restore this campaign to a place where the presidency itself is treated with the respect that it deserves, and where Barack Obama is respected as the man who holds that office, and not used as fodder for a crude and inflammatory sight gag. That isn't too much to ask for, is it?