The Truth Hurts - Presidential Ambitions

By TRB, Columnist - How is that you can run for President of the United States today and not be asked how you could spend the first 31 years of your life in an openly racist religion? Ask Mitt Romney. who has been sucessfully avoiding that question from members of the major media, whom, although they know it is true, have decided not to ask it. As pointed out before in this column, Romney was a Mormon back in the days when Blacks could not be Mormon priests because they were not deemed worthy. It wasn't until 1978 that the Mormons even changed the racist policy, and they have never once apologized for it. Mr. Romney is still a Mormon. How did Romney feel. as a man, belonging to a religious organization that was racist? Did he try to change the policy from within the church, or did he just go with the flow? Did he agree with the racist Mormon Church policy when it was on the books? Did he disagree when it was changed to allow Blacks to become priests? These are questions that Romney should have to answer. At least that is what you would think. Didn't Obame have to answer a million questions in 2008 simply because his pastor's political views were deemed "radical?"

Yes he did. The questions almost took him right out of the race. So why is the media holding back on Romney? How does this double standard occur, and what does it illustrate? First, It plainly and clearly defines the news media itself as racist. Journalists who will gladly jump all over Obama for some rermark made by his pastor - a remark Obama did not even hear, are the same journalists who would not think of asking Romney what, if anything, he thought about the very open and public racism of the Mormon church when he was 30 years old and climbing the Mormon leadership ladder.

Of course it is more than just racism that dictates the behavior of the major new media. You must remember that they are in the business of selling things, more than they are into news. Maybe they don't want to risk offending their buying audience or advertisers with the truth. As most Americans know, the major news media in the U.S. will sell the truth down the river in a minute - if the payoff is large enough.

Romney is so certain, so comfortable in his position as the guy who doesn't have to worry about questions of race, that he can afford to run campaign ads that are so full of racist code language that one can't miss it. It seems that any day now the black woman with her "welfare Cadillac" will appear or maybe another racist Willie Horton ad like Bush The First ran way back then.

The really shocking thing about Romney is that he couldn't find a racist wedge in his quest to win the White House. So he made one up. The ad has played all over the country and in Massachusetts. It is an ad that tells a lie. The news media say it is a lie. The economists say it is a lie. Everyone agrees it is a lie. But like most of the current campaign ads for both parties around the country, the truthfulness of the ad is irrelevant. The real question is - is it effective? Is it moving our numbers?

The racial code in Romney's ad is obvious. The ad claims that Obama plans to drop work requirements for welfare recipients. This is not true. Its purpose is all that matters - to conjure up the old image of the "welfare Cadillac," appealing to working-class white guys who Romney needs. In fact, he needs just about all of them to get into the White House. So, by his standards, apparently, the lie is worth it. The problem with this lie is that, even the U.S, news media wouldn't let him get away with it. Still, he runs this totally false - and racist-motivated - political ad.

Maybe it bothers Romney that a man, who just several decades ago would not have been eligble for priesthood in Romney's church, because of his color, is now the President of the United States. We will never know how Romney feels about the racist policies of his church while he was an adult. And many will not even know that such policies ever existed. Our major news media has decided that these issues are not worth knowing.