Romney Gets Nasty

Mitt Romney has posted an attack ad on his website that chastises Texas Gov. Rick Perry for his decision to grant the children of undocumented workers access to the state's public universities at in-state tuition rates. I gotta tell ya: The ad is brilliant at achieving its aim, but creepy in the way it reduces former Mexican President Vincent Fox to a tool to rile up the GOP base. President Fox was the first candidate to win the presidency of Mexico who did not belong to the PRI, the party that had controlled Mexico since the revolution. He had his failures in office, to be sure, but he helped turn Mexico from a one party state into a functioning, if challenged, democracy. He did this at no small risk to his personal safety: Lest we forget, another reformist candidate for the presidency, Luis Colosio, has been assassinated in 1994 when he ran.
In this ad, however, you have the sneaking suspicion that the only thing the Romney camp wanted from former President Fox was his heavy accent. It is shameless.