Bringing a gun to a knife fight

Is Mitt Romney in fact the Anti-Christ? I’m just wondering, because this new ad sure makes him look like the subject of another Omen movie. I suppose it’s just an oversight that the PAC behind it neglected to mention the guy’s seven heads and 10 horns. (Or is it 10 heads and seven horns? I always forget.)

As ads go, it’s pretty effective: the urgent pacing, the out-of-context sound bites, the ominous music suggesting global conspiracy. This is American politics at its best: paranoid, negative and thoroughly brutal. None of us want to know why we should vote for someone, we just want to know why we shouldn’t. So here you go.

I’ll leave it to the experts to determine how accurate the ad is, but I do wonder what it says about Obama’s record that his troops have decided to commence firing before the enemy is even in sight. It doesn’t suggest a lot of confidence.

Romney may be the most sane in a group of seriously flawed Republican contenders, but why demonize him now? When your enemies are stabbing each other, it’s usually unwise to intervene — unless you believe that the winner will then turn around and cut you up too. Obama may not be worried, but Priorities USA Action sure is.

I guess I can understand why. Obama doesn’t have really have record to run on. He inherited huge problems and they’ve only gotten worse. He’s never really articulated why his approach on any issue is better than the shouted advice from the cheap seats. Sad to say it, but he’s not been the inspiring leader he was in 2008. An over-the-top ad like “Mitt Romney’s America” suggests that his strongest supporters don’t expect that to change.