Much has been made over the years about Mitt Romney’s decision to place the family dog Seamus in a pet carrier and strap him to the top of the family’s car during a 12-hour drive from Boston to Canada in 1983.
The story was discussed again Monday when Ann Romney told ABC’s Diane Sawyer “the dog loved” traveling that way. “He would see that crate and, you know, he would, like, go crazy because he was going with us on vacation. It was to me a kinder thing to bring him along than to leave him in the kennel for two weeks.”
Democrats haven’t been shy about reminding the American people of the tale.
In January, Obama adviser David Axelrod tweeted a picture of the president with first dog Bo in a car and talked about how “loving owners transport their dogs.”
And now the Romney campaign has signaled it’s not about to cede any ground when it comes to a candidate’s prowess as a pet owner.
Top Romney adviser Eric Fehrnstrom, re-tweeted Axelrod’s original message with a different take on Obama petting Bo.
“In hindsight, a chilling photo.”
It all began, according to ABC News’ Jake Tapper, with a Daily Caller story about the dog-eating, which Obama wrote about in his book “Dreams from my Father.” The president recalls being fed dog meat as a young boy in Indonesia with his stepfather, Lolo Soetoro.
“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),” the president wrote. “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.”
The Obama campaign shot back, saying the Romney team was attacking a child, since the president was a kid when he ate the dog meat.
“What’s the next attack @EricFehrn and the RNC will surface on a 6-10 year old?” Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt tweeted.
