The dog days of campaigning

As we gather our collective breath after surviving the long, arduous GOP presidential primary season and set our sights on the upcoming general election, we need to take a break and have some fun. And last night, the Daily Caller blogger known as "Jim Treacher" gave us something to laugh about.

Treacher was responding to the old story that keeps popping up along the campaign trail about the Romneys and their Irish setter Seamus. If you haven't heard the tale, it involved strapping a crate containing the dog on the roof of the family station wagon for a vacation trip to Canada in 1983. (The "incident" even has its own Wikipedia entry.)

The left love to use the story as a prime example as to why Mitt Romney is unlikeable, uncaring and, they hope, unelectable. For example, a couple of months ago Obama reelection communications director David Axelrod tweeted the photo above, noting, "How loving owners transport their dogs." It has even spawned organized efforts to spread the word that "Mitt is mean!"

And it's back in the news and top of mind again this week, thanks to Diane Sawyer's "exclusive interview" with the Romneys. It was what my in-laws were talking about last night as we celebrated my wife's birthday. But after the last bite of birthday cake had been washed down with decaf, I fired up the computer and discovered the news from Treacher about this year's other presidential candidate and a dog story from his distant past in his own words:

"With Lolo, I learned how to eat small green chill peppers raw with dinner (plenty of rice), and, away from the dinner table, I was introduced to dog meat (tough), snake meat (tougher), and roasted grasshopper (crunchy). Like many Indonesians, Lolo followed a brand of Islam that could make room for the remnants of more ancient animist and Hindu faiths. He explained that a man took on the powers of whatever he ate: One day soon, he promised, he would bring home a piece of tiger meat for us to share" (Dreams from My Father).

That posting set conservative creative minds afire, as Twitter lit up with clever takes on #ObamaAteADog and #ObamaDogRecipes. Twitchy has a nice summary of some of the better ones, including this one from Treacher:

Q: Why did @MittRomney put his dog on top of the car? A: So @BarackObama wouldn't eat it. #WeWillNotBeSilenced #GenK9

Predictably, the left didn't like it, calling the jokes "silly" and "stupid," or even an "attack," "classless," and a "new rightwing Obama is weirdo Muslim dog eater meme."

Lighten up, folks, and have some fun. No one is condemning the commander in chief for his canine culinary past; they were, as Sheriff Andy Taylor used to say to Deputy Barney Fife, "just funnin'."

Remember Ecclesiastes 3: "For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven … a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance. …"

So let's take time to laugh now … while we can.