I was so blown away by this latest ad from the Healey camp, that I had to ask myself why the issue of Deval Patrick's connection to anything at all having to do with the topic of rape has become the undisputed major theme of the Healey for governor ad campaign. 

In the latest ad, the camera becomes a proxy for a rapist stalking a woman in a dark parking garage.  We could be forgiven for asking if this proxy is standing in for Patrick (the obvious assumption), or the Healey campaign.  Healey is way behind Patrick with women, and this is an obvious attempt on Healey's part to grab them from behind, and scare them into voting for her instead.

And it's not because Healey has anything to say on the issue of rape in general. I want to emphasize that Healey has not given any facts about rape in Massachusetts, or come out one way or another in any major speech on how to deal with rape, its causes or consequences.

She has not shown concern for the issue of violent crime, so much as she has merely exploited Patrick's defense of one rapist. She proposes nothing in her ads, only hammers home an association in the minds of viewers between Patrick and a convicted rapist. Patrick...rapist. Patrick...rapist. Patrick...rapist. Get it?

But why has rape become the Healey campaign's idée fixe? I think the first reason is simple: It's the demographics, stupid. Women are going gaga for Deval. Healey needs to plant seeds of doubt about his character in their minds.

It also fits nicely with the more general message of the Healey campaign, which is that if Patrick, a Democrat, is elected governor, he and his Democratic gangbangers in the state legislature will, in effect, rape the treasury of Massachusetts in an orgy of tax and spend-thriftery.

But there's another insidious factor that we don't talk about, and that's race. The math is simple. Healey is a white woman running against a black man.

As tawdry and tasteless as it is, I think this is why the Healey campaign has been so relentless in trying to connect Patrick with rape. She has all but accused him of committing it himself.

And the strategy is fail-safe, because for Patrick to counter with any suggestion of racism in the Healey camp would be deemed tawdry and tasteless on his part, because the racism is implicit. (The Patrick campaign did in fact send out a test balloon in the early days of the campaign, and it was blasted out of the sky immediately.)

If the Healey ads were issue-based and fact-related, that would be one thing. But a dramatic spot featuring a white woman being stalked in a dark parking garage, turning to face her attacker with horror in her eyes, with the message that Deval Patrick should be ashamed, not governor?

Hmm. Subtle.