As Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, got set to receive the crown this week in Tampa as the Republican presidential candidate, there was a nasty stink in the air.

As Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, got set to receive the crown this week in Tampa as the Republican presidential candidate, there was a nasty stink in the air.

The stench came from rotten political garbage the Romney campaign has been throwing into an admittedly already dirty campaign for the White House.

Probably the worst has come in the form of television commercials which the Romney campaign is airing that involve an entirely false claim: that President Barack Obama has decided to eliminate or, at the very least, weaken the work requirement of the welfare reform act which then President Bill Clinton signed into law in 1996.

The truth, as all who have checked into it assert, is that Mr. Obama has merely agreed to allow states to get waivers from the work requirement if they can accomplish the goal of getting people off welfare through some other acceptable means. Such waivers are permitted by the reform law and the White House has said, without challenge, that they were requested by both Democratic and Republican governors.

Still, the Romney campaign commercials continue to stink up the air and advisers to the GOP presidential contender are insisting that it is working. Whether that is so remains to be seen. What is not in dispute is the reason for airing the falsehood.

That reason can be seen in one of the commercials showing a young white man hard at work with the message that the fruits of his labor will go towards paying out welfare checks. No need to guess who will get the checks.

It is a most blatant appeal to race, in the vein of Ronald Reagan and his “welfare queen” slander, George H.W. Bush’s use of the case of paroled murderer Willie Horton against Michael Dukakis and Jesse Helms airing the “White Hands” commercial against a black challenger, Harvey Gantt.

Why is such a tactic used? Because it works. It appeals to the basest instincts of white America and Mr. Romney and his people know he will not defeat Mr. Obama unless he can amass considerable votes from whites since the so-called minority votes are already spoken for. So, even though the claim is false, the ad still runs.

But is this the way really for Republicans or anyone to continue to pursue power, by dividing Americans along race lines? It certainly would not have seemed to be a Mitt Romney tactic – not the Mitt Romney pre-Obama. Now, though, he is already deeply beholden to billionaires seeking to buy the keys to the White House, while casting himself as the savior of the white race.

It is disgusting.

If this is what it takes to win the presidency, what is the true cost of that victory?