Without any question, Mitt Romney is most amusing when he has to go la-la-la-I-can’t-hear-you at the cultural-issues antics of his party’s base. Check out this report from Politico‘s Ginger Gibson:
Mitt Romney refused to comment on two culture fights being waged by members of his own party.
At a news conference in Las Vegas, Romney wouldn’t weigh in on either the fight over comments by the president of the fast food restaurant Chick-fil-A over gay marriage or an effort spearheaded by Michele Bachmann calling for an investigation into Huma Abedin and alleged Muslim Brotherhood infiltration of the federal government.
“Those are not things that are part of my campaign,” Romney said.
He also wouldn’t say whether he thinks members of his party talking about those issues are a distraction.
“I’m not going to tell other people what to talk about,” Romney said.
Yeah, Mitt, you better not.
His agnosticism on Chick-fil-A must be especially galling to “the base.” I mean, this is just the juiciest target for the cultural conservatives who dominate the GOP you could ever imagine, a chance to lash out simultaneously at (a) sodomites, (b) Christ-hating secularists, (c) meat-hating hippie vegan animal rights advocates, (d) nanny-state health fanatics, (e) class-envy disparagers of “job creators,” and (f) “Chicago,” that mythical land of Alinskyite community organizers and thugs whose Democrat Socialist mayor lashed out at the good Christian chicken purveyors. Moreover, to the extent that some liberals were actually talking about preventing Chick-fil-A from doing business (instead of, as they should have, leaving it up to consumers and anti-discrimination lawyers), the brouhaha was a far better and more vivid subject for “war on religion” paranoia than insurance regulations governing contraception coverage.
But Mitt won’t go there at all, at least until his pollsters tell him too. Even as his most loyal supporters treat this election cycle as marking the Final War for the Preservation of Civilization, the candidate himself continues to pretend it’s all about GDP growth and out-year budget estimates. It’s just ha-larious.
