The election campaign of Mitt Romney has distanced itself from the non-bombshell video of then-Sen. Barack Obama addressing racial issues in a June 2007 speech at Hampton University in Virginia. Andrea Saul, the campaign’s spokeswoman, said it “did not have any involvement” in pushing the story.
Not good enough for the Obama campaign. In a CNN appearance today, Deputy Campaign Manager Stephanie Cutter blasted the whole episode, voicing her suspicion that “allies” of Romney promoted the story. She further called on the Romney people to “stand up” and call it ”irresponsible” and “wrong.”
Stay seated, Romneyites. No need to stand up and denounce anything here. In pursuing this piece, the Daily Caller and Fox News have amplified the public’s understanding of some things that Barack Obama said five years ago, words that got little or no attention at the time. Points!
That Fox News and the Daily Caller overhyped the story; that Sean Hannity called it a “bombshell”; that Hannity and the Daily Caller’s Tucker Carlson discussed the tape in tones that suggest discomfort with the very notion of a powerful black politician; that Hannity used the story to make a hypocritical case about media bias; that Carlson frothed afresh about the politics of division: None of that falls under the control of the Romney campaign. When these guys rail against Barack Obama, they’re following their own hearts.
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