In case you missed it, the big story the last few days has been the pernicious and bigoted calls in Iowa about Mitt Romney's Mormon beliefs, and the subsequent flurry to find out who is responsible.
Jim Geraghty's analysis is, unfortunately, exactly right:
So far, I think the who-made-the-anti-Romney-calls question has turned into a massive Rorschach Test for the righty political blogosphere.
If you dislike McCain, you think it's McCain. Nevermind that the Arizona Senator has about a billion better ways to spend the limited financial resources he has than to try a stunt like this. You look at his mother's comments about Mormons and see the definitive clue. (I'm just gonna note that the traditional schoolyard taunt doesn't work in a situation like this, because in a family like the McCain's, with generations of military service, John McCain's mom probably does wear combat boots.)...
The question of who's behind the calls has quickly turned into, who do you trust least? Who do you think is the most likely to make an underhanded move at a time like this? Who has the least benefit of the doubt in your mind, and who are you quickest to accuse
Me? Well, no secret, I'm thinking some deep-pocketed liberal like George Soros. ;)
Where the ellipsis is, he goes through the other candidates as well, so I don't mean to imply that he singles out those who are opposed to McCain.
Geraghty may be giving the left a little too much credit for forseeing the turmoil such calls would prompt on the right, but if he ends up being correct--and at this point, it's all guesswork--such a move could backfire by reminding a currently fragmented blogging community (each around his respective candidate) of the ultimate need for unity against the left, much as the infamous "General Betray-us" ad galvanized and energized the Right.
Matthew Lee Anderson
Matthew Lee Anderson is an Associate Professor of Ethics and Theology in Baylor University's Honors College. He has a D.Phil. in Christian Ethics from Oxford University, and is a Perpetual Member of Biola University's Torrey Honors College. In 2005, he founded Mere Orthodoxy.
