Romney Campaign Goes Racist

From the birther "joke" that was not, to debunked claims regarding the Obama administration's regulation of welfare programs, to continuing efforts at disenfranchising non-white voters, the Romney campaign has finally implicitly owned up to the real message of the campaign: "Vote for the white guy."

As the fact-checking website Politifact wrote, a Romney campaign ad describing Obama as "gutting" welfare reform "inflames old resentments about able-bodied adults sitting around collecting public assistance." Politifact called the ad a "drastic distortion." HHS wanted to give states more flexibility in meeting certain reporting requirements. The memo notifies states "of the Secretary’s willingness to exercise her waiver authority ... to allow states to test alternative and innovative strategies, policies, and procedures that are designed to improve employment outcomes for needy families." Politifact continues "By granting waivers to states, the Obama administration is seeking to make welfare-to-work efforts more successful, not end them. What’s more, the waivers would apply to individually evaluated pilot programs -- HHS is not proposing a blanket, national change to welfare law."

Washingon Post's Glenn Kessler gave the Romney welfare ad four Pinocchios.

Says NY Times Thomas Edsall, The racial overtones of Romney’s welfare ads are relatively explicit.

Edsall also notes that a Romney campaign Medicare ad includes a racial emphasis. The ad describes the Affordable Care Act as "a massive new government program that is not for you." The 30 million people currently not insured, who would receive coverage under ACA are 16.3 percent black, 30.7 percent Hispanic, 5.2 percent Asian American, and 46.3 percent non-Hispanic whites. Edsall's reading of "not for you" is apparently that the 46.3 uninsured non-Hipanic whites are less than half the affected population.

Read Tom Edsall's Making the Election About Race.