Be anything, but don't be doubtful.

Things aren't going so well for Mitt Romney these past few days, by any measure.  The general media consensus seems to be that he is losing the election.  The conservatives have started a drum beat designed to give him some pointers and an ultimatum.  He got some sound(bite) advice from Sarah Palin. 

And then the bottom fell out.

Protests turned violent in Libya on Tuesday night.  A group of heavily armed men attacked the consulate in Benghazi. When the smoke cleared, 4 Americans where dead including American Ambassador Chris Stevens.  

Shortly before the smoke cleared, Romney was at a microphone condemning the Obama's administrations first response to the violence.  The problem was, the statement he was condemning did not come from Obama.  It came from the US Embassy in Cairo.  In fact, the statement in question happened *before* the violence cost the lives of the Americans at the consulate.  Romney's comments come a full 2 hours before the end of the pre-determined pause in campaign statements in deference to the 11th anniversary of 9/11.  There's a really good timeline here.

To recap, Romney spoke before the end of the 9/11 "campaign embargo." And when he did speak, he got it all wrong.  And then, in an amazing display of ... something, Mr. Romney reiterated his known to be false statements, the next morning at another press conference.  I am sure that went over really well.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/101757272

There are really two things here that have caught my interest, as it relates to the media and the election.  

The Words

The language from the talking heads that has popped up again and again around Romney's criticism all reflect images of gambling.  He went all in.  He doubled down on the criticism of the Obama administration.  It can't help but make you wonder if they're going somewhere with this.  It doesn't just feel like a coincidence.  Could it be because of the Clinton speech from the DNC saying that Romney will "double down on trickle down?"  I might want to watch this over the next few months.

The Pictures

The image above is just one example of the pictures I am talking about.  I don't mean the images of the violence, I mean the press photos of Romney smiling paired with phrases that are meant to plant a seed of doubt around Romney because of this gaffe.  These are not coming from news sources, but are being distributed via shares on Facebook.  Here's another one:  

And one more:

I wonder if this is the next wave of political cartooning.  Although, some of those have been wonderful, too.

Cartoon Source: Newsday