February 20, 2012 10:32 PM UTC

Sing True, Islamofascist Dog Whistle

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• by: Colorado Pols

CBS News:

The latest Gallup tracking poll of Republican voters finds Santorum leading Mitt Romney by eight points.

Over the weekend, Santorum attacked President Obama, and the Obama reelection campaign hit back.

For months, it’s focused its fire on Mitt Romney — believing he will be the Republican nominee. But over the weekend, for the first time, the Obama campaign took direct aim at the new front-runner, Rick Santorum — hitting him hard for something he didn’t really even say…

“It’s not about you,’ Santorum declared.”It’s not about your quality of life. It’s not about your jobs. It’s about some phony ideal. Some phony theology. Oh, not a theology based on the Bible — a different theology.” [Pols emphasis]

To be fair, Rick Santorum said on Sunday that he believes “the president is a Christian,” which means the “different theology” Santorum was talking about is…well, it’s apparently still Christian. But then you have to figure out why that doesn’t make any sense at all!

The thing about “blowing the dog whistle” is that only the target audience who responds to your otherwise distasteful message is supposed to hear it. And that’s a problem with the 24 hour news cycle that no Republican presidential candidate this year seems to be able to resolve. While the small primary target hears it, so does everybody else–and more are repulsed than won over.

At the very least, be like Ron Paul and keep this stuff to plausibly deniable newsletters.