Romney makes Birther joke

[7,052,770]

Hilarious how the blue avatars here will never, EVER admit that Romney did anything remotely wrong or politically unwise.  Listening to them, you'd think the man is infallible.

[krazen1211]

Hilarious how the blue avatars here will never, EVER admit that Romney did anything remotely wrong or politically unwise.  Listening to them, you'd think the man is infallible.

Sure he has. But ignoring liberals is not one of them. He has no reason to care about those types.

[anvi]

Oh, I don't think it will have any political ramifications at all, and obviously no one cares about what I say on the Atlas Forum, nor should they.  But, you know, it's a free country, I have freedom of speech, and I'm just saying I don't care for it.  That's all.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

Yes, I don't think Romney is a brither. I can believe it was just a botched attempt of joke, but when you're a candidate, you need to be careful. There are people who actually believes this s**t and there's no need to encourage them, for they are too stupid to understand the difference.

[Joe Republic]

This was clearly just a case of Romney trying to be emphasize himself as a Michigander in a way that he thought for some reason would be clever.  But, people like to be offended.

Couldn't he just stick to complimenting the height of the state's trees?  At least there are no sinister racial undertones in that.

[Likely Voter]

Yes, I don't think Romney is a brither. I can believe it was just a botched attempt of joke, but when you're a candidate, you need to be careful. There are people who actually believes this s**t and there's no need to encourage them, for they are too stupid to understand the difference.

That is the problem with this. Romney is coming off a week where he has been trying to distance himself from a fringe view point from one extreme of his party. So he shouldn't be making jokes about another fringe viewpoint from another crazy wing if his party.

Romney continues to act like he is running in the GOP primary.

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

This was clearly just a case of Romney trying to be emphasize himself as a Michigander in a way that he thought for some reason would be clever.  But, people like to be offended.

Really?  There are birth certificate request jokes that are specific to Michigan?  I don't, by the way, look for opportunities to be offended.  Birtherism is offensive, and enlisting it in a joke doesn't help make it obvious that it's just a joke.  In fact, I always thought one of the good things about Romney being the nominee was that he wouldn't give any quarter to birther stuff, so I was not expecting to hear remarks like that from him.

Sorry anvi.   I know you don't look for ways to be offended.  I wasn't thinking of your post when I said that, but I shouldn't have been so general.  I just have found that there are some people here who jump quickly to accusations of racism or bigotry and then don't want to hear another explanation, and I let it gets to me too much lately.  (Really, I shouldn't even say that those people like to be offended when it may be a reasonable response based on assumptions they sincerely hold.)

I can, looking at it again, see why someone would be offended by this, but I don't think Romney was trying to feed into birtherism. He was trying to emphasize that he was born in Michigan (I'm assuming that's what he's referring to when he says "this is the place we were born and raised" and not America generally) since he has had trouble connecting with any sort of home advantage there. I read the reference as being a joke that played on the controversy, not on Obama for supposedly not being a genuine American.

[pepper11]

I just have found that there are some people here who jump quickly to accusations of racism or bigotry and then don't want to hear another explanation, and I let it gets to me too much lately.

Yes, very true. There are definitely some vocal proponents of playing the 'that's racist' card around here.

[Link]

Oh stop it was just a joke.

racist.

[Supersonic]

Oh stop it was just a joke.

^

[pepper11]

Oh stop it was just a joke.

Why joke about this?

The Obama campaign did.

http://www.redstate.com/aglanon/files/2012/08/Screen-Shot-2012-08-24-at-1.27.20-PM.png

[Link]

Oh stop it was just a joke.

Why joke about this?

The Obama campaign made a joke of it earlier. No outcry then. This faux outrage is nuts.

http://www.redstate.com/aglanon/files/2012/08/Screen-Shot-2012-08-24-at-1.27.20-PM.png

I often wonder who does the inept socialization of young Republicans.  Why can't they understand some people can "go there," but it's generally a bad idea for other groups of people?

Where were you raised?

[NHI]

He's no Reagan when it comes to jokes, but that's all he was doing. Obama made a joke of it a time or two and there was no outcry on him. Let's simply get over it and focus on more pressing issues.

[Link]

Obama made a joke of it a time or two and there was no outcry on him. Let's simply get over it and focus on more pressing issues.

Please see the post directly above yours.

[pepper11]

He's no Reagan when it comes to jokes, but that's all he was doing. Obama made a joke of it a time or two and there was no outcry on him. Let's simply get over it and focus on more pressing issues.

YES! Actual issues would be very nice.

[Yank2133]

He's no Reagan when it comes to jokes, but that's all he was doing. Obama made a joke of it a time or two and there was no outcry on him. Let's simply get over it and focus on more pressing issues.

The false equivalency by Republicans is laughable.

It is one thing to make jokes, but Romney just blew the racist dog whistle.

[Link]

He's no Reagan when it comes to jokes, but that's all he was doing. Obama made a joke of it a time or two and there was no outcry on him. Let's simply get over it and focus on more pressing issues.

YES! Actual issues would be very nice.

To some people in America racism is an "actual issue."

[Likely Voter]

To those who are defending Romney, are you seriously arguing that this is smart politics?

Obama's shamus joke was also stupid, and I dont think that helps more than it makes him look like he is taking cheap shots.


Why cant partisans here acknowledge when someone makes a bad play. Its like watching a football game and having a set of fans say 'that wasn't an interception, our quarterback was luring the other team into a fight with our defense'

[Link]

To those who are defending Romney, are you seriously arguing that this is smart politics?

Obama's shamus joke was also stupid...

Perhaps but I wouldn't put a true story about a dog on the same level as racism towards a black man.

[NHI]

Both sides are guilty of these off the cuff remarks. Romney made a mistake, it's done, it's over with, let's get back to real game.

[pepper11]

To those who are defending Romney, are you seriously arguing that this is smart politics?

Of course this was not good politics.  It was a joke that completely flopped. Mitt did not want to be asked on CBS news the weekend before his convention about this. The politics on this are not good for him, but it was absolutely not racist.

[5280]

To those who are defending Romney, are you seriously arguing that this is smart politics?

Obama's shamus joke was also stupid...

Perhaps but I wouldn't put a true story about a dog on the same level as racism towards a black man.

People like you make others sick of bringing up racist issues ALL THE TIME.  How about paying more attention to important topics like 13 million people being out of work or economic issues? Those have a more impact than your petty problems.

[Sbane]

He's no Reagan when it comes to jokes, but that's all he was doing. Obama made a joke of it a time or two and there was no outcry on him. Let's simply get over it and focus on more pressing issues.

Of course Obama gets to joke about it. What the hell.

And I don't know whether this was Mittens being Mittens, a joke (doubt it) or racial pandering. I would not be surprised if it was. Why do so many people think it wasn't? Obviously that sort of thing does move some swing voters in crucial states, especially the "he's not american" or "he doesn't get america" attacks. Let's not forget Sununu said something very similar a few weeks back.

[Link]

Both sides are guilty of these off the cuff remarks. Romney made a mistake, it's done, it's over with, let's get back to real game.

Look this birther thing is racist.  It's 2012.  Neither I nor any other decent person feel any obligation to just sweep this under the rug.  This is not just some "off the cuff remark."  This birther crap is a well worn routine that has been going on for months and been condemned.  After shooting his mouth off over seas and pissing off allies and being called a racist by Palestinians you would think this guy would learn.

In a lot of ways this race was Romney's to lose.  A lot of us from the political left had no great fear or animosity towards the guy.  We may have not liked some of the policies he put forth but we were reasonably comfortable that we were not going to have a Bush, Palin, Bachmann, Cain, Perry, etc on our hands.  I just didn't think once the nomination fight was over and it was approaching September we would be dealing with this racist birther crap from Romney.  To be honest with you we didn't see this garbage from Bush.

To those who are defending Romney, are you seriously arguing that this is smart politics?

Obama's shamus joke was also stupid...

Perhaps but I wouldn't put a true story about a dog on the same level as racism towards a black man.

People like you make others sick of bringing up racist issues ALL THE TIME.

Sorry you must have misunderstood the thread.  It was ROMNEY that told a racist joke in front of a crowd of people on live TV... not me.

[Sbane]

To those who are defending Romney, are you seriously arguing that this is smart politics?

Obama's shamus joke was also stupid...

Perhaps but I wouldn't put a true story about a dog on the same level as racism towards a black man.

People like you make others sick of bringing up racist issues ALL THE TIME.  How about paying more attention to important topics like 13 million people being out of work or economic issues? Those have a more impact than your petty problems.

Maybe Republicans should stop playing racial dog whistle politics and stick to the real issues as well.