The Democratic National Committee (DNC) said Thursday that it would refrain from using the Romney's dressage horse, Rafalca, in future advertisements after suggestions the ad could be offensive to the Republican challenger's wife, Ann.
The horse, which will be competing later this month in London's Summer Olympics, is one of a number of animals that Ann Romney owns and rides as part of her treatment for multiple sclerosis.
In a series of Web ads, the DNC used the horse to knock Romney for refusing to release his tax records — joking he was "dancing around the issue." Dressage, a highly technical — and expensive — equestrian sport, is sometimes referred to as "horse ballet.
But on Wednesday, the DNC apologized for offending Ann Romney, who has cited horse riding as a crucial part of her MS treatment.
The Weekly Standard cites an even more bizarre ad, which attacks Romney for quoting Obama's "You didn't build that" line:
"Mitt Romney is launching a false attack," the ad's text states. But the weird thing is: The Obama campaign is purposefully trying to make it sound like Romney is misquoting the president, when the official White House transcript backs up Romney's quotation.Arguably, the president meant to say something different, but drawing attention to the gaffe is not going to work to his advantage.
In the ad, Romney says that Obama revealed his thoughts on business when he said this, "If you’ve got a business -- you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen."
And, in fact, according to official White House transcript that's precisely what Obama said on July 13, 2012 in Roanoke, Virginia.
