is how this Saturday column by Charles Blow is titled.
As is always the case with Blow, very worth reading.
it is his dissection of the plan to attack Obama presented to billionaire Joe Ricketts, attempting to resurrect Rev. Jeremiah Wright as an issue with which to smear President Obama. Of course, one problem is, as was noted in this New York Times story on the plan,
voters “still aren’t ready to hate this president,”
which means they have to first turn people against a President that most Americans seem to like as a person, and as a family man.
After noting the the policy proposal dissed McCain, who refused to use Wright to attack Obama (remembering how he had been attacked for the dark-skinned daughter his wife brought home from Bangladesh) as "a crusty old politician," Blow focuses in on this:
“The metrosexual black Abe Lincoln has emerged as a hyper-partisan, hyper-liberal, elitist politician with more than a bit of the trimmer in him.”
First, as Blow notes, "metrosexual" is NOT a term about sex, but rather "It is usually defined as a man keenly interested in grooming and preening." And then, as Blow rightly notes, Obama
is far less metrosexual than Mitt Romney of the perfect hair, copper tan and Gap skinny jeans.
And it gets better.
Blow notes that "metrosexual" has been misapplied to try to be " a roundabout homophobic taunt."
The President is, as Blow notes, like Lincoln in having " a burning desire to be remembered well."
The heart of the column can be seen in three brief paragraphs:
Now to the “hyper-partisan, hyper-liberal” accusation: false. Obama is a pragmatic, left-leaning centrist, much to the consternation of many devout liberals. Americans in the middle also see this, so efforts to paint him as an extremist will always fail.
Romney used to be a pragmatic, right-leaning centrist. That was until he checked his principles and previous positions at the door so that he could cavort with the Tea Party.
Obama may have a “bit of the trimmer in him,” modifying positions for expediency, but Romney is riddled with the trait.
Here I would disagree slightly with Blow. I do not think Romney has ever truly been a pragmatist. I think it far better to view him as an opportunist, doing whatever he thinks necessary in order to claim success. In that sense, for most of his public career he has lacked a core.
Blow connects his dismantling of the proposed strategy with information from the latest Fox Poll, which gave the President his largest lead to date (in that poll) over his Republican challenger, in large part
because of the flight of “grossed-out independents” from Romney.
Independents are of course key in this election. If they are turning off to Romney, it almost doesn't matter if those Republican-leaning independents do not turn to Obama, they may simply stay home.
Here I note that perhaps that is why Romney is desperately attempting to accuse Obama of character assassination. He and his supporters have been doing it to Obama, it has hurt them, and they are trying to recover by trying to accuse the incumbent of similar behavior.
So far it is not working.
Obama is willing to talk about his record. And while he is at it, to talk about the record Romney has that Romney will not talk about.
Blow notes that the Republicans need independents to win, that the Fox people have pointed out “if the electorate in November looks like the sample in the latest Fox News poll, Romney would lose in a rout.”
Blow's conclusion?
Metrosexual Abe for the win!
It's a long way until the first Tuesday after the First Monday in November.
There are many things that can happen in the meantime.
Romney keeps doing self-inflicted damage. When challenged on his own previous statements about Rev. Jeremiah Wright and the President, the answer he gave is perhaps as damaging as John Kerry saying he voted for something before he voted against it. Let's put Mitt's words in bold -
I’m not familiar precisely with what I said, but I’ll stand by what I said, whatever it was.
All things considered, there are worse things than being compared with Abe Lincoln, or being (inaccurately) described as a metrosexual.
I agree with Charles Blow:
Metrosexual Abe for the win!
Peace.