Will the Media Call Romney Camp Out on Its Racism?

Posted by Ian Reifowitz at Daily Kos

Now it's just getting ridiculous. After Mitt Romney characterized Barack Obama's ideas as "foreign" earlier this week as well as last week, one of his advisers stooped to a new low yesterday in London.
From the Telegraph (UK):

In remarks that may prompt accusations of racial insensitivity, one suggested that Mr Romney was better placed to understand the depth of ties between the two countries than Mr Obama, whose father was from Africa.

"We are part of an Anglo-Saxon heritage, and he feels that the special relationship is special," the adviser said of Mr Romney, adding: "The White House didn't fully appreciate the shared history we have."

The Romney campaign has now directly cited Obama's race, his African ancestry, as a factor that makes him a bad President. Apparently a black man can't be as good a President as a white, Anglo-Saxon man simply because his race renders him unable to "fully appreciate" certain important facts.

This might be the most ridiculous comment yet made by a member of the Romney campaign (and that's a pretty high bar to clear). But it's far more than that. It's part of a distinct pattern and a purposeful strategy implemented by Mitt Romney to play on racial fears and the fear of Obama as "the other" in order to gin up votes and distract Americans from his own flaws.

Rather than come clean about his time about Bain Capital, or explain how he can claim to have "retroactively retired" but yet still collect a $100,000 annual salary from 1999 to 2002, or do what his father did during his presidential run and release a dozen years of his tax returns (as opposed to the one return, from 2010, Mitt has released thus far), Governor Romney would rather blow the dog whistle of racism.

There's some evidence that the American media is going to start holding Mr. Romney accountable for the bigotry his campaign is spewing.

But it will take a lot more than a couple of articles on one day. It is time for the media, the whole of the mainstream media, to call Mitt Romney and his campaign out for exactly what it is doing.
Because until the cost to his campaign is greater than the benefits he reaps, Romney will just keep on spewing it.