Mitt Romney decided to shake up a very slow Friday by cracking a joke about birth certificates on the campaign trail (“joke” is being used in the loosest sense of the word). Within minutes, the Obama campaign hysterically declared that he had fully embraced the birther movement:
“I love being home in this place where Ann and I were raised, where both of us were born,” [Romney] said. “Ann was born at Henry Ford hospital, I was born at Harper hospital. No one has ever asked to see my birth certificate. They know that this is the place that we were born and raised.” …
In a statement responding to Romney’s comments, Obama campaign press secretary Ben LaBolt mentioned Trump and others who have raised the birth certificate issue previously.
“Throughout this campaign, Governor Romney has embraced the most strident voices in his party instead of standing up to them,” LaBolt said. “It’s one thing to give the stage in Tampa to Donald Trump, Sheriff Arpaio, and Kris Kobach. But Governor Romney’s decision to directly enlist himself in the birther movement should give pause to any rational voter across America.”
There’s a long way between telling a stupid joke and “directly enlist[ing] in the birther movement,” a group of fringe crazies who believe Obama is lying about being born in the United States and has carried out an elaborate cover-up. Romney has long denounced the birther conspiracies, and as Politico notes, Arpaio and Trump don’t have speaking slots at the convention. Romney didn’t even mention Obama in his comment.
Not to mention, Obama and his campaign have joked about his birth certificate on numerous occasions, and currently sell overpriced campaign merchandise mocking the conspiracy. “There’s really no way to make the conspiracy about President Obama’s birth certificate completely go away, so we might as well laugh at it,” says the Obama campaign website.
That seems to be what Romney was doing — or at least trying to do. His joke wasn’t very funny, and it probably wasn’t a smart topic to delve into, but it’s a desperate reach for the Obama campaign to claim he’s a birther.
Actually, i do not agree with Alana- it was a very good joke- a dig at Obama's "foreigness" and it is fighting back at the Obama's assertion that Romney somehow is "weird" and "out of touch"! Good for Romney!!! it shows he will take the fight to the enemy!
Alana, there are a lot of rational people that question why Obama released a very poor forgery for a birth certificate.
Nope there aren't. It's not a forgery. Sorry pal.
Romney's comments about "home" were typically middle American. He said it as he did as if to say, "hey, you can fill in what Michigan means to any of us as well as I can." He was also sharing the smile the feeling gave him with noting nobody could question his birth certificate if they could see into his heart about the state where he was born. What's in bad taste about that? If one wants to notice that if Obama has the love for Hawaii (or even just America) that is in Romney's heart, Obama could have put the birther attacks to bed long ago, well that's just the beginning of Obama's failures.
I am adamantly convinced that Obama was born in the United States. Who is the father listed on the certificate? That's the real question. But do I need to know this? Is it any of my business?
True, perhaps, but unrelated to Romney. You're right though — what's important is his philosophy and where he grew and how he grew up, not where he was born (aside from the technical legal issue). He either embraced that or rejected or part and part. But yes, how you relate to your childhood is part of hwo you are. It seems he rejected the Americans in his life and embraced the international side of his childhood. That is important.
I suspect you are adamantly convinced because you can't deep down come to grips with the thought that there lives and breaths someone egotistically strong enough to perpetuate the most monstrous fraud upon our republic since its founding. The official birth certificate displayed on the White House web site is a forgery. Surely "adamantly" melts in the presence of forgery.
Peggy Noonan offered this advice today: "Third, President Obama can't stand to be made fun of. His pride won't allow it, his amour propre cannot countenance a joke at his own expense. If Mr. Romney lands a few very funny lines about the president's leadership, Mr. Obama will freak out. That would be fun, wouldn't it?" I think Mitt's just trying to get inside Obama's head — and the immediate hysterical response suggests it's working.
This is *exactly* what Romney (or better yet his supporters) should be doing on a regular basis: poking fun at Obama and all of his many egoistic absurdities and shortcomings. Obama is never more transparently repulsive than when he is peeved, and he is always peeved when he feels slighted or ridiculed. It will cause alot of unforced errors on his part.
This is another case of the Obama campaign not having anything. Romney is hardly a birther.
Not that there is anything wrong with that.
Obama is the one that has fueled the Birther Movement because BarryO was th one that failed to provide the proper Birth Certificate – while I don't think specifically that the Birther movement is a winning issue – Obama could have just showed his college transcripts and records and we could have put these issue to bed. The fact that he hasn't has only put fuel on the fire.
Lucky it's Friday and many are on vacation. nOn another note when is Bloomberg going to disarm the police? n8 bystanders were victims of friendly fire at the ESB.
granny- THAT was a hysterically funny line- sell it to John Stewart!
Oh, puh-leeze, you're a joke, Alana.
It's true that Romney is no birther and so the hyper ventilation over his comment suggests two opposed things to me: 1. it was impolitic in raising the issue and therefore not helpful; or 2. it was calculated in order to draw that hyper ventialtion, which makes the Obama campaign look defensive, desperate, humorless and wildly ridiculous. n nThere may be other other explanations too of course. i like more than favor my latter view of the comment. n n
Place your bets on number 2. Romney and his team are not foolish. This was planned. They know Obama is likely to overreact.
Liberals have no sense of humor. n
I don't know – they thought it was funny when O called Palin a pig.
I have to confess that for a while I bought into the bitrther issue but I'm satisfied that Obama was born in Hawaii and furthermore believe that any discussion by or association with this issue and the Right is a net minus for us. Having said that, it was funny, I'm glad he said it, and here's the real test, Romney should not apologize for it. This joke and the 'Bless his heart' line serve to diminish Obama by ridiculing him. Once a politician becomes the object of ridicule he is much more easily defeated.
I am afraid the joke is on Mitt. To quell the fringe right, Obama has released his birth certificate. Fine, Mitt, now u produce YOUR documents (tax).
If Obama wasn't born here he can't be president, but we'd have no way fo knowing. If Romney didn't pay taxes he'd be in prison. The IRS audits the rich much more frequently than anybody else (for good reason — there's more pickings). If you just want confirmation that he makes a lot of money, he does. Does he pay double-tax when he has capital gains on money he already paid income tax on? He does.
The number one reason for the birther nonsense is the incredible ignorance regarding the price of air travel in the early 1960s. Many people foolishly think of today's low prices. In that era—only the very wealthy normally traveled by air. Obama's parents were barely paying their way through college. Two round trip tickets between Kenya and Hawaii would have probably cost the minimum of $11,000 in our present day inflated dollars.
The number one reason for the "birther onsense| is Obama's claim in his book that he was born on Kenya (or his publicist's claim or whatever). What you are doing is adding weight to the scale that he wasn't born in Kenya. Okay. I was agreeing with you, but explaining why there's a huge difference between trying to prove he was born in the US and Romney releasing only two years of taxes. We actually have a barracuda-like agency that chases people who don't pay taxes. There is no agency that chases people who weren't born in the US. Thank G-d.
And while I'm not a "birther," my dad borders on one and I have been unable to explain all of his questions which he throws at me because of my legal expertise. (Disclaimer I'm an appellate prosecutor.) The documents are weird, as are his college records, and as his SSN. I guess there's the birth announcement. So he was probably born where he now says he was and not where his book says he was. But he feels more kinship to ther coutnries than to the US and was a poor choice for any natonal position bmuch less president. As much as I think its cool we have a dark-skinned president, a better choice would have been an American born and bred with American parents and maybe slave roots, not someone born to hippie Leftisit white girl and Kenyan communist exchange student.
um, we have his long form & attestation of Hawaii state government.
Um his long form has been exhaustive proven to be a forgery and no one in the Hawaiian state government will attest that his long form known to the world is a photocopy of the one they claim they have which no one but they are permitted to see. How's that for an um?
oh please, surely you can't be calling the multi-layered photoshopped thing with fonts that didn't exist in 1961 a "birth certificate"…that thing that doesn't exist in microfiche, that no one will go on record as actually having seen the "hard copy"…. nand beyond that…there's always those pesky college transcripts. nWhen you spend 4 million dollars sealing your records, inquiring minds ponder the possibilities. nFodder for jokes.
how about Apollo moon landing with "technology" that didn't even exist in 1969–a fake shot in the studio right? The State of Hawaii is on record lord knows how many times saying they've seen it. 4 million dollars is it now that he spent? Maybe he's a robot. Oh wait, that would be Romney…
It doesn't seem that it was a joke — I think he was justsaying he and hsi wife had roots in the communities they grew up in (perhaps in contrast to Obama who traveled a lot and was an international child) growing up). Only a cynical Democrat or someone who is really guilty would see this as an attack on what hopsital Obama was born in. n nAnd yes, if it was a joke, it's a fine joke. But again, I don't think he was jokking as much as saying that they've got deep community roots and built them growing up.
It sure seems to me that the Obama camp is run by 'amateurs' or worse. They are incapable of restraint. They pounce on every opportunity like its their last. Frankly, they've beaten back the birth issue like they've got something to hide.
This just shows that Romney is a schmuck with no class.
Really? Then what about O's cracks about Palin and Romney, for example? Or Reid's McCarthyism? Or Pelosi's numerous insulting idiocies? I honestly don't understand the faux outrage among liberals over stuff like this. Talk about being able to dish it out but not take it.
If anyone has no class ,it is the whole slew of democrats, from harry reid, pelosi, debby wasserman, stephanie cutter, all the way up to the Holy One Himself!
Obama & his Chicago thugs love to over react to everything & this was an example. Obama and his goons don't mind lying about Romney's taxes and "off shore accounts" but when Romney gets in an a little dig at Prince Obama he just freaks out! They know they're losing the race and every little thing pushes them further over the edge…
I was at the rally today when Mitt told about the hospitals where he and Ann were born. Must of us from the Detroit area are familiar with these very large hospitals. He added the remark about their birth certificates, and the crowd had a good laugh and applauded. It was said in fun and we loved it!
I find the question of his SSN far more interesting. It belonged to a man who died before Obama was born. It's one number per person. Somebody did some fiddling.
Instead, Romney should have said, "Ann was born at Henry Ford hospital, I was born at Harper hospital," then paused a beat, picked up a sheet of paper and pointed at it and said, "I've got the birth certificate."
The Left coins derogatory terms which it uses to attack, intimidate and demonize those who disagree with their ideology and agenda. A 'birther' is someone who has doubts that Obama was born in the US. A 'racist' is someone who's white. An 'Uncle Tom' is a Black Conservative. Someone who objects to abortion-on-demand funded by the Federal Government is accused of a 'war against women', a 'Tea Bagger' is a person who opposes unlimited government and unlimited spending by government. What do you call a Leftist who makes these formulations, launches desperate attacks against its opposition, wants people to depend on government for their existence, to redistribute income and wealth from contributors to prosperity to those who envy it but want to share in it? I suggest we describe such people by the term 'Alinskyite' and use it in the same manner that the Left uses their favorite monikers.
Well said Len_Powder! From a marketing point of view Alinskyite doesn't have the punch of birther and uncle tom. How about neotraitor? Everybody knows what a traitor is and that it is bad. An old fashion traitor passes vital secrets to our declared enemies. Neotraitors work relentlessly to remove our freedoms.
What's your take on Homeland Security then?
6% of Americans feel Obama is the Acting President, not legally the President. This means 18 million Americans feel Obama is not legally the President. There are court cases on this issue, but judges refuse to rule, out of fear. Media people refuse to discuss all the issues out of fear. Scary!
What is the percentage of people who believe the world is flat? Who believe that BUsh knew about 9/11 before it happened? Who believe that Armstrong (RIP) never set on the Moon? Who believe that Climate Change is al a fake? Who believe that demons control their minds? Who believe that they hear voices on the wind? n n nWho believe that there is a Divine Mandate for Israel to exist? n nIf you're going to go with a majority rules game, you end up with a very slippery slope.
THERE IS A DIVINE MANDATE FOR ISRAEL TO EXIST! THANK GOD!
It is probably a joke, not too funny, but what I find frightening is not what Romney said but what k8ind of comments it elicited, here and elsewhere. I am afraid that COMMENTARY seems to have a great many birthers and racists among its readers, not loike the magazine to which I contributed 65 years ago.
Hersh – I get frustrated with some of the comments, too, but perhaps because I loathe Obama so much I am willing to consider the bigger context. I firmly believe O was born in HI, but come on, why didn't he just release the docs long, long ago? And then there is the author bio… nObama is a man of mystery. We really don't get the background info on him that we've already seen about Romney. nWith all the secrecy and game-playing, it is no wonder people get suspicious. nAt any rate, a lot of the comments here come from first-timers, so maybe you shouldn't jump to conclusions about Commentary's readership. You'll also notice that this blog entry has elicited far more comments than most.
well, dear grandpa, times have changed and so has your own old lin democratic party! to the worst!
Ever notice how Neoconservatives (mostly Jewish former Democrats and liberals all) go absolutely ballistic at any mention of Barry Dunham's origin? I find that curious, especially given the fact that we now know, Barry lied about where he was born on the publisher's publicity ad campaign. Gee, and the neocons still get upset at us dumb, middle Americans who wonder why all the obfuscation from Barry. n nI guess you'll have to use your superior Jewish brains to figure that one out……
now that is vintage anti-semitic talk!
It is only a matter of time (probably in late October) when El Presidente and his goons will find someone in their IRS bureaucracy who will provide them with an illicit copy of Romney's tax returns. The copy will then be silently passed along to some news outlet or other who will then publish the returns. Violations of privacy and breaking the law is no big deal to these Chicago thugs. Just hope Romney is ready for it.
Yeah sure fella. nWe just love your off-the-cuff attempts at "humor". nBut tell us more, Mitt. nWhy don't you explain to us nhow and why your More-mon-ey Grandpa npacked up and moved to live in Mexico… nin order to evade the oh-so-harsh nmonogamy laws back here in the good ole USA? nHmmm…it sure seems to me that YOUR family nhas a long HISTORY of various offshore nor foreign evasions of various types… nwhether they be birther-relatd, nor marital-related, nor tax-related. nWhatever. nWhy don’t you nshow us THOSE birth certificates, nAND foreign tax shelters, nAND secret Swiss accounts, nAND tax returns? nPeople like you Mitt, nwho live in multiple glass houses, nshould be very very careful when they start nslinging attack-humor stones, dear boy. nThey could backfire…
Yeah, Stan, I can understand why raising this kind of nonsense as a distraction is much more appealing to Obama's supporters than actually talking about how 4 years of Obama's presidency has left the USA worse off than it was when he took office, economically, internally, domestically, militarily and in its diplomacy and foreign relations. Desperation has a certain odor to it.