Left Insists That Romney Comport Himself More Like A Gentleman, More Like... John McCain

Ann Althouse has a good post about the impeccable pedigree of the word "treason" as a political barb, and why Romney should resist the media's entreaties that he be more like John McCain.

Recalling McCain's pushback against a woman who called Obama "an Arab" -- a pushback that ended with McCain vouching for Obama's character -- Althouse writes:

That was awfully nice of McCain, but let's remember he lost. And I think I remember him having a rather exaggerated fear of criticizing Obama. Now, I think McCain had some reason to worry that people in the audience would say something racist or arguably racist or somewhat racial and that anything like that would be exploited by the Obama campaign. But at this point in American history, 4 years later, we are free to criticize Obama. Romney doesn't need to go all beta when an audience member states her antagonism to Obama in a strong way. He doesn't need to scold and discipline Obama's antagonists. Romney's approach to answering the question asked was just fine, though it perfectly understandable why the Obama campaign would like Romney to get sidetracked into defending Obama.

posted by Ace at 11:17 AM

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