There’s little question that the Republican primary is providing a great deal of entertainment to American society. Whether it’s Michele Bachmann sticking her foot in it yet again, Rick Perry’s utterly deplorable “Strong” ad, or Herman Cain’s shenanigans leading to an early departure, watching these clowns is better than scripted reality television.
There are times, though, when it stops being funny and crosses the realm into distasteful (did I mention Rick Perry’s “Strong” ad?), shocking, and jaw-dropping.
Because I wouldn’t vote for any of the Republican candidates, though, it’s very easy to remove myself from the whole situation. In fact, I can pretty much write it off as entertainment via the television set.
And having that degree of separation, of knowing that I’m not going to get all shocked and appalled over the myriad “open-mouth-insert-foot moments”, has really allowed me to notice the little things that might well otherwise fly under my feminist radar.
Such as Mitt Romney taking Newt Gingrich to task for being buddy-buddy with Nancy Pelosi in the past.
In case you haven’t heard, Gingrich …
… has pledged to run a positive campaign … which is, of course, like waving a red flag in front of a herd of bulls.
Romney, who like Gingrich is considered a frontrunner, is taking full advantage of Gingrich’s soft eyes.
Romney has tried to cast himself as the more consistent, less mercurial alternative to Gingrich, a candidate known as much for his big ideas as his tendency to throw rhetorical firebombs even if they buck the party orthodoxy.
Romney’s camp on Wednesday went further, putting out a web video that described Gingrich as an unreliable conservative. The video used what is arguably the year’s most eligible piece of footage for a GOP attack ad — a clip of the climate change ad Gingrich once cut with House Democratic Leader Pelosi.
After flashing the image of the two of them sitting on a couch, the ad said: “With friends like Newt, who needs the left?”
So … basically, Nancy Pelosi is the anti-Christ?
I am not one of those women that screams, “She gets shit on because she’s female!” very often, but I can’t help but feel that way about Nancy Pelosi. I mean, there are many politicians far to the left of Pelosi, yet she’s held up as, like, the epitome of liberal nut.
I can’t help feeling that her gender figures into that impression, whether it’s because there has to be some sort of piled-up criticism of a woman with that much power or Pelosi rubs people the wrong way (because she’s not in her kitchen taking care of her husband?) or what.
So, yeah, Romney’s playing on that impression of Pelosi, and Gingrich?
Well, he might be trying to run a positive campaign, but evidently that doesn’t stretch to Democrats.
Yup, he’s writing off the Pelosi ad as “a mistake”.
A moment where Gingrich and Pelosi threw aside party lines and worked together to articulate the significance of a common concern (in other words, national leaders acting like leaders instead of mean girls), and … that’s a “mistake”?
Wow …
