Why Is Mitt Romney Embracing Birther Donald Trump?

[struggle4progress]

So Mitt Romney's newest fundraising effort involves not only appearing with the world's most famous birther, Donald Trump, but also dining with him and a lucky, raffle-winning supporter. OK, I give up: What exactly is Romney thinking?

My own snarky first reaction is that Donald Trump is the kind of rich guy that Mitt Romney imagines the common people can relate to. Romney, remember, has a habit of saying things like he doesn't follow NASCAR "as closely as some of the most ardent fans, but I have some friends who are NASCAR team owners." Maybe he thinks Trump—known far and wide for a decorating style that gives new meaning to the word vulgar—has the common touch in a way that stolid Romney doesn't? That can't be it, right?

Thinking I must be missing something here, I checked with a couple of top GOP operatives. "I got nothin'," one says. Another offers the Godfather theory for dealing with Trump: "Yes, it reinforces the 'I have wealthy friends' stereotype," the Republican strategist says. "And whenever Trump says something stupid it's magnified 10-fold, so there are serious downsides to it. But in the end you would rather embrace it—like the Godfather line about keeping your enemies close." It's better to have Trump running amok inside the tent than causing trouble outside of it, in other words. Trump, remember, has floated the idea of a third-party candidacy, which could only serve to divide the anti-Obama vote (a December Public Policy Polling survey had Trump pulling 19 percent in a three-way race with Obama and Romney, with 7 in 10 of his supporters coming from Romney's column). "We'd rather have Donald Trump saying 'you're hired' than 'you're fired," the strategist says.

Maybe so. But Trump has become inextricably linked to the birther movement, and he won't shut up about it. Just this week, he spoke to the Daily Beast's Lloyd Grove and after getting the preliminaries out of the way (saying he's "honored" that Team Romney wants him and his Las Vegas hotel to help fundraise), then Trump "launched into a furious disquisition concerning Obama's place of birth." To be clear: Trump wasn't unwillingly goaded into spouting his Obama-was-born-in-Kenya theories. He practically lead with them ...

http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/robert-schlesinger/2012/05/25/why-is-mitt-romney-embracing-birther-donald-trump

[freshwest]

1. For the Ron Paul vote. They listen to Alex Jones and are Teabagger Birthers.

GOP voters have the choice of the Bain Libertarian vulture or the Savior of the Prison Planet audience. That's why. He can unite all of the Reich wing nuts behind that. Simple.

[AlinPA]

2. Because the GOP is putting the birther stance at the top of their campaign strategy.

Trump will be the leader on this. The media will not question it, and while it appears stupid to us, it is a big deal to the republicans. They believe it with a passion.

[Thrill]

3. Trump=Rush to Republicans

They fear him. Mittens is too scared to stand up to him

[Iggo]

4. Because they're on the same side.

[Cal33]

5. Just recently the State of Hawaii complied with the request of another group to give them

evidence of Obama's having been born there. Maybe Romney doesn't know about it yet?