The Root) -- It has been a long and tortuous two weeks since the Republicans first began doing the happy dance and attaboying each other after the first presidential debate.

Their guy, Mitt Romney, had whipped that other guy like he owned him. The polls were indicating that Big Mo was on their side. And in the process of his punishing performance, Romney had confirmed what Republicans had been telling each other for four years: That fella occupying the White House was the nation's first affirmative action president and, by God, that historical disturbance would soon be over.

All that yee-hawing turned into one big whine and cheese party Tuesday night after the knock-down, drag-out debate, because The POTUS, The Commander-in-Chief, The Leader of the Free World, showed up on Long Island and, in no uncertain terms, demonstrated why Chief Executive Officers are a dime a dozen.

...

And harkening back to those dear old days of the antebellum South when slaves had to produce papers to prove they weren't runaways, America's first black president was forced last year to produced his birth certificate to prove he is not an illegal citizen. Maybe the optics of their treatment haven't fully occurred to Republicans. Or maybe they don't care. But if the most powerful man on the planet, who happens to be black, can't get their respect, what does that say to the rest of the nation's 42 million African Americans?

Here's hoping that as the president serves his second term, Republicans will give that a second thought.


http://www.theroot.com/views/mitt-romney-and-politics-disrespect?page=0,2