Of the three major networks, only ABC's Good Morning America
on Wednesday covered the "dog wars" counterattack by Mitt Romney's
operatives.
Co-anchor George Stephanopoulos highlighted that the
campaign is "tweeting around a picture of the President and
trying to focus on a revelation he made in his memoir, that he actually
tried dog when he was a young boy in Indonesia."
CBS This Morning and NBC's Today both skipped the
story. The Romney team used the dog-eating revelation from Obama's book
to hit back on Democratic complaints that the Republican once put his
dog on the car roof during a vacation. On January 31, 2012, Today made sure to bring up that liberal talking point.
Reporter
Peter Alexander explained, "...David Axelrod, the president's senior
campaign strategist, tweeted this photo of the president with his dog Bo
inside the car. Axelrod's caption, 'How loving owners transport their
dogs.'"
Yet, so far, Today has avoided this latest revelation in what Stephanopoulos called "the dog wars."
GMA covered the story, though correspondent Jon Karl didn't seem too
happy about it. He pointed out that the dog eating occurred when the
President "was only a kid" in Indonesia." He added glumly, "But I think
the dog wars, George, unfortunately are here."
Stephanopoulos, a former Democratic operative turned journalist,
hopefully concluded, "Yeah, maybe they'll cycle through quickly."
On Tuesday, GMA played clips of World News anchor Diane Sawyer grilling Romney about his late dog Seamus.
A transcript of the April 18 GMA segment can be found below:
7:01
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Also, boy, on the presidential campaign. Last week, we had the mommy wars. This
week, it's the dog wars. You've seen the Obama campaign trying to make
hay out of Seamus, the Romney family dog who spent some time on the roof
of the car in a trip. Well, now, the Romney campaign is fighting back.
They're tweeting around a picture of the President and trying to focus
on a revelation he made in his memoir, that he actually tried dog when
he was a young boy in Indonesia.
ROBIN ROBERTS: I'm sorry?
STEPHANOPOULOS: The President tasted dog when he was a young boy.
ROBERTS: Oh, we've gone there.
STEPHANOPOULOS: We're going there. We're also going to have the latest on the vice presidential search this morning.
...
7:13
STEPHANOPOULOS:
Politics now. Your voice, your vote and the race for the White House
really heating up. We're going to get to the dog wars that broke out
overnight. But, first, Mitt Romney is shifting his search for a running
mate into high gear. ABC's Jon Karl is all over that for us. And you
have the first inklings of who may be on the short list.
JON KARL: That's right. Let's start with the top tier, the most
serious candidates. At the top of that list, Senator Rob Portman, from
the critical state of Ohio. He's twice been a cabinet official. He's
also been in the House and the Senate, arguably the most qualified
person on the list. Next to him, you see Marco Rubio, rock star for Tea
Partiers and conservatives at at a time when Republicans are seeing
support among Hispanics crater. He could actually deliver his acceptance
speech in Spanish. And, George, the surprise on my list, top tier, Jeb
Bush, the former but still popular governor from Florida. He is somebody
who Romney likes so much, that he said if Jeb run for president, that
Romney himself might not have run. And then quickly, the second tier
includes a lot of governors, including Chris Christie of New Jersey,
Mitch Daniels of Indiana, Bob McDonnell of Virginia and then, as you see
there, Congressman Paul Ryan.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Boy, that really would be something if he could
convince Jeb Bush to run with him. We'll be watching that closely. But
there's been a lot of talk about the possibility that Mitt Romney would
pick a woman to help close that huge gender gap he has with President
Obama.
KARL: Yeah. The problem for Republicans is there just aren't a lot of
high-profile women in public office right now. But two that can get
looked at. One, Kelly Ayotte. She is a senator from New Hampshire, the
former attorney general of New Hampshire. Very close to Romney. And a
much more of a long shot but somebody who I think will get
consideration, Governor Mary Fallin of Oklahoma. George, she right now
is one of the most popular governors in the country.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Boy, that's a new one. Let's get to these dog
wars that broke out overnight. There was a report in a paper that- going
back to President Obama's revelation that he had tried dog when he was a
young boy in Indonesia. And the Romney campaign really pounced on that.
KARL: Uh, yeah. No doubt. This became sort of a Twitter war. The first
move came from Eric Fehrnstrom, one of Romney's top advisers. He
retweeted something that had been sent out earlier by the - by David
Axelrod, a photograph with Bo, you see it with the President, saying "in
hindsight, a chilling photo." That prompted a response from Chicago,
from the election headquarters of President Obama. His spokesman for his
reelection campaign, Ben LaBolt saying, "What next? @EricFerhn and the
RNC will surface? What will they attack on a six to ten year old?"
Of course, you know, he was only a kid when he was in Indonesia and
this happened. But I think the dog wars, George, unfortunately are here.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Yeah, maybe they'll cycle through quickly.
-- Scott Whitlock is the senior news analyst for the Media Research Center. Click here to follow him on Twitter.
