Saturday, October 27, 2012

Problem: Colin Powell endorses Barack Obama

The GOP's Ministry of Propaganda dealt with this problem neatly and effectively:

They had Governor John Sununu, one of Mitt Romney's chief, official spokesmen, dismiss the endorsement as racial, then unring the bell the next day.

That's exactly like a prosecutor telling the jury some damning but tangential fact about the defendant, upon which the defense objects and the judge tells the jury to ignore what the prosecutor just said.

Un-hunh.

This let Republican voters ignore this prominent moderate Republican's endorsement of the Other Guy, ignore the reasons General Powell gave for his endorsement, and go on with the business of usual of rooting for the GOP's Great White Hope without ever saying a word about the fact that Governor Romney is, exactly and precisely, GOP voters' Great White Hope.

And of course not saying this fact is crucial to maintaining the postracial/postclass pretence of the GOP from top to bottom. So it was crucial to convey this dismissal of Colin Powell's endorsement by sacrificing a pawn. Governor Romney can piously denounce any such imputation, and if that requires abandoning John Sununu for a couple of weeks until the election's over--no problemo.

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