After The Washington Post published a story Thursday about some of Mitt Romney’s teenage antics, and hinted that the former Massachusetts governor might have targeted a fellow student because he was gay, LGBT issues are on the presidential race’s front-burner.
On Sean Hannity’s radio show on Thursday, conservative commentator Ann Coulter, author of “Demonic: How the Liberal Mob Is Endangering America,” challenged the political wisdom of such a move from the Democratic side, saying that while it might not help Obama, it won’t hurt him either.
It just appeared to be desperation, she said.
“I haven’t read The Washington Post article, but I think it would be discriminatory if Mitt Romney did not play pranks on gays, just the way he plays them on non-gays,” Coulter said. “And I don’t know, back then, how many people were all that aware of it? But Mitt Romney is known for being a prankster. I don’t think this issue is going to help Obama much. It is just that it is not going to hurt him as much as it would hurt a non-half-black Democrat. I think this whole thing is a lot like — it’s such a sign of desperation.”
Coulter compared Obama’s revelation that he supports same-sex marriage rights to remarks former President Bill Clinton made after raising taxes in 1993: “It might surprise you to know that I think I raised them too much, too,” Clinton said in October 1995.
That, said Coulter, put Democrats who voted for the tax increases in a tough position, just as Obama’s announcement will hurt Democrats in tough races, like one familiar Missouri Democratic senator.
“Blacks will still vote for him,” Coulter added, “but they won’t vote for Claire McCaskill.”
“She’s in a tough race: a Democrat in Missouri, and I hope she loses. But she can’t come out for gay marriage. And so, you know, this shows a level of desperation that Obama is saying ‘I have just got to get re-elected and I don’t care what happens to the down-market Democrats. I’m going to screw them six ways from Sunday, but it will help me.’”