From Oz to Bethlehem: Romney's Post Election Take (Or, Gifts that Keep on Giving)

According to a post in The Caucus blog in the New York Times Mitt Romney attributed his recent election loss to the fact that President Obama had “followed the ‘old playbook’ of wooing specific interest groups — ‘especially the African-American community, the Hispanic community and young people,’ with gifts. 

Wow, are we still doing new versions of the 47 percent and  “makers and takers” even after the election? Apparently so.  A Romney breakdown of the “gifts” given to the various groups by President Obama:

To young [white] people, “a forgiveness of college loan interest was a big gift,” said Romney. An added gift was Obamacare since it “also made a difference for them, because as you know, anybody now 26 years of age and younger was now going to be part of their parents’ plan, and that was a big gift to young people.”

To young college-aged [white] women in particular: “Free contraceptives were very big with young college-aged women.”

To black and Latino voters:  healthcare, because “[y]ou can imagine for somebody making $25,000 or $30,000 or $35,000 a year, being told you’re now going to get free health care, particularly if you don’t have it, getting free health care worth, what, $10,000 per family, in perpetuity, I mean, this is huge.”

To Latinos in particular: “amnesty for children of illegals, the so-called Dream Act kids, was a huge plus for that voting group.”

When I read the report of Romney's comments I thought maybe this was some kind of comedic riff, perhaps a take-off on The Wizard of Oz where young white women, young white men, blacks and Latinos, in the guise of Dorothy, the tin man, the scarecrow and the lion, are all in a self-satisfied post election haze, not because of magic poppies, but because each has received the gifts of their hearts’ desires from Obama the Magic Negro, er, wizard. 

Or, maybe, I thought, this almost being the Season, perhaps this was an inverted, postmodern retelling of the Nativity story where there is one magi, played by Obama, and where there is no gold, frankincense or myrrh. Instead, Magi Obama gives three gifts to not one but three infants: young white people, blacks and Latinos. They all turn out to be political babes in mangers instead of the political babes in the woods that the Romney people thought they were. Those babes are politically anointed ones and grow up into a full-fledged holy electoral triumvirate.  

It’s kind of hard to know if we’re in Oz or Bethlehem; either could work I suppose.