There are those ‘a-ha’ moments that occur in the heat of a political campaign. Moments when a point suddenly becomes clear you. It’s happened to me twice in the last two weeks; and since it such a rare occurrence, it is noteworthy.
The first was several weeks back, after one of those time-wasting, mind-boggling exchanges with “friends” across the aisle on Facebook. You know the drill- they post some dog-whistling, disrespectful, fact-bereft Republican talking point about President Obama, and you post a factual response, complete with cites and footnotes. And then they come back with even something more outlandish, in an effort to change the subject. We’ve all been there.
This time it was a birther, pimping that silly idea about Obama not being born in the United States, not being a citizen. I thought about whether there was a new way to approach this cesspool; and then asked a simple question: Do you agree that the woman that Obama claims was his mother actually was his mother? The response was pretty quick- yes, they did. That wasn’t the issue, they said. It was about where he was born, and who his father was.
And I simply typed back my response. It is the point. Regardless of where Obama was born, if his mother, who you agree is really his mother, was a United States citizen, then he is a United States citizen. Regardless of where he is born.
No response. Over the next week, I tried this out on a number of people- some who plead the birther case, some who tried to dismiss the claims. Universally I was met with a pause, and then something like… “I never thought of that.” It can’t have been that simple.
A-ha!
Here’s the second moment of the campaign.
One of the neat things about Governor Romney, is that, like John McCain before him, one of the trappings of his success is that he owns several houses. In several states. Interesting.
In fact, when you think about it, five states can stake a claim to the Governor- Michigan, where he was born and raised, Utah, where he went to school and rose through the ranks to become a Bishop in his church, California and New Hampshire, where he owns vacation homes, and Massachusetts, where he served as Governor, and is still registered to vote, his address being the unfinished basement of one of his sons.
Five states that know him well, five that could make a claim on his loyalties- if he had any.
So what is going on, that in four of these five states, the Governor is getting his ass kicked, his head handed to him, he’s getting the bum’s rush. He’s losing by margins ranging from 15 points to 5 points; the biggest gap being in the only place he has held elective office- Massachusetts.
And it is worth noting that while Utah is reliably red, and has a century and a half long connection to the Mormon church, it is also a place where the Governor, in his capacity as the president of the Olympics Committee, he brought in over $1,500,000,000 in federal tax breaks, grants, infrastructure improvements.
For those keeping score, that is about $250,000 per electoral vote.
So what’s up with four of the five states that know him going thumbs down on the Governor, and the one state that does support him also happens to have gotten what may amount to the largest amount of federal pork ever delivered to a single state for a single event.
A-ha!