You don’t know that. It’s not as if race-baiting is unknown in politics.
Does birtherism have nothing to do with race? Period?
And was Romney not bringing up birtherism? Period?
Another unsupported assumption. He has a foreign dad and spent his early childhood in Indonesia. The birther issue would not have come up with Jesse Jackson, nor did it. Even Obama’s publicist thought he was foreign born. It was not a crazy thing to believe before it was proven that he was in fact born in the US.
Don’t dot that period quite yet. You don’t get to declare when the point is over for discussion unilaterally. Also, since you never answered me before, I’ll try my questions again:
If its nothing to do with race to say that, then what is he implying by saying that its ok to ask to see Obama’s birth certificate, but noone has asked to see his? What is it that he’s trying to say about Obama with this statement then? What difference is he trying to illustrate between him and Obama? Is it a policy difference, or something else? I’d love to hear your, most likely tortured, explanation of his intended meaning with this statement.
No period can be put onto this thread until you can at least answer these questions don’t you think?
You can say ‘no he did not mean that’, but you should at least offer an alternate explanation then, right? He obviously meant something by it, right? What would that be then?
It’s straight. I admit I should’ve been a little clearer in my first sentence that I’m talking about the campaign at large and not just Romney, but I think we’ve cleared that up. All things considered I came down on the side of McCain not using racial animosity. The Romney camp seems to feel that McCain lost because there were places he wasn’t willing to go.
Yes. I didn’t think that was a particularly complex distinction. I think Romney’s running a racist campaign. How he feel himself, I don’t know. I’m inclined to believe he’s not a racist since his father was certainly against racism in the Mormon church, and nothing has ever come up to contradict Mitt Romney’s description of what a momentous and moving event it was for his family when the church officially abandoned its racist views against blacks.
No, you have to understand what he meant. We know what the literal words were. The irony of it is that Romney and Obama have very similar backgrounds as far as birth certificates were concerned: they were both born in the U.S. and so were their mothers. Their fathers were both born outside the country, and they both came from polygamous families that practice minority faiths (in U.S. terms). But of course, a chunk of people think Obama was born in Kenya and went to a madrassa or if he wasn’t born in Kenya his father was Malcolm X or some other thing, and of course everybody knows Romney was born in Detroit.
So it has been a crazy thing basically since 2006 or 2007 (or maybe even before).
Not sure what your point is.
Oh yeah, that’s a big bloc to win. He’s not an idiot, you turn more people off than you gain. All the racists are in states Romney is going to win anyway.
Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying those of you who think he’s race baiting are necessarily wrong, I’m just holding you to the standard that has been set, which is that it is not fair to read between the lines of candidate statements. They must be taken literally and to read anything else into them is to make up a story where there is none.
Just like there was an innocent explanation to Reagan’s first post-convention speech in 1980 being given in Philadelphia, MS. How many times do they have to blow the freaking dog whistle?
Who was Mitt Romney’s dad? When Mitt Romney was born, what was his dad doing? Oh yeah, he was a big shot in the American auto industry, as well known in his time as Lee Iacocca. So no, no one would ever need to ask for his birth certificate. Might as well ask the Kennedys or Bushes for their birth certificates.
I think you are backwards on this. If Romney’s comments are taken “literally”, it’s definitely race baiting. It’s only his tone and the benefit of the doubt (or “reading between the lines”) that even has one questioning the racist nature of the comment.
adaher does a good job of addressing this in the post after yours. Obama’s background is unusual to say the least for a presidential candidate. Crazy people believe crazy things. Look at the 9/11 or moon landing theorists who are out there. Obama’s background of living outside the US and foreign father are the reason for the birthers.
It was one throw away line. A joke. He’s not bringing anything up. He was saying he and his wife were born there and he tossed in a joke at Obama’s expense. Based on the stories I’m seeing on Google News the crowd ate it up.
But it seems perfectly feasible that Ann Dunham went to Kenya when she was eight months pregnant.
I think you know better.
And that crowd was obviously a randomly-selected cross section of America. This is going to make him look like a first class douche in the eyes of a lot of people who had previously considered voting for him.
No, I don’t think Romney was being intentionally racist. I don’t think he has the good sense that God gave a goose, but I don’t think he’s racist. Because he lacks good sense, its entirely possible that he thought he was making fun of birtherism. He was handed the script, and he said it. It may very well be that whoever wrote that shit was aiming low, but Mittens is so dumb, he might very well be innocent.
And while its true that the Venn diagram of racists and birthers would show definite overlap, the one is not, by definition, the other. I give a pass.
Please don’t make me do this again. I feel so…so clean!
So is it a good or bad thing for our political discourse to pander to the crazy? And if the crazy is on your side, what does that say about your side?
Also, I see that you are still not answering my questions. Do you need them reposted? Or perhaps rephrased? If he was not bringing anything up and it was a throwaway line, then why did he even bother saying it? What was his point? And why did the crowd cheer? How can you say with a straight face that this comment had no meaning. Both he and the crowd would have to disagree with you right? He must have had a purpose for saying it, and the crowd must have had a reason for reacting the way they did, right?
It worked for the Sheens.
Definitely not, once that fact was known. When I first heard about the controversy I did a quick check and found that there was already documentary evidence of Obama’s American birth. His parents were in Hawaii at the time. As you say, they would have had to go to Kenya just to give birth.
But if you didn’t know that yet, it would be reasonable to wonder given what was widely known about his background. And as I pointed out, crazy birthers weren’t the only ones to make the assumption that he was foreign born throughout his life.
You know what? You’re right. I’m convinced.
[/sarcasm]
Let’s take another look at the statements of all the people speaking that day in MI.
Listen to all that racism!
“Four years ago?” Forty years ago the country was still making negros sit in the back of the bus! Clearly he wants to return to that.
“Deer hunter?” Everyone knows african americans don’t deer hunt! He’s bragging about how white he is. Unbelievable!
“Grew up here?” Yes, back fifty years ago when racism was rampant! You want to return to those times? Disgusting.
“Big W?” That’s a big “White” code-word you racist upper class wasp. Outrageous.
“I got quite choked up?” Obvious reference to lynching. I’m surprised she didn’t incite the mob to string up a colored boy from the nearest tree with that sort of hate speech.
Wow, all this and we haven’t even gotten to Romney’s words yet. It must be exhausting to get this outraged over imagined racism constantly.
It starts out with an innocent, kind remark. The next thing you know, you’re tithing! 
Actually, I agree with you here. He’s socially clueless in front of a crowd of regular folks.