GOP alpha dog Mitt will lead us astray

By: Daisy

If there's one canine concept you humans love to use, it's the idea of an "Alpha Dog."
This means a mover and shaker who can take charge, seize the initiative and lead the pack. Am I an Alpha Dog? Do you even need to ask? My human friend Rich once admitted to a passer-by on the bike path after I had gently indicated which way I wanted to go: "She sets the pace."
Well, you humans might not know that there are two kinds of alpha dogs ... good ones, and bad ones. I got to know both types through my experiences with the kindly folks at Westie Rescue. I met benevolent "Earth Mother" Westies who tried to make sure each member of the pack got treated fairly ... and Machiavellian Westies who got into barking battles with me and wolfed down my food before I could get to it.
This week, one of the Republicans who wants to be president, Mitt Romney, has been trying very hard to act like an alpha dog. My question is, does he want to be a good alpha or a bad one? Alas, I think I know the answer.

After winning three primaries on Tuesday -- Wisconsin, Maryland and DC -- Mitt woofed it up against President Obama. "He does not want to share his real plans before the election, either with the public or with the press," Mitt told the Newspaper Association of America on Wednesday. "By flexibility, he means that 'what the American public doesn't know won't hurt him.' He is intent on hiding. You and I will have to do the seeking."
Like the Westie who once intimidated me from my food dish, one way to be an alpha dog is to bark aggressively. And being vocal is something Mitt does consistently well. (Believe me, once I learned to my dismay that a man who drove with his dog atop the family car was running for president, I followed his campaign closely.) Last August, responding to a questioner during the Iowa primary campaign, he snapped, "Corporations are people, my friend." Last October, he lectured rival Rick Perry in a Nevada debate, saying, "You have a problem with allowing someone to finish speaking, and what I would suggest, and if you want to become President of the United States, you've gotta let both people speak, so let me speak." Now we have Mitt getting in-your-face with the President.
These comments reveal Mitt as the wrong kind of alpha dog -- a Machiavelli, not an Earth Mother. He will attack everybody and everything in his quest to lead the pack. He will even turn against the universal health-care plan he created. "If I'm the godfather of this thing, then it gives me the right to kill it," he is quoted as saying in Time magazine this week.
It is up to President Obama to lead by (positive) example if he wants to counter Mitt's alpha-dog offensive in Campaign 2012.

Daisy is a 9-year-old West Highland white terrier living in Cambridge, Mass. Her column appears regularly.