Rick Perry’s new ad, apart from the obvious homophobia (“there’s something wrong in this country when gays can serve openly in the military but our kids can’t openly celebrate Christmas or pray in school”) is trying to goad Democrats into doing something stupid:
The Perry campaign must think it’s tapping into a lingering anxiety among Democrats that they are perceived as anti-religion. “I’ll end Obama’s war on religion,” a phrase possibly more ridiculous than the “war on Christmas.” Did Obama forget to cuddle with a plastic baby Jesus on Christmas? Is his middle name Hussein? Did he neglect to bow to Newt Gingrich’s demand that he agree that the Declaration of Independence is divinely ordained? Did he cross paths with an imam? Does he go to the right kind of church?
The efforts of Perry’s acolytes to portray Mitt Romney as belonging to a cult didn’t exactly pay off for him. Now he’s trying out the Obama-isn’t-a-real-Christian gig.
Democrats shouldn’t react to this by making a show of how faithy they are. Perry’s grasping at straws.
