By R M Austin
It was only in recent times that American political scientists and commentators noticed an interesting phenomenon: the Romney campaign continued to run an ad on welfare which was universally condemned as false and misleading. The ad features a proposal by the Obama administration to permit the states the freedom and flexibility to design welfare programmes. In a memorandum to the states the Obama administration said in part that it, “will only consider approving waivers relating to work participation requirements that can make changes intended to lead to more effective means of meeting the work goals.”
These were waivers requested by the governors of several states, including Mitt Romney when he was Governor of Massachussets. The Democrats have shared the letter written by Romney to this effect to the entire media. But it does not take long to realize that in this particular election, given what is at stake, ‘truth’ is a casualty, and it is really a question of appealing in any way possible to the worst instincts of your supporters.
In short order the Romney camp produced an ad in which a voice says that “under Obama’s plan, you wouldn’t have to work and you wouldn’t have to train for a job. They just send you a check, and work goes back to being plain old welfare.” These words are related to a video in which white people are seen hard at work on various projects. The message is