Gotta shore up the wingnut base:
Mitt Romney made a birth certificate joke today, prompting President Obama’s campaign to accuse him of lining up with the so-called “birther” movement.
During an appearance in his native Michigan today, Romney said: “No one has ever asked to see my birth certificate — they know that this was the place we were born and raised.”
Some of President Obama’s most intense critics continue to question whether he was born in the United States, despite his 2011 production of a birth certificate from Honolulu.
Obama’s campaign quickly condemned the comments.
He really is such an asshole.
GregB
It’s time Mitt takes his campaign of hatred and division back to Kolob.
amk
Obama proved his birth history. Now let this cowardly asshole prove his tax history like Obama did with his tax history.
Dexter
But Mitt, we are still interested in your tax returns. OTOH, no one asked Obama to show his tax returns.
Dennis G.
I expect that he’ll be yelling “Nigger, Nigger, NIGGER!!!” any day now.
Fuck this guy.
He just keeps pissing me off.
Dennis G.
I think I’ll just go and make another donation to the President…
Legalize
Discussion of issues important to the American people!!!
Who will be the first serious journalist to bravely stand up for Mittens on this one? I got Tapper.
4tehlulz
Next up, assassination jokes.
MikeBoyScout
Desperation is what this is. If he had anything better he’d have gone with it.
tulip
He’s a coward and a snake. And the base he’s pandering to is even worse… stupid, hateful and willfully ignorant.
Multimoodia
You could see the microprocessor kick into gear and Willard saw an opportunity to be cute, clever and “funny.”
The guy really has no concept of self-awareness.
Darius
Yeah, that’s a pretty huge gaffe on Mitt’s part right there.
4tehlulz
@Dennis G.: He needs to save something for the convention.
Teddy's Person
Let me add the dog-whistle subtext:
“No one has ever asked to see my birth certificate—they know that this was the place we were born and raised [BECAUSE WE’RE WHITE].”
Yutsano
@Legalize: Tapper is the early favourite. Then BoBo will write a serious column about Burkean questions and how Willard isn’t truly engaging birferism. Then the Village will muse about how mean we’re being to poor Willard by asking him to defend his record.
This had better haunt him. You get the feeling he’d been wanting to say it for quite awhile.
Grey Ghost
I’m not sure who’s the bigger moron – Romney for making the comment, or Obama for taking it seriously. At any rate, you guys are way over the top in condemning him for it. It was a joke, for heaven’s sake. A bad one, but just a joke. Romney is not seriously lining up with the birthers, and if you really think so, “delusional” is too polite a word for you.
4tehlulz
BTW, I’m sure this was a coincidence:
Bex
@Dennis G.: My bet’s on the R convention for the first Ni-CLANG.
Hunter Gathers
Are we sure that he was born in Michigan? We can’t be 100% sure that he wasn’t born in Mexico or planet Kolob or that he’s not the end result of a 200 year breeding experiment taken up by the Mormon hierarchy in order to birth the first Mormon president unless he releases his birth certificate. Is his middle name even Mitt, as he claims?
Tom65
They’re not even trying to win over independents, are they?
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@4tehlulz: Yep, that’s why Mittens is planing on going about his Mormon faith.
danimal
If this is where he needs to go before the convention, he’s in a world of trouble. What’s next: Rev Wright? The Whitey Tape?
4tehlulz
Right about now I think he needs to prove he’s actually George Romney’s son.
Hal
Sorry folks, but Obama made a mean joke about Seamus the roof dog, so since both sides do it…
What kills me about Trump is that I don’t believe for a minute he actually believes this birther bullshit. He’s selling a reality show and trying to make like he’s a relevant and powerful politician, of which he his neither. Romney is a fool for being played by such an fake.
Quincy
@Teddy’s Person: That’s it. How can he not see the obvious punchline, or at least premise of the joke? “Cuz I’m not black, Hahahahahaha. Ahhh, that’s a good one. Get it? Not black. I crack myself up sometimes.”
ChrisNYC
I saw Halperin on tv shortly after this happened. Ear to ear smile. Not kidding.
That’s why the welfare lie doesn’t get called out, I think. They LIKE this crap. They think it’s ballsy and it turns them on.
Dexter
BTW, Mitt’s father was born in Mexico. That should mean that Mitt is an anchor baby according to GOP talking point. May be we should see…..Is it irresponsible to speculate?
NancyDarling
The smell of flop sweat emanating from the repubs is delicious. Well, not really, but it does bring joy and celebration.
Jeff Spender
@danimal:
I’m surprised that they haven’t trudged up that old con man Larry Sinclair and his assertions of gay sex and coke. It fits in so neatly with the narrative they’d like to construct about Obama.
I mean, the Republican party is being led by a con man, so why not bring another into the fold?
dww44
Since Cole has thoughtfully put up a couple of posts since I made this comment in the last Open Thread, I’m gonna re post my comment about the TNC long article at the Atlantic.
I keep waiting for JC to have his own open thread, as I would like to hear him respond to what TNC posts in the upcoming Atlantic September issue about the impact of Obama’s Presidency and his apparent timidity in addressing issues of race. Very thoughtful and insightful commentary, and to some a bit of anger from the author as well. Heck, I think I would be angry, too, if I had had the life experiences of most Black Americans.
There’s a bit about some recent research by a Harvard doctoral candidate trying to figure out how many votes Obama lost in 2008 to racism. Seems that W.VA. is one of those states that scored highest on the list of Google searches employing racist terms and this resulted in this comment by an African American reader:
http://www.theatlantic.com/mag…../309064/2/
Soonergrunt
So now are we going to see a demand from what passes for the press in this country for Rmoney’s taxes from past years, since the President has produced certified copies of every possible form of his Hawaii birth certificate?
Signs point to no.
tulip
@Teddy’s Person:
ding ding.
Dexter
OT: Models predict that Hurricane Isaac is going to ride the west FL coastline. That should affect Tampa and RNC convention.
Yutsano
@Soonergrunt: Heh. U funnee!!
Maude
Mitt Romney is a racist.
comrade scott's agenda of rage
@Tom65:
No because 1/3 of the base (the talibangalists) aren’t onboard. Monied, good-old-boys, sure, he’s one of them. Teatards? Possibly now because of Ryan but no Repup presidential candidate win in the general without the fundies crawling out of the megachurches to vote.
Soonergrunt
@4tehlulz: Or at least George Romney’s son by the specific Mrs. George Romney he’s claiming as mother…
nitpicker
Connecting the dots: In 2009, Rush Limbaugh said, “(I)n Obama’s America the white kids now get beat up with the black kids cheering ‘yeah, right on, right on, right on.'”
Today, responding to Romney’s racially-tinged comment, “Right on, right on, right on.”
He’s happy, it seems, that balance was restored.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
I’m waiting for the ABL post, it ought to be awesome.
These writers really need to pick their words better.
Cassidy
Hells yeah. Keep it up Mittens. That birther shit worked so well for your primary opponents. Turn it up to 11! The American people want to hear it. I promise. Go for it.
joes527
@Tom65: There are no independents. That is a fiction.
The only questions left in this election are:
1) who will show up to the polls.
2) who will be allowed to vote.
All else is pageantry.
4tehlulz
RNC:
I’ll lay 3:2 Romney calls Obama a Muslim during his convention speech.
Jeremiah Wright is 2:5.
Nina
I want to see his marriage certificates. Prove that he only has one wife.
And that he stopped beating her.
Yutsano
@Maude: Willard’s whole religion is racist. They just pretend to hide it for appearances. Just like they buried that polygamy discomfort so Utah could become a state.
Steve
I am ashamed as a Michigander.
PaulW
Screw Mitt’s birth certificate. I wanna see his tax returns from 1999 to 2009.
TK421
They should be questioning his policies of holding people in jail forever without a trial or assassinating American citizens without due process.
Chyron HR
Actually, I want to see Romney’s birth certificate. Not a “Certificate of Live Birth”, either, I want the “long form”. I think we should start asking about that, ’cause who knows where this Blandchurian Candidate might actually have come from.
Teddy's Person
@Nina: I second that motion.
Maude
@Yutsano:
True.
I read Eliza the 27th wife that sued Brigham Young for divorce.
The title says it all.
Haydnseek
@Dennis G.: Exactly this. DennisG, you show an admirable level of restraint. I’m so angry right now I could piss bullets…
Kathy in St. Louis
And every blog spot I’ve seen since then has had 80 versions of, “Yes, but they asked for your tax returns.” You’d think this dolt would have been able to see that he was opening himself up for just such statements. Every late night comedian will have a far funnier version of that one tonight.
Violet
This is so simply remedied. People show up at his campaign stops with posters: “Show me your birth certificate, Mitt!”
Anya
@Tom65: Fuck the independents. If they’re still independent after all the obstruction and craziness of the republicans then they’re a huge problem.
Quincy
I don’t like it when the media blows up every instance of political incorrectness or ginned up outrage on the campaign trail. Coverage of the Biden incident was particularly stupid. But this is different, and I hope they don’t let it slide or treat it with the both sides do it crap.
This is one of those ideas that the moment any non-clueless person begins to even engage it they’re filled with embarrassment or despair not humor. Nobody asks for my birth certificate … oh yeah because I’ve never been the victim of racial bigotry. Boy, America sucks sometimes.
The fact that the part after the dots did not go through Mitt Romney’s head says a lot about whether he’s capable of representing the interests of anyone unlike himself (in social/economic class or skin color). It should be thoroughly discussed. Just as too much of the Akin coverage was about his poor choice of adjective, rather than about what it revealed about his retrograde view of women, the media will make this about whether its an inappropriate joke, but it needs to be about what kind of person Mitt Romney is and whether he has any kind of understanding of the America that exists outside of his own sheltered life.
Maude
Question for Mr. Romney. What’s the thread count on your white sheets?
Yutsano
@TK421: Like a bulldog with a bone I swear. Do you enjoy rodent sex much?
Soylent Green
@Bex: They’re stupid but not that stupid. Nobody at the convention is going to say “nigger” to the audience. I’m holding out for someone on a break who doesn’t know his mic is hot.
danimal
@dww44: That really was an incredibly interesting article by TNC. But I say that about almost all his significant writings.
Haydnseek
@Yutsano: He says what his handlers tell him to say. They know the crux of the bisquit comes down to working class white males. A few percentage points, coupled with voter suppression efforts, could make all the difference. These guys may be slime, but they can read polls.
ABL
@Dennis G.: Precisely. I really fucking hate him.
Teddy's Person
@Quincy: Unfortunately, the response from the right and the discussion in the media will be how the left doesn’t have a sense of humor.
JPL
Someone should ask Romney whether or not a person conceived from a rape can become President, if the father is not identified.
ThresherK
@Dennis G.: Yelling?
That requires a certain commitment and or passion (real or genuine imitation) that Mitt simply doesn’t have on the subject.
Say what you will about Trump, the Orange Pelt of Doom is convinced of his own bullflop, and it comes across in the delivery.
Mitt’s simply going to let himself be led to it, and maybe lipsync. That’s the thing befitting his eternal search for the path of least resistance.
We already know that that path exists rightward of McCain’s famous “stand-up” moment where McCain said in front of God and America that Senator Obama is a decent man, an American, who loves this country. But when Mitt’s alone, on stage, he can’t make himself say something like that to a similar supporter.*
(*Paraphrase, of McCain to that woman in the SC town hall. We all know the clip. The location of the Romney one escapes me.)
quannlace
I enjoyed the story over at Dkos, about Romney’s little energy speech yesterday. He had a huge graph for illustrative purposes. And the irony of his ignoring all mention of renewable energy like wind power, while his aides had to hold onto the graph for dear life to keep the wind from blowing it away.
Waynski
@Soylent Green: I don’t expect anyone to use the N word, because in their minds the name Obama, or Barack Hussein Obama, means the exact…same…thing. No NClang necessary.
Teddy's Person
@Quincy: Unfortunately, the discussion will be how the left doesn’t have a sense of humor.
amk
fucking cilliza tweets
Heliopause
Maybe in his mind he was extending the “trees are the right height here” thing, as in, Michiganders are so nice they don’t ask to see your birth certificate. Even if so it just illustrates again his difficulties in human interaction. This dipshit caused an international incident with America’s lapdog, what’s he going to say when he meets with Russia or China?
Hill Dweller
Chris Cillizza, after citing both Obama’s dog joke and Willard’s birther joke, bemoaned the “smallness of our politics” on the twitter machine.
Kill me now.
quannlace
I enjoyed the story at Dkos about Romney’s little energy speech yesterday. He had a huge placard/graph for illustrative use. The irony? He ignored any mention of renewable energy like wind power. All the while his aides were holding onto the graph for dear life to keep it from blowing away.
ThresherK
@Dennis G.: Yelling?
I bet not. Yelling requires a certain commitment and or passion (real or genuine imitation) that Mitt simply doesn’t have on the subject, as it’s not close enough to Mitt or his money.
Contrast that with Trump. Completely baldfaced lying on the subject (as has been covered elsewhere), but the Orange Pelt of Doom sounds like he believes himself, and it comes across in the delivery. Mitt, another white guy born of means, is so on the opposite end of this speaking skill.
Mitt’s simply going to let himself be led to it, and maybe lipsync. That’s the thing befitting his eternal search for the path of least resistance.
We already know that that path exists rightward of McCain’s famous “stand-up” moment where McCain said in front of God and America that Senator Obama is a decent man, an American, who loves this country. But when Mitt’s alone, on stage, he can’t make himself say something like that to a similar supporter.*
(*Paraphrase, of McCain to that woman in the SC town hall. We all know the clip. The location of the Romney one escapes me.)
Donut
@Grey Ghost:
You are too fucking stupid for words.
Todd
@ChrisNYC:
Every time I see that douche’s pasty mug on TV, I have to restrain myself from ramming my fist through the screen. I’m hoping I never run into him in public or find him crossing the street in front of my car; self-control will be an issue.
Thing is, I don’t have that universal reaction with right wing pundits. The only other one I have that sort of visceral reaction to is Fred Barnes.
dance around in your bones
I kinda feel like saying, like Tonto, “What do you mean we,
motherfuckerKemo Sabe?”Ok, maybe he didn’t say the mofo word, but you know he was thinking it.
ThresherK, twice
@ThresherK: (Yep, sorry for the double post. I thot I followed the rules. I think I like my second edition better anyway.)
KS in MA
@joes527:
“The only questions left in this election are:
1) who will show up to the polls.
2) who will be allowed to vote.”
This.
shortstop
@Donut: Stupid? Maybe. Visibly nervous about the fallout from Mitt going there? Absolutely. Whistle through that graveyard, GG.
mamayaga
@Soylent Green:
I’d be willing to bet those hot mic moments will be plentiful and have been plentiful at every RNC convention for at least 40 years now. That’s the way people like that talk when they’re with only white people. But the press, as always, will decide the material is too “sensitive” to put on the air.
Mnemosyne
@Grey Ghost:
Yes, since when do public figures not get a free pass for making racist jokes? You’d think we were living in the 21st century and not the 1950s where you are.
amk
@Grey Ghost: Looks like trolls have been prodded today with tasers.
nitpicker
Obama equivalent: “No one’s ever asked me if my church believes in the Trinity.”
Haydnseek
@Grey Ghost: Really? He’s desperate. He HAS to squeeze a few percentage points out of the low info white haters, and there’s no other way to do it. He’s shit on women, EVERY minority, and anyone else who understands logic, reason, and facts. You should run, run to mittens! He needs you so bad…
dance around in your bones
@ThresherK:
Boy-howdy, do I love this phrase.
Rorgg
Mitt,
Can I see your birth certificate?
–Rorgg
There, now you can’t say it’s true.
schrodinger's cat
Didn’t Mitt’s grandfather go to Mexico because he was a polygamist, how do we know that Mitt is not a polygamist or has FLDS relatives? It would be irresponsible not to speculate.
Comrade Mary
@Teddy’s Person: Yep. Yep. Yep.
Haydnseek
Does anyone miss Shark Week on Discovery? If so, just look into Halperins eyes…
rikyrah
and you are surprised, Cole?
Frankensteinbeck
@TK421:
Oddly, he has neither policy. Policy #1 is congress’s, nearly unanimously and way beyond any threat of veto. Policy #2 does not exist. You think it does because you don’t understand what ‘due process’ means. Fortunately, federal judges do and have ruled clearly that due process has been served.
Roger Moore
@Grey Ghost:
It was a joke intended to appeal to racist assholes, and Romney deserves to be called out for making such an obvious appeal to them.
TheronWare
And this ladies and gentlemen is why the White House was initially reluctant in addressing all the birther nonsense. They realized that no matter what proof they presented, the birthers would never be satisfied because they are of a hateful and deranged tribe.
roc
Yes. Because a joke about a thing the other guy did is exactly the same as a joke about who the other guy is.
And here I thought the right didn’t like relativism?
Soonergrunt
@Yutsano: It’s not like he can’t look at these things we have called treaties and international law, and court precedence as law and so on.
But he and the others like them are like the birfers in that respect. They don’t care what reality IS. They care only about what they need it to be.
Chyron HR
@Grey Ghost:
Except to the extent that he’s courting their votes.
mamayaga
@roc: Yes. Because a joke about a thing the other guy did that is a demonstrable fact is exactly the same as a joke about who the other guy is that is a demonstrable lie.
Laura
Everyone knows Mitt doesn’t even have a birth ceritificate, right? Just a letter of authenticity from Cyberdyne Systems and a serial number stamped on his ass.
ChrisNYC
@TheronWare: That’s cause it’s not about the birth certificate.
schrodinger's cat
@Laura: Does he have a navel?
bg
robot factories don’t give out birth certificates
one two seven
@roc: You laugh, but NPR has already put up the headline: “Now They’re Even? Romney Gets In ‘Birth Certificate’ Quip”
LanceThruster
I hope Pres. Obama uses a similar line about tax returns.
LanceThruster
ROmniCorp – “We’ve Got Your Future Under Control.”
Mnemosyne
@Frankensteinbeck:
My favorite claim from these constitutional experts was that due process would have been served by the US trying al-Awlaki in absentia before sending in the missiles.
Strangely, I got nothing but crickets once I pointed out that it’s illegal to try people in absentia in the US, so what was their next plan?
(No, wait, one guy came back with the bright idea that we should have abducted al-Awlaki and brought him back to the US for trial, which it turns out is also illegal under US law. So apparently we were supposed to violate the Constitution rather than violate the Constitution. Or something.)
xian
@Grey Ghost: A joke about how the president of the US seems alien, from the head of the party that spawned the birthers and invited Trump and Arpaio to teir quadrennial Klan Rally. Joking on the square, I’d say.
Brachiator
@Dennis G.:
The worst of them have been sliming Obama since his nomination. It is amazing that literal minded people keep insisting that the N word is the ultimate or most definitive insult.
@Waynski:
Exactly. The sad thing is that the worst of these people are pyschically stuck, and keep repeating the same old lies to whip themselves into a frenzy of fear, sadder that Romney so willingly feeds the beast.
Michael
@amk:
Fuck you, Chris Cilizza. So sick of your false equivalence bullshit.
Soonergrunt
@Mnemosyne: And the fact that the course of action chosen is completely legal under the Constitution ALWAYS escapes them. They ignore that fact because it’s inconvenient. They’re very much like birfers in that respect.
TaMara (BHF)
@mamayaga: That was so good I tweeted it in reply to that asshole.
karen marie
@Laura: I tweeted this to Romney. Thanks.
Bex
@Soylent Green: In that case, my bet’s on Arpaio.
Turgidson
@Laura:
His “human learning and adaptability” programming is quite inferior to the T-101 model, which was at least able to deliver the occasional and timely “no problemo” or “hasta la vista, baby.”
geg6
@Grey Ghost:
So why does he spend so much time kissing their asses? Why does he never, ever, ever stand up and tell them to STFU the way John fucking McCain did? This comment was a dog whistle to dog whistles. It’s not funny or witty or even a bad joke.
Brachiator
@geg6:
@Grey Ghost:
Because ultimately, Mitt Romney is a Natural Born Coward.
ThresherK
@dance around in your bones: Much obliged. After John Boehner, the adjective “orange” has been getting a workout, but I thought The Donald’s most recognized feature shouldn’t be left out.
dance around in your bones
@ThresherK:
As someone who finds Trump COMPLETELY repellent, not even counting his repelling comb-over, I just love the phrase ‘Orange Pelt of Doom’.
The only other thing I can think of that’s more descriptive is ‘The Puckered Anus of Lips’. ‘Cause that’s what his mouth looks like. Not a NICE anus, but a nasty little puckered anus.
I don’t care HOW much money the dude has – I think I might just spew if I had to contemplate
fuckingliving with the Puckered Anus.JGabriel
__
__
If Mitt Romney insists that he was born in the US, then I personally believe him.
But some believe that one-term Governor Romney was born in a rogue polygamous Latter Day Saints compound in Mexico, and raised in France — where Romney learned to speak French fluently.
So I think it’s incumbent upon this single-term governor of a liberal state — who enacted the sociaIized medicine program that became a model for Robomneycare — to release:
__
__
1) his long-form birth certificate to prove his citizenship;
2) his grade-school and college-transcripts to prove he was educated in the US and not some sociaIistic Mormonofascist collective in France;
3) and his tax returns, to show he isn’t funding any Mormonofascist world-wide terror jihadi or global efforts to spread the Mormonofascist fundamentalist agenda to uninitiated innocents.
.
Caz
You’re one to call someone an asshole. You have nothing but hate-filled words for anyone who doesn’t agree with you, you think ever non-liberal is a racist, and you believe everything Obama and friends tell you.
You’re the biggest asshole of them all, a hate monger, brainwashed, useful idiot.
It’s people like you that are allowing people like Obama, who literally despises the constitution, to become “king.” Don’t bitch when the destruction of this nation finally gets around to hurting you personally, after all, you’re part of the reason it’s declining.
The Other Bob
@Steve:
I am not. Romney will loose his “home” state to that darkish dude with the funny name.
Fuck Romney.
The Other Bob
@Steve:
I am not. Romney will loose his “home” state to that darkish dude with the funny name.
Fuck Romney.
dance around in your bones
@Caz:
Jesus H. Fucking Christ, you are an idiot. Really, do you ever think for yourself?
”It’s people like you that are allowing people like Obama, who literally despises the constitution, to become “king.”
He literally despises the Constitution, as a constitutional lawyer. Right. Get a fucking grip.