My (admittedly jaundiced) opinion of these rape stories is that they are being used as the shiny bobble; they are the “hey, look over there” tools for those who don’t want to address the underlying issues behind the concerns over financing and wealth and social disparity.

The right wing needs a new bogeyman because the Obama-as-Mancurian-Candidate just doesn’t grip anymore simply because after 3 years in office President Obama has turned out (to the chagrin of real progressives) to be a pretty middle-of-the-road manager type without anything nasty coming up for all the digging into his background or any serious scandal in office.

So, OWS will fill in as the bogeyman for now.