McCain though she was more qualified than Romney
Desperation.
You could call this the kitchen sink strategy, but "Sympathizing" sounds waaay too much like "palling around with" not to notice, so let me just go out on a limb here and say that Mitt Romney is trying out the Sarah Palin strategy of implying that this President has hidden sympathies for the tiny minority of Muslims who are willing to hurt Americans because Obama is "the other/not white" with a Muslim sounding name.
This is what desperation does. It makes you take risks. Stupid risks.
And this is what a desperate GOP that is out of ideas looks like. Sad and Pathetic.
More below the fold
On Fox News, amidst panic over Obama's rise in the polls, noted conservative thinkers like Donald Trump, Bill O'Reilly and yes Sarah Palin have been urging Team Romney to really go on the attack. The national embarrassment that has ensued since Romney and RNC Chairman Reince Prebius tried to blame the embassy attack last night in Libya that cost American lives on Obama is a result of Team Romney trying to fulfill the wishes of the Republican base, and that wish is to embarrass and defeat President Obama at all costs. The problem with that is the same flailing attacks that will inspire the GOP base will also horrify everyone else. What's worse, the GOP already tried this back in 2008 and it didn't work then, and since then President Obama finally killed Bin Laden where George W. Bush and Dick Cheney failed so miserably, so making the case that Obama is weak on terror has become exponentially harder with everyone who didn't think Obama = Socialist Hitler to begin with. That is where the GOP is losing this election miserably. With everyone who didn't think Obama = Socialist Hitler to begin with.
This is what desperation does to someone. It makes them take stupid risks. Doubling down on the Sarah Palin strategy now when American blood has been shed is not just unforgivable, it is a mind-bogglingly stupid political strategy. For a guy who constantly says the he wants to focus on the economy Mitt continues to make gaffe after gaffe on non-economic issues that eat up entire days of the news cycle at a moment in the Presidential campaign where time is running out. But to double down on an already failed strategy from 2008 of portraying the President who killed Bin Laden as a terrorist sympathizer that didn't work with anyone outside of the FoxNews/RushLimbaugh borgthink is a phenomenally amateurish and cynically disingenuous coming from a guy who couldn't bother to mention our troops during his prime-time RNC speech.
Today's attempt by the GOP to exploit the death of Americans overseas in order to paint President Obama as a terrorist sympathizer comes straight out of the "Sarah Palin playbook", and since that didn't work out so great four years ago I am amazed the Republicans would try it out again, but then again they are desperate and this is all they've got. If anything stands as an example of the GOP of 2012 it is that they have not learned a single thing from their outright failures of the Bush/Cheney years and the failed McCain/Palin Presidential campaign. Those who fail to learn from the mistakes of the past are doomed to repeat them.
The problem with taking huge risks is that risks can backfire. Mitt Romney is now taking huge risks with American lives for his own personal political gain. That is unforgivable in my book. He is trying to make the Commander in Chief look weak in a moment of international crisis. I remember when Republicans used to call that UnAmerican.
Personally, I hope that this is the moment that costs Mitt Romney the election. It should. People died. Of all the much-deserved flak McCain's "the fundamentals of the economy are strong" comment earned him, it wasn't like anyone had to die for McCain to try to score his cheap political points on that one. If you don't see a lot of big name Congressional Republicans coming to defend Romney on this you will know that it completely backfired. Good. The political stupidity required to double-down on the "Sarah Palin strategy" at this point in the campaign should cost Romney the election, hopefully by a landslide. Reminding Americans of how Republicans are willing to exploit an international crisis for their own political gain is maybe the dumbest thing Romney could have done short of going on the stump with George W. Bush, but then again, desperation will make a guy do stupid shit.
But trying out something Sarah Palin tried and failed at in 2008, who would have thought THAT would backfire?
And as far as Obama being a terrorist sympathizer goes, just ask Osama Bin Laden about that. Also . . . .