We've talked for weeks about Romney playing the race card but the MSM have been dancing around the subject. Today however, National Journal is on an all out assault on how, and why Romney continues to run his racist ads. Here's a taste:
"A leather-gloved white laborer wipes sweat from his forehead. “But on July 12,” the ad intones,” President Obama quietly announced a plan to gut welfare reform by dropping work requirements. Under Obama’s plan, you wouldn’t have to work and wouldn’t have to train for a job. They just send your welfare check and “welfare to work” goes back to being plain old welfare.”
Translation:
Sweaty White Laborer = That’s Me!
“You Wouldn’t Have to Work” = Blacks Wouldn’t Have to Work
“They Just Send Your Welfare Check …” = They Just Give Your Pay Away to Lazy Blacks
“Plain Old Welfare” = Remember Those Welfare Queens? They’re Back.
Before explaining why these tactics work (and why Romney’s team knows, or should know, they are playing the race card), let’s quickly deal with this fact: The ad is wrong. As countless impartial fact-checkers have noted, the Obama administration memo cited by the Romney team actually gives states flexibility to find better ways of getting welfare recipients into jobs.
Why ignore fact-checkers? First, internal GOP polling and focus groups offer convincing evidence that the welfare ad is hurting Obama. Second, the welfare issue, generally speaking, triggers anger in white blue-collar voters that is easily directed toward Democrats. This information comes from senior GOP strategists who have worked both for President Bush and Romney. They spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid retribution.
Furthermore, a senior GOP pollster said he has shared with the Romney camp surveys showing that white working-class voters who backed Obama in 2008 have moved to Romney in recent weeks “almost certainly because of the welfare ad. We’re talking a (percentage) point or two, but that could be significant.”
We have to find a better way to fight back against Romney's obvious lies.
Hopefully this National Journal article starts that conversation in the mainstream.