Let's face it fellow Democrats: Mitt Romney is the gift that keeps giving. As the nominee of the opposition party, we couldn't ask for a more inept and amoral presidential candidate on which to train our sights.
And I appreciate the fact that DailyKos is a reality-based website and is not a place where we feel we need to bend the truth to gain the upper hand in the war of words. So I understand perfectly well that there are some perceptions, theories, and even bits of hard evidence about candidates that just are too far-fetched and don't belong here. Many of us know what happened when Jimmy Carter's grandson tried to post Romney's legendary "47 percent" speech weeks before it was fully vetted by a journalist.
There was one Romney meme out there this week that took a life of its own without this community's help. An ABC News story today may have completely de-bunked this myth, but follow me below the orange bald spot for some more "deep thoughts."
As you might have heard, Romney was accused by various left-leaning sites of altering his skin-town expressly for the Latino audience watching this week's town hall that was broadcast by Univisión. Gawker has a pretty good recap of how this meme got out there:
Mitt Romney ‘Dyed His Face Brown’ to Appeal to Latino Voters
For the reasons I cited above, I understand how many here didn't want to touch this story with a 39-1/2 foot pole. But I take interest in all things regarding Latino politics. My own Hispanic grandfather was a Democratic Party chairman in my state during the FDR era, and I'm always intrigued by whatever incursions Republicans try to make into the Hispanic voter base.
And you know darn well that if this type of perception happened to go against the Democratic candidate, it would have saturated the mainstream media by know. We're all familiar with the drill: Drudge reports it, Fox News amplifies it, and before you know it, CNN, et. al., are all over it.
At least the Brits took notice. The Telegraph, a conservative UK publication, rose to Romney's defense in a somewhat comical way:
Perhaps it says something about Mitt Romney that such an absurd (and offensive) accusation could be taken at all seriously. He’s not history’s most natural politician; in fact, he makes Joe Biden look like Bismarck. And his backstory of U-turns and flip-flops has convinced many that he is hollow on the inside.
...
It's true that Romney looks like an Oompa-Loompa that spent too long in the oven. But what probably happened is that he lay down under the sun lamp, got caught up in a particularly thrilling piece on the futures market in Forbes, banged his head reaching for his calculator, passed out and, three hours later, emerged looking like George Hamilton's younger brother. We've all been there.
But the idea that someone on his campaign thought Romney could increase the impact of the interview by trying to look more like his hosts is absurd.
Sorry guys, you made me laugh with the oompa-loompa reference but I don't buy that last sentence. This is a campaign that will do absolutely anything, no matter how morally depraved or dumb-looking, to win. Or to at least dig themselves out of the deep hole they are in now.
But the ABC story, by interviewing the make-up artist, has possibly put this implausible theory to rest:
"When he walked in, I remember thinking, 'Wow this is tanner than I thought he was,' but I think he's just been outside a lot lately for his campaign," Rodriguez noted. "It was definitely a real tan."
Rodriguez has been a makeup artist for 25 years, and has applied cosmetics to hundreds of famous faces, including many celebrities and politicians, and a handful of presidents.
Sounds quite plausible that Mitt is just a John Boehner wanna be who likes tanning lamps and got a little overexposed that day. So there ya go. Still, the mere existence of this rumor, the mere thought that he could have, would have, even
might have, is a sad commentary on just how low the Romney campaign's credibility has sunk.