Mitt Romney aimed awfully low yesterday, telling a Michigan audience, "No one's ever asked to see my birth certificate -- they know that this is the place that we were born and raised."
By last night, the Obama campaign had already unveiled a new video on the subject.
For those who can't watch clips online, the voice-over tells viewers, "Holding out hope Romney had a vision for the middle class? Think again." After showing a clip from the Michigan rally, the clip adds, "Embracing unfounded conspiracy theories, distracting from real issues. America doesn't need a Birther-in-Chief."
At 15 seconds, the video is too short to be a broadcast spot, and is almost certainly intended for an online audience. That said, the larger push extends further -- the Obama campaign is already fundraising off Romney's birther comments, and this morning in Ohio, a plane was seen overhead at a Romney/Ryan rally flying a banner that read, "America is better than birtherism." [Update: the banner was apparently flown by MoveOn.org.]
For his part, Romney told CBS yesterday afternoon that he doesn't question the president's citizenship, adding, "Humor, you know, we've got to have a little humor in a campaign.... [T]he crowd loved it and got a good laugh."
First, if Romney wants to try to be funny, maybe he should avoid jokes based on racist conspiracy theories. He couldn't think of anything else to joke about?
Second, Republican crowds may "love" a lot of things, but that doesn't make ugly rhetoric acceptable.
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Amen. One of my very politically-correct political friends claims it's just foot-in-mouth disease. I think not.
Obama and his team would love to see Mitt deliver an anti-Obama personal attack fest that plays to the base on Thursday night. It would be poison with swing voters.
Limbaugh suggested that it might be exactly that. If it is, this election will be effectively over on Friday morning.
How does your PC friend explain the fact he was reading it off his teleprompter?
I'm sure the Republican women in that crowd don't "love" having the prospective nominee telling them about what to do with their bodies. Nor would they "love" Limbaugh telling them that they are whores for having sex.
Amazing what goes for "humor" in the "old white man" crowd! The first thing they say when they are accused of sexually harassing or racially harassing a person is "Can't you take a joke?"
Speaking as an "old white man" I can attest that it took a long time and a great deal of cerebral percussion to get the message across: if the object of the "humor" wouldn't find it funny (and if you're not sure, they wouldn't) then best you keep your mouth shut!
"Can't you take a joke?"
That is what rush limbaughs whole career is based on , with millions of ditto heads following blindly ....It's like telling negr# jokes to a hall full of black people , then complaining right to them about how they do not get it , the gop can be the scum bag party , and not one msm will call them on it , ever
Mitt Romney was taking a page out of Karl Rove's playbook. Plain and simple.
What was wrong with this "joke" is,...there was no self-deprecating humor. No monologue about his own father being born outside the U.S. and how birtherism can cut "both ways". That's makes this plain birther-bait!
The tag line of bullies everywhere: "It was a joke!"
Humor is not the only concept he has trouble with. He also confuses disgust with envy.
I'm also an "old white male" and I can attest that such humor and much worse was the rule back in the "good old days".
The thing that people do not understand about these old religious narrow-minded men that think they are better at making choices for women. Is these men do not care on what really happens to a woman just as long as they get their own satisfaction of what they think in their narrow-minds of what is right. But in reality they are very wrong and in the end do not follow the real teachings of God and/or Jesus. These men live as hypocrites craving power and control over people that in the end only bring misery, despair, and death. There is a reason why God’s children of light do not go to these men and that has for too long been shown in our history of why. God’s children of light do not want to hear those falsehoods or even put up with all those deceptions and lies. Women are just as allowed to their very own destiny a long with their very own choices they want to make in life and not subjected to some senseless demands of foolish men. And women have as much and some cases more right to be political and religious leaders as men do. No longer will people who know better remain silent to these falsehoods and lies that have existed for too long. The Republicans, extremists of hatred, and extreme wealthy can spout their deceptions and lies, but can never hide from the truth of it all.
They do not follow the teachings of God and/or Jesus because they think THEY are gods that WE need to worship. All they have to do is toss a few coins our way and we'll drop to our knees and grovel like we're supposed to. And we will smile the whole time. That's the religion they can bank on!
It amazes me how the Republican's and Mitt insist that we should just sit back and shut up when it comes to anything regarding their lives, business etc., all while they accuse the President of releasing false documents regarding his birth, and releasing top secret information constantly.
Yet it was Bush and Cheney who exposed a CIA Station Chief in a foreign country endangering not only her life but the two hundred plus CIA agents under her management. It was the Republicans in Congress during the Bush administration who put the instructions on how to build a nuclear bomb in Arabic on the internet and now it is Fox who have exposed the name of one of the SEAL Team Six members who killed Osama Bin Laden on the internet which has now been posted on several Al Qaeda sites putting both he and his families lives in danger.
The right wing hypocrites are so off their rockers they fail to see the truly treasonous and dangerous things they do while always trying to reverse their ineptitude around on the Democrats. Let's face it, it is only the Republican's who have continuously put lives in danger with their reckless and stupid behavior.
Yes, and their biggest cheerleaders, aiders and abettors, Fox News, outed the Navy Seal who wrote the book about killing bin Laden and now he's on Al Quaeda's most wanted list.
"It was just a joke, lighten up!" is a notoriously and ridiculously passive-aggressive tactic. It shifts the blame onto the butt of the "joke" and lets the "joker" off the hook. This was not a "gaffe" or something Romney "misspoke." This was deliberate, and I'm glad he's getting called on it so heavily.
You're right, it's not just a joke. It's a pointed reminder that Obama doesn't seem to share basic American ideas, like American exceptionalism. Like most of the left, he can never be happy with America, because it can never come up to his expectations for a "social justice" society
shooter242
June 11, 2012 at 6:54 am
I’d like to encourage more trollery on left wing sites. Specifically pushback on common memes such as identified by Jonah Goldberg as unchallenged cliches. It can actually work, and it can actually change the course of debate.
For instance, I always challenge “the rich take too much of the pie” meme. There is no pie, no one decides who gets what, and the “pie” is a measure of contributions to a total. Ergo the rich don’t take they contribute. It’s been gratifyingly effective.
Try it you’ll like it. Don’t curse and keep the personal insults to a bare minimum, don’t allow moving goal posts or distractions. Ignore trollish responders, and be four times more civil. They hate that.
http://moelane.com/2012/06/09/troll-hunting-101/
Shooter, feel free to get back to me when you have something to say that actually relates to what I said. Talk about moving goal posts and distractions, jeez.
Keep signaling that "birtherism" is acceptable, Mitt. We love to see your followers continue to go down this road. Every time a Republican "jokes" about this, thousands of undecided swing state voters migrate to the Obama side.
It seems you need to be reminded that for some 15 years or so Obama claimed to be born in Kenya.
http://dailycaller.com/2012/08/24/reminder-before-obama-ran-for-president-he-falsely-claimed-to-have-been-born-in-kenya/#ixzz24ZYcKPbn
Obama was the original birther.
You are frigging kidding me Shooter. You would take some blurb written by some unknown company for a book that doesn't exist over a valid Hawaiian birth certificate?
Shooter, you have lost your reputation as a low-down snake - from now on you are just a worm!!
Shoo!!
Yeah shooter, one thing nobody can accuse you of is being an exceptional American.Your just a run of the mill know nothing who get's his jollie's, shooting his mouth off witout saying anything that make's sense.
All I have to say about that is consider the source: Breitbart. That guy/those people have quite a reputation for playing fast and loose with the truth...
Now he is a birther just like his friend Donald, head birther. As thus he deserves all the swipes he will be given. It is pathetic a man running for this office is so glueless.
@Shooter242_You do realize, of course, that it is Mr. CEO, the patriot who refuses to pay income taxes, who is at fault for creating his own persona as 'the flip-flopper champ'. In any fair and balanced world, his lies would be called lies, not etch-a-sketch moments. He is a liar and everyone knows it.
mrz190,
Liars who weasel their way out of paying the taxes they should are big heroes to people like The Blank.
So will Mitt be campaigning in Hawaii any time soon?
Hawaiians have never asked for Obama's birth certificate. They've never had to ask for his tax returns either.
Unfortunately, Mitt gets his "humor" from Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter. The kind that starts, "Your Mother is so ugly. . ."
Guy goes into a bar, there’s a robot bartender.
The robot says, “What will you have?” The guy says, “Martini.” The robot brings back the best martini ever and says to the man, “What’s your IQ?” The guy says, “168”. The robot then proceeds to talk about physics, space exploration and medical technology.
The guy leaves, but he is curious, so he goes back into the bar. The robot bartender says,” What will you have?” The guy says, “Martini”. Again, the robot makes a great martini, gives it to the man and says, “What’s your IQ?” The guy says, “100.” The robot then starts to talk about NASCAR, Budweiser and John Deere tractors.
The guy leaves, but finds it very interesting, so he thinks he will try it one more time. He goes back into the bar. The robot says, “What will you have?” The guy says, “Martini”, and the robot brings him another great martini. The robot then says, “What’s your IQ?” The guy says, “Uh, about 50.” The robot leans in real close and says, “So, you people still happy you voted for Obama?”
"Mitt Romney has been giving his volunteers a free sweatshirt for making phone calls on his behalf. The sweatshirts are just like Romney, 100 percent reversible." -Jimmy Fallon
"Mitt Romney was attacking Obama about our failing education system. He has a point. We are graduating millions of people in this country who are so lacking in basic analytical skills, they are considering voting for Mitt Romney." –Bill Maher
"Mitt Romney believes that marriage should be between one man and one woman. Which is better than his grandfather, who believed that it should be between one man and five women." -Jimmy Kimmel
"That Mitt Romney, he is a master campaigner. This week he was introducing his wife, and he said, ‘She is the heavyweight champion of my life.” Which may explain why on the ride home, he was strapped to the roof of the car." –Bill Maher
"Mitt Romney is saying his comments about liking to fire people were taken out of context. Yeah, what he actually said was he likes to set poor people on fire." –Conan O'Brien
Shooter your hatred of your fellow Americans is obvious. Why don't you just join Al Qaeda or the Taliban and get it over with. If you're already a member of the fascist skinheads I understand as the Republicans have already accepted them into their ranks with open arms.
Hatred, fear, voter suppression and denial of liberty and freedoms (especially for women, children and non-whites) are the earmarks of your party. Don't accuse Dems of not sharing the ideals of American exceptionalism when you have no idea what that means.
You know, peeps, I don't thing ol' Bull got the joke.
Shooter walk's into a bar.The bartender say's shooter have you seen Ben.Shooter say's Ben?Ben who.The bartender say's I bend over and you kiss my a$$.So shooter storm's out of the bar really pi$$ed.This goes on all week.So on the weekend shooter get's some advice from a friend on how to get back at the bartender.He tell's him to go into the bar and quickly ask the bartender have you seen Eileen.When the bartender say's Eileen who you tell him I lean over and you kiss my a$$.So on monday shooter confidently walks into the bar and quickly ask's the bartender,hey have you seen Eileen.The bartender say's yeah she just left with Ben.Shooter say's Ben?Ben who?
That's not too bad Shooter, but the joke doesn't really work. In actuality, the higher your IQ and the higher your level of education, the more likely you are to be a liberal, and the less likely you are to be religious. This is a statistical fact and not just my opinion, and I invite you to research it for yourself. This is why universities are so often considered to be "bastions of liberalism" by those on the right.
The Obama slam at the end- it just doesn't work.
not funny in the least
Donald, 'You've Been Trumped', Trump and Slick Mitty, two peas from the aristocratic pod, make common cause with the common (white) men.
Seriously, if our founding fathers would have known that it might come to this end, would they have bothered with the American Revolution?
it's not a joke... of any kind
Rachel, this bully tactic i hope will be UNCOVERED as the systematic , and widespread LUNACY that it in reality is..since the day's when i was asked by the producers of Thom Hartman , and Michael Dyson to be a regular phone-in my activism in this election cycle has exploded (i have several we accounts /bolgs ) and this is TRUE in Ft Lauderdale Fla, after being "outed" (i thought the use of this avatar would protect my personal dealings and work interest.it has not ) .on the Steve Kane show, and harassment tactics such as POLICE STOPS IN MY WORK NEIGHBORHOOD (more than 9 stops in one month even fingerprinting on the street) ..My laptop confiscated, this is true and i even have the name of the officer there in Ft Lauderdale ( I am now back "home" in N.C ).INCIDENTS OF CYBER-INTRUSIONS (especially with sites such as POSTEROUS /MINGLE CITY (it was a social dating site in the beginning it now focuses on politics and society more than one half million people online daily )..I am posting this from the Community College (Pitt Community) that i attend learning NETWORK SECURITY (i was a cryptographer in the U.S NAVY ) ..and the occasions where the ANGER OF THOSE WHO APPARENTLY JUST HATE OBAMA IS ALARMING, OH, AND MY CONSTANT THORN IN THE SIDE IS THE PREVALENCE OF BLACK CONSERVATIVES WHO PARROT ALL THE MALIGNED DISTORTIONS OF FACT THAT ONE HEARS ON RUSH LIMBAUGH (it is "my" sincere opinion that OPPORTUNISTIC best defines this ilk ) ...However at the end of the day, we can BE ASSURED that HISTORY and THE UNIVERSE (yes this is at a level beyond politics the tactics are so sinister and malignant that i truly believe that people so overly ambitious and lacking in a REAL MORAL COMP[ASS "CANNOT BE ALLOWED TO REGAIN POWER ...IT WOULD BE A DANGER TO THE ENTIRE PLANET IN NO TIME AT ALL IF THEY DID !
Did you hear the Mittster's latest joke? It goes "Did you hear the one about the n1gger pretending to be president?"
Did you hear the other new joke from the Mittster? It goes "After I take the oath of office next January 20th, my family plans to move into the White House on the 1st of February. It will take that long to fumigate the building and repaint it white."
How long is it going to be before that famous defender of the FRC, Dana Milbank, to write a column defending Mitt's great sense of humor?
Listening to Romney necessitates a change in our lexicon. For example, a Mitth is an old lie retold. To Mitt is to lie. E-mitting is lying online. Co-mitting is supporting or repeating a Mitt. To get your Mitts on something is to cannibalize it like vulture capitalism. I am sure Shooter and the other Tromneys will not see the humor,
Doing anything "retroactively" (is that really even possible?) is "pulling a Rawmoney"!
Vulture/Voucher 2012
Proving Two Rights DO Make a Wrong!
;-)
Romney says he gives 10% of his money as charity to his church. Well, why hasn’t Romney given to other charities like Unicef, NAACP, Planned Parenthood, and all the other charities that really do help people? Why does Romney only give to his church and no one else? Is Romney playing that only his church is worthy enough to receive his money in charity? That is a pretty biased, when his church has been so biased against the equality of all people.
Which part of "Mitt Romney's a pathologically hateful & deceitful man" do you not understand?
You can take the boy out of prep school but you can't take the sadistic prankster out of the boy.
Unforch for him, he's brought a spork to a gunfight.
You beat me to it. Totally agree.
Still that same high school bully at age 65.
Mitt - still trying to be liked because still nobody likes him.
Never mind debates, nobody is going to change their minds anyway. I want to see candidates in a stand-up comedy competition.
His humor is very taxing...
lol cedar rapids here
Mitt strikes me as a mean-spirited plutocrat who just doesn't get it. He doesn't get that he was being cruel to his pet, that he was a despicable bully in prep school and that birther jokes just left out there to ferment among the weak-minded show a lack of respect for the process. He is lacking in the kind of personal courage I want to see in my leaders and, worst of all, he doesn't even realize that he is just the pathetic foil of people who want to see America turn into an oligarchy.
I have to say I disagree with several discussions on MSNBC yesterday (and apparently this morning) about how wrong it is for Obama not to be addressing race more often in this presidency.
Wrong way for him to go. He wears his bi-racial identity with considerable grace, sensitivity and insight into the peculiar prejudices of other people. He is never bitter or self-pitying, like some people who claim victimization due to race (whites are increasingly claiming this!) nor is he trying to 'be' white; he married a black-American woman, not a blonde white girl, which would indicate that he does not now and never has aspired to be white or to think of whiteness as a superior quality.
We should be praising him for this, not worrying that he doesn't cry foul enough.
We can howl and fret and wring our hands all we want, but in the end, it will not matter. And I do not understand why this isn't being talked about more on Rachel, Lawrence, Ed, and other shows. It is becoming increasingly evident to me that the RMoney campaign is not at all interested in "swing voters," "undecideds," or "independents." This is all about turnout, and the Paul "why can't I find a suit that fits" Ryan pick and the birther jokes just solidify my belief that the tactic here is get out the lunatic base while simultaneously disenfranchising as many democratic leaning voters as possible. Do this successfully (as it looks like they are) and voila! RMoney is our next president... and its all downhill from there. Hate to be a wet blanket, but I think it's going to work. Depressing. How do we get organized to get people the IDs they need so that we can overcome this strategy?? How can we fund-raise to help them pay for the documents?
I agree that's what they're up to... still not so sure it's going to work. I, for one, already
have my IDpaid my poll tax, and I encourage everyone I talk to to be sure that they've registered,have IDpay their poll tax, and vote intelligently!Vulture/Voucher 2012
Proving Two Rights DO Make a Wrong!
;-)
Romney has now opened the door and personally given his permission to every speaker at the convention to go there. He is solely responsible for every comment that follows. And when those comments come, and they undoubtedly will come, the media needs to ask Romney if he thinks those "jokes" are funny.
Already NOT AT ALL FUNNY:
This ignorant bigot has been given a prominent speaking slot at the
"Legitimate"-Rape-Public-CON convention!
Vulture/Voucher 2012
Proving Two Rights DO Make a Wrong!
;-(
Let 'em go there. Just make sure that it gets recorded and played back many times for the benefit of those who haven't yet made up their minds about who to vote for.
I won't watch his speech in Tampa, but I can't wait to see what his opening lines are. I don't think I've ever seen a politician who is so uneasy in front of crowds.
When he stands on that podium, he will be surrounded by supporters (well, sort of). His problem will be that they're not the audience that counts. The TV audience and those who will see snippets of the speech later as it's analyzed are the targets. They aren't necessarily part of the adoring multitudes. Especially the independents, moderate/suburban Republicans, and the misnamed "Reagan Democrats" who comprise most of the undecided voters in swing states.
He will have one chance to connect. They'll turn him off quickly if he begins to attack Obama as a person and an American in those opening lines.
You can't fake sincerity, empathy, and compassion. So far, Romney has been 0-for-3 in those areas. And I don't think he's capable of communicating them.
Hopefully the main audience member will be a hurricane and 7 feet of water for him to lie to , watching them explain how emergency responders should be privatized for profits , and paid minimum wage , all while the gop elite run for their lives , would make putting up with all this gop campaign BS worth it
Romney told his "joke" using the same expression in his face when he talked about "fixing the economy"!!!! You can't tell when he's telling the truth! I would like to ask him to see his birth certificate. I bet he would be so willing to show that because it's true. He's not willing to show his taxes .... because we all know what he's hiding!! He promised 10% to the Mormon church, but I bet that he did not really include his $ overseas in the 10%.
At what point in this campaign has Mitt told the truth or been consistent about anything?
Based on what we've seen of his campaign so far, his team seems to have decided that veracity is not part of the strategy.
Well, I'm pretty sure he's telling the truth about wanting to be President in 2013. And he's been very, very consistent in telling his audience what it wants to hear.