Etch-a-Sketch

[rain_gryphon]

So, for the last six months, up until yesterday morning, I'd not have given a nickel for Obama's chances at re-election.

Comments

[loganberrybunny.livejournal.com]

Because of his comments on same-sex marriage? Is it really likely to tip the balance?

[gremy.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I doubt it'll be the big issue of the next election, myself.

[whitetail.livejournal.com]

Agreed. It's not an issue the Federal government should be involved in at all. Whatever the POTUS says or doesn't say about it isn't the least bit relevant - at least it isn't to me.

[xolo.livejournal.com]

Agreed, in principle. That's not going to have much sway over public opinion, though.

[xolo.livejournal.com]

Not the big issue, no, but big enough to hurt Romney substantially. See my reply to Loganberry.

[xolo.livejournal.com]

I think it might. It's not going to be a huge or sudden shift, it's certainly not going to blow Romney out of the water, but... Obama's managed to move the discussion away from the economy and foreign policy, onto an issue widely perceived by moderates to be one of fundamental fairness. He's comfortable talking about concepts, much moreso than about concrete results. It's his strong area. It's going to gain him swing voters. It's going to sew moral unease among Goldwater Republicans such as myself. Romney shooting himself in the foot twice immediately afterward, first by making a waffling, indecisive announcement that he's still opposed to gay marriage, but thinks gay people should have all the important civil rights anyway, but can't really enumerate which rights those are; THEN dismissing the revelations about how he treated gay kids in the mid 60s as 'pranks' doesn't help a bit. This is going to bleed slowly, all summer, and Obama isn't going to let it heal.

Romney's undoubtedly correct in context about tormenting gay or just 'different' kids as being no big deal. I went through the American school system some 15 years later. Acting like complete and utter dicks to one another wasn't seen as wrong, or even all that unusual - that was part of growing up, and the adults largely let us work those things out ourselves. By and large it worked. Private schools like Romney went to had a reputation for being much, much more vicious, too.

The point here, though, is that voters 30 and under, maybe even older, didn't experience that world. They don't know the context of the 60s - to the extent that most have any idea of it, they probably think of it as the age of love and tolerance, and see Romney's actions as abberant for the times. To them Romney committed 'bullying', possibly even a 'hate crime', and they've had it drummed into them that school bullies are one of America's major existential threats. These are the young voters worried about the economy that Romney wanted. He's done himself no favours here.