Jeff Smith: Is the Romney Dog Story a Cheap Shot?

Was it fair when Al Gore – who actually had done more than just about any member of Congress to help make it happen – was pilloried for the line about “inventing the Internet” (despite it being a misquote)?

Fair when Gore was off by $50 or so in relating the price of his mother-in-law’s meds, and got castigated for it – even as Bush’s mostly unexamined references to his proposed tax cuts understated its size by $900 billion?

Of course not. Politics, like life, isn’t fair. The media – aided substantially by opposing campaigns – looks for a stylized fact that fits a developing narrative, and creates a caricature.

And it goes without saying that you couldn’t make up a story that better fits the narrative of a coldly (and cruelly) efficient Rombot than the Seamus story.

Point is, it’s not going away. Pet lovers vote – and even non pet-lovers find the story alarming. So I suspect you’ll see Dem-driven “protests” by dogs at Romney events throughout the summer and fall. And I suspect that they will overpower the concerted effort Romney and his family have been making for months to “humanize” Mitt via the contrived retelling of “warm, fuzzy Mitt” stories.

(Cross-posted, with permission of the author, from Politico’s Arena)