By Josh Marshall
A racial subtext certainly isn’t foreign to the Romney campaign’s critique of Barack Obama. But putting it so front and center may raise a few eyebrows.
What the London Daily Telegraph calls one of Romney’s “advisors” told the paper that Romney was better positioned to understand and respect the ‘special relationship’ between the US and Great Britain than President Obama, whose father was from Kenya.
Said the advisor: “We are part of an Anglo-Saxon heritage, and he feels that the special relationship is special. The White House didn’t fully appreciate the shared history we have.”
It’s all of a piece with the constant refrains that Obama is an outsider to whatever is essential about the American experience of simply being an American. But it’s getting closer to the surface. And I suspect we’ll hear much more of it — from ‘advisors’ if not from Romney himself — during the trip abroad.
Late Update: It’s interesting as a side note that the Telegraph suggested the Romney aide’s remarks “may prompt accusations of racial insensitivity.” To which one might respond, ya think? The Telegraph does write from 90s era, unreconstructed Tory kind of viewpoint. Or maybe 1930s unreconstructed Tory kind of viewpoint. And casting this as a matter of ‘sensitivity’ seems part and parcel with that.