The Refuges of a Scoundrel

Via Buzzfeed--

After leading the audience in an impromptu Pledge of Allegiance in the middle of his remarks, Romney launched into a riff designed to needle the Democratic Party for initially removing the word "God" from its 2012 platform, and then adding it back in despite protests from many delegates. 

"That pledge says 'under God.' I will not take God out of our platform. I will not take God off our coins. And I will not take God out of my heart," Romney declared.

The claim that godless commies are going to make godless money and then the whole country will be up Shit Creek in a wicker basket is the sort of thing one might expect from, say, Michele Bachmann or maybe even Romney's new BFF, Steve King. But it looks like the Romney/Ryan Campaign has decided that if they have any prayer of success--they'll need to lean on the perception that they are people of (the right kind of) faith, and that President Obama is not. 

This isn't a necessarily rare strategy--only a shocking one. former Senator Elizabeth Dole used the "atheist" smear against Kay Hagen four years ago--and that may have cost her the election. In this year's congressional race, Rep. Allen West (a National Chairman of the Romney Campaign's Black Leadership Council) has an ad out based on the odd God kerfuffle at the DNC, claiming that Democrats said "No" to God three times.

(You know who denied Jesus three times? St. Peter! I'm not sure what point I'm making here, just, funny old thing, that.) 

Samuel Johnson had it that patriotism was the last refuge of scoundrels, but many would contend religion truly is.  It's a way to change the subject and to get believers on one's side--or it's a way to smugly presume superiority while flaunting shamelessness. Insofar as the Romney Campaign has been staggeringly dishonest, perhaps we shouldn't be especially surprised that he would manufacture a claim that a president whose religion has been as regularly challenged as has his citizenship might be insufficiently Christian for a job having, Constitutionally, no litmus test.  Yet I think I will be surprised. And disappointed. 

You would think he'd save that level of desperation for October.