Romney, First Lady Coverage a Distraction

By: Stanley Crouch | Posted: January 16, 2012 at 9:18 PM

GOP presidential contender Mitt Romney and his wife, Ann (Getty Images)

In his Daily News column, Stanley Crouch expresses disdain for what he describes as distractions from important political issues. Falling into the "distraction" category are debates about portrayals of Mitt Romney as an ice-cold corporate raider and Michelle Obama as an angry black woman. But such stereotypes are a staple of the American imagination, he writes.

It seems that, in the case of both Romney and [Michelle] Obama, we will not see them for who they truly are -- whatever that reality may actually be.

Some political types, for example, are more concerned with how Romney treated his family dog on a long-ago family vacation -- they drove with the dog tied to the top of the car. Maybe they think that if they can show him to be indifferent to the treatment of man’s best friend, voters will give him the Michael Vick treatment.

Wrote Lanny Davis on the Fox News website: “Was the dog distressed? Was it illegal under Massachusetts law as cruelty? There is some evidence that both are true[:]

“ ... I love animals, especially dogs. I don’t like people who are cruel to animals. I am told it is illegal in Massachusetts to put an animal on a car roof while driving. Had I been the local sheriff, I would have arrested him.

"This is the ultimate Purple Issue -- it cuts across Republicans, Democrats, blue states, red states, liberals and conservatives ... I think anyone who puts his dog in a cage on top of a car for a 12-hour drive and then deludes himself or tries to delude others that the dog really enjoyed it -- to me, with all due respect, I feel such a man shouldn’t be President of the United States.”

There it is -- red meat for some.

On the other side, those who have seen Michelle Obama remake herself into a cooler and calmer woman since she paraded her firebrand charisma during the months prior to the presidential election of 2008 find her problem seems to be no more than another ethnic tempest in a tea pot ...

Read Stanley Crouch's entire column at the Daily News.

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