Despite Taking a Major Ribbing Due to His Dog Meat Days, Obama Still Plans to Use Family Pooch Bo as a Campaign Tool

Sure, the Romney-is-cruel-to-dogs strategy backfired big time due to Obama's childhood chow-down on Chow-Chows (or whatever the pooch du jour was in Jakarta back then). But that's not preventing the Democratic campaign geniuses from using Obama family pet Bo (who, confession time, is far and away my favourite Obama) to try to elicit warm 'n' fuzzy feelings from potential voters. Such a strategy may (or may not) be good for the campaign in the wake of all the embarrassing canine-ingestion jokes, but a savvy and tender-hearted Jonathan S. Tobin poses a far more crucial question: is it good for Bo?:

None of this will decide the election, but if I were Bo, I’d be worried. Contrary to all those jokes on Twitter, I don’t think he’s in any danger of being eaten by his owner. But pets that are kept principally for their political appeal are likely to be cruelly discarded when they no longer serve that purpose. Socks the cat was a major figure in the Clinton White House though not part of the 42^nd president’s re-election campaign (and to his credit he also didn’t figure in any of Clinton’s personal scandals). However, when the Clintons left the White House they dumped Socks, giving him away to a secretary. But better that than ending up as an Indonesian snack.

And let's not even mention what happened to poor Buddy, the Clinton's hyper-exuberant chocolate lab.




Bo meet Buddy; Buddy meet Bo