Mitt Really Stepped in it; Collection of Headlines So Far

[Rose Siding]

Romney’s birther joke and the closed information loop
By Jonathan Bernstein
Well, at least the political press won’t be talking about Todd Akin during the weekend leading into the Republican National Convention. Mitt Romney today, showing off his less-than-world-class sense of humor: “No one’s ever asked to see my birth certificate.”

Just approaching this from the point of view of campaign strategy: Yikes! This can’t possibly be any good for him. I mean, where to start? First of all, it’s certain to put the Romney campaign on the defensive over the weekend. The national press is pretty clear that birther nonsense is out of bounds; make up stuff about welfare and you’ll get burned by MSNBC hosts, the liberal blogosphere and the fact-checkers, which have a combined audience of approximately zero undecided voters — but make birther jokes, and you’re going to get the (negative) attention of the national press.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/post/romneys-birther-joke-and-the-closed-information-loop/2012/08/24/025339d8-ee12-11e1-b624-99dee49d8d67_blog.html

Romney’s craven birther quip

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/post/romneys-craven-birther-quip/2012/08/24/88e3f496-ee18-11e1-b0eb-dac6b50187ad_blog.html

Mitt Romney, birther-in-chief
Romney makes a joke about Obama's birth certificate -- and makes clear his strategy of doubling down on whiteness...

http://www.salon.com/2012/08/24/mitt_romney_birther_in_chief/

Romney cracks joke about Obama birth certificate at Michigan rally

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/245231-romney-jokes-about-obama-birth-certificate-on-stump

Watch Mitt Romney Go Birther: 'No One's Ever Asked To See My Birth Certificate!'

http://www.businessinsider.com/mitt-romneys-birther-joke-birth-certificate-obama-donald-trump-2012-8

A Guide for Defending Mitt Romney's Birther Joke

Whether you're a a conservative deeply invested in Mitt Romney's election, or a reporter deeply invested in maintaining your pox-on-both-their-houses objectivity during this campaign season, you'll need to compare Romney's birther joke to something President Obama's done. Conservatives need to argue that Romney's birther joke, with all the wink-wink-nudge-nudge-racist connotations, wasn't all that bad. Reporters need to say, "We're sick of both these partisan pols on both sides, right America?" But it's hard. Though there is a small Romney-birther movement, it doesn't pack the same punch. Allow The Atlantic Wire to guide you in the process of figuring out what Obama joke, exactly, Romney's birther joke was really like....

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/politics/2012/08/guide-defending-mitt-romneys-birther-joke/56178/

Romney drops birth certificate joke on Obama (Wink, wink)

.....Somewhere, Orly Taitz is smiling.

For those who have been avoiding the Internet for the past five years (Welcome!), the shout-out is to WIDELY DISPROVEN ACCUSATIONS that President Obama was not born in the U.S. He was.

http://blog.chron.com/txpotomac/2012/08/romney-drops-birth-certificate-joke-on-obama-wink-wink/

The real problem with Mitt Romney's birth certificate joke

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/DC-Decoder/Decoder-Wire/2012/0824/The-real-problem-with-Mitt-Romney-s-birth-certificate-joke

And way way more:

https://www.google.com/news?ncl=dF6H04cGWL4kN3MaINxMaYkCA63GM&q=romney+birther+joke&lr=English®ion&ned=us&hl=en

More like an air raid siren than a whistle, really. Oops, right bishop?

[dixiegrrrrl]

1. Man, is NO MSM for him???

Well, Fox. maybe, but I do not consider them MSM.

[Rose Siding]

2. How does he present himself seriously now?

A lot of the articles are linking him to Trump.

[progressivebydesign]

19. USA Today, perhaps? their headline today "Voters sour on Economy, Obama"

but when you read the article, it was a mixed bag, and could have been written with a different headline.

[Wednesdays]

21. Yahoo News is similar

I post Yahoo's ridiculous headlines on occasion. They'll totally grasp at straws, even if it's a total distortion. They'll do anything to make Democrats look bad.

[tridim]

3. He doesn't give a crap, he said it and that's all he needed to do...

To make the teabagger idiots drool.

He's going to play this stupid game until Novemeber, and then he will lose.

[Rose Siding]

9. I don't know - They're already trying a pretty clear walk back on it.

Some reporting notes that his campaign specified that it wasn't part of his planned remarks. I think he's just really bad at this. It's so unnatural for him to have to actually try to connect with people that he finds himself way out in the weeds.

Imagine how ticked the baggers will be if his campaign comes any closer to an out and out apology.

I think he just messed up.

[Loudestlib]

11. So he's racist or incompetent

Either way he's still unfit.

[cali]

18. no, this was just a demonstration of his tone deaf and arrogant demeanor

he's gotten away with it his entire life. Prep School, College, business and in state politics. He doesn't really know how else to behave, but you can't really get away with that kind of unlikeable behavior on the national stage where it's magnified. Why do you think he's foundering so spectacularly on the likeability issue. He knows this was a fuck up. He's now lying about it.

[tridim]

20. Yea, I've changed my mind after seeing the video.

[ecstatic]

4. How can we keep up with all the issues he's successfully avoiding by

creating additional gaffes every week?

We have to stay on him about:

1. Tax returns
2. Medicare & Ryan pick
3. Outright lies in his welfare commercials
4. Weak response to Akin and then
5. Demanding that abortion and Akin be off the table during interviews

I'm sure I'm forgetting something...

[ananda]

5. Where are your tax returns, Roms?

And we will KEEP asking!!!!

[Care Acutely]

6. K & R baby, yeah!

[hollysmom]

7. an aide replies with Springstein video

Born in the USA

Well, President Obama -- or an aide -- tweeted out a musical response to Mitt Romney's birth certificate joke.

The tweet from Obama's Twitter account linked to a video of Bruce Springsteen singing -- naturally -- "Born in the U.S.A."

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2012/08/obama-replies-born-in-the-usa/1#.UDfggNaPXHQ

[MADem]

8. Dumb fuck pulls out a dog whistle--and everyone thinks of SEAMUS!!!

Go on, Mittwit, call that dog, you damned fool!

[Cha]

10. That's right, Stupid...it's your Tax Returns

Intelligent people want to see.

[rocktivity]

24. PLAGIARIST!!!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=1093243


rocktivity

[Cha]

25. I was hoping you wouldn't

notice since I changed the syntax.

[valerief]

12. I guess anything but the Gawker revelations is good for him. nt

[TBF]

13. He may as well just say "I'm white -

and I'm not showing you my tax returns". He really is stupid and arrogant ...

[rocktivity]

16. What's really saying is

"I'm white and Obama isn't -- THEREFORE I should get your vote. WITHOUT showing you my tax returns...or anything else, for that matter..."




rocktivity

[Smilo]

14. Pandering to the lowest of the low

Romney is so disengenous - he can't stand the "You people", but he needs their votes and to do that he has to play to their fears and hatreds - which he is doing very well.

And remember home is where the heart er money is ... Cayman Islands, Bermuda, Panama, Switzerland and also if you want to vote fraudulently your son's basement.

[Chorophyll]

15. Keep talking, Mittens. Keep talking.

And good for these publications for responding like professionals.

[TeamPooka]

17. I say the same thing. Keep jabbering on Mitt and the whole GOP now...

[Initech]

22. We'll show you Obama's birth certificate (again) when Romney shows us his tax returns.

[kxm40]

23. MORE BIRTHER CRAP

[bluestateguy]

26. If Obama made a Mormon joke we'd never hear the end of it

Say he made a crack about polygamy or magic underwear or the planet Kobos (?) or Jesus and Satan being brothers.

Then we'd be treated to another round of whining about Obama's War On Religion.

[David Zephyr]

27. Thanks for the compilations.

How will America react to his brazen racism. He relished saying this.

[Raine]

28. Apparently for Mitt racist publicity is preferable to his tax paying or lack of paying is. nt

[bakpakr]

29. I think

he is doing this on purpose. Each time he comes out with a new Rmoneyism the networks lose all track of time and that is all they concentrate on. The real issues get pushed to the back burner. No one asks for his taxes, medicare, or anything else just the latest Rmoneyism.

[MFM008]

32. exactly what I thought- subject changer only.

[Demo factoid]

30. Well duh, It says your real name is WILLARD

Now really, who thinks someone who calls himself "Mitt" instead of campaigning under his REAL name will tell the truth about anything. The GOP always uses Barack "Hussein" Obama (all three names) for a reason, but won't use their own candidate's true name. Why? Because its not marketable. I cannot recall any other presidential candidate who campaigned under a nickname. Shouldn't his first name be required to be Willard on the ballot to be legal?

[KharmaTrain]

31. Willard's Frustration Is Showing...

Ya figure he's tried to do everything over the past three weeks to get positive attention and it's all backfired. He got no bump after winning his inept party's "nomination" and has faced what I'm sure he things is a media out to get him. He surely thought his trip to Europe would be a triumph...Alfalfa winning dressage and Willard being the toast of the continent like President Obama was in '08. <buzzer>...then there was little bump in the announcement of Eddie Munster as his "running mate" followed by lots of questions about Ryan's less than stellar record (especially toward women and the elderly) followed right up by the Akin fiasco that unrobed what the rushpublican party is all about. Mittens is surely frustrated as he can't make any charge against the President stick (even will millions of dollars in lies to try to make it so) or get his way...he's not used to this. In Willard's world, Willard is and always is number one...beyond reproach...how dare these low lifes question his rank and stature.

The one thing this racist remark shows me is that Willard isn't convinced he's won his own corrupt party's nomination yet. He still needs to double down on the stupid to show them he's one of them...and most of the "rank and file" still don't believe it. Those who vote for him will do so while holding their noses.

What Willard did was finally unmask the only campaign strategy he has a chance with...playing the "Great White Hope 2012"...and hoping there's enough racists in this country to win the election. The jury's out on that question...

[cilla4progress]

33. And with all this, the race is still

essentially tied up?

What does that say about us...

discouraging

[BrooklynBoy]

34. It Won't Be Tied Up Much Longer

From my perspective, the Obama campaign's strategy was to bombard the airwaves with negative portrayals of Romney, the thinking being we win the election before Mitt even gets untracked, especially because the Romney campaign and super pacs are gonna bombard the airwaves with negative ads for all of September and October. The thinking was, we need to define Romney and build an insurmountable lead that all of that money won't be able to overcome.

It was a good strategy. But, it hasn't worked. Yes, Obama leads in most of the battleground states, but by rather slim margins in most cases. Not enough to withstand the onslaught that's about to come. Remember Iowa? That's gonna be repeated on a scale ten-fold larger.

Add to that the voter suppression measures in PA, OH, FL, etc., and I don't like the way things are shaping up. The Obama campaign formulated a strategy which was risky, but wise under the circumstances. Absent something major happening in the Fall (e.g., Romney's tax returns see the light of day, which neutralizes the effect of all of that negative advertising to come), this country's heading straight for the shitter.