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defrogAs you may know, a certain percentage of Americans are convinced that Barack HUSSEIN! Obama is from Kenya or Indonesia or some other foreign country where lots of Islams live. As you may also know, the GOP has enjoyed this a great deal and milked it for all its worth.
Which isn’t to say most Republicans are birther conspiracy theorists. But they do like to pander to them, because hey, birthers vote. As such, they’ve had to strike that fine line between vague support and kook-by-association – “I’m not saying I think Obama isn’t an American, I’m just saying I can’t say one way or another, and if other people want more proof, well, who am I to be critical?”
The problem with associating yrself with the batshit wing, of course, is that they’ll turn on you when yr not looking if yr not careful.
Which is why we now have the Mitt Romney Birther Conspiracy Theory.
That theory goes like this:
The reasoning – such as it is – is that “natural-born citizen” means being born to two natural-born citizens. If one of yr parents is a foreigner, yr disqualified. Otherwise, Vladimir Putin could knock up an American woman, and if she gave birth to a son in the US, and if that son ran for the White House and won, THE SON OF VLAD PUTIN WOULD BE POTUS AND THAT’S THE BALL GAME, AMERICA! RUSSIA WINS!
Or in Mitt’s case, Mexico wins. Or something.
That’s the more reasonable Mitt Is Mexican theory, incidentally. Others suggest his birth cert is a forgery (because everyone knows how easy they are to fake) and he was actually born in Mexico and/or raised by Mormon polygamists in a deliberate plan to raise him as a Mexican Mormon agent to infiltrate the Presidency.
Yes.
Given thatmany all of these people are part of the Anyone-But-Mitt conservative bloc (which, as you may remember, has been trying out everyone from Michele Bachmann and Herman Cain to Ron Paul and Rick Santorum), none of this is terribly surprising. For them, Romney is almost as bad a choice as Obama. Or, as one MexiMitt believer (and Ron Paul supporter) put it: “Let me ask you this: Is it better to go off a 10,000 foot cliff at 100 mph, or 50 mph?"
Will Mitt’s Mexican heritage ultimately hurt his campaign? Probably not. Democrats may be tempted to use it in the same way that Republicans have used the Obama Birther issue – i.e. if it puts yr opponent on the defensive, use it, no matter how trivial it is, just in case it works. To quote Ryan Gosling in The Ides Of March: “I don't care if it’s true, I just want to hear him deny it.”
But it’s not going to be a deciding factor at the polls any more than Obama’s birth cert will be, even when you factor in the point that Obama birthers and Mitt birthers are essentially the same group of kooks. It’s a small group, and one that’s more likely to vote third-party if it's going to vote at all.
Still, I like the idea that the GOP won’t be able to play the birther card without having to defend Romney’s Mexican heritage – especially given their general tendency to pander to voters who are afeared of Teh Mexicanz in places like (and I’m just pulling a name out of the air here) Arizona, where Mexican-American studies in schools are illegal on the grounds that they encourage students to hate white people and overthrow the govt.
I wish I was kidding.
Muy loco,
This is dF
Which isn’t to say most Republicans are birther conspiracy theorists. But they do like to pander to them, because hey, birthers vote. As such, they’ve had to strike that fine line between vague support and kook-by-association – “I’m not saying I think Obama isn’t an American, I’m just saying I can’t say one way or another, and if other people want more proof, well, who am I to be critical?”
The problem with associating yrself with the batshit wing, of course, is that they’ll turn on you when yr not looking if yr not careful.
Which is why we now have the Mitt Romney Birther Conspiracy Theory.
That theory goes like this:
Mitt Romney’s father is a Mexican. Therefore Mitt Romney cannot legally be President.
The end.
The end.
The reasoning – such as it is – is that “natural-born citizen” means being born to two natural-born citizens. If one of yr parents is a foreigner, yr disqualified. Otherwise, Vladimir Putin could knock up an American woman, and if she gave birth to a son in the US, and if that son ran for the White House and won, THE SON OF VLAD PUTIN WOULD BE POTUS AND THAT’S THE BALL GAME, AMERICA! RUSSIA WINS!
Or in Mitt’s case, Mexico wins. Or something.
That’s the more reasonable Mitt Is Mexican theory, incidentally. Others suggest his birth cert is a forgery (because everyone knows how easy they are to fake) and he was actually born in Mexico and/or raised by Mormon polygamists in a deliberate plan to raise him as a Mexican Mormon agent to infiltrate the Presidency.
Yes.
Given that
Will Mitt’s Mexican heritage ultimately hurt his campaign? Probably not. Democrats may be tempted to use it in the same way that Republicans have used the Obama Birther issue – i.e. if it puts yr opponent on the defensive, use it, no matter how trivial it is, just in case it works. To quote Ryan Gosling in The Ides Of March: “I don't care if it’s true, I just want to hear him deny it.”
But it’s not going to be a deciding factor at the polls any more than Obama’s birth cert will be, even when you factor in the point that Obama birthers and Mitt birthers are essentially the same group of kooks. It’s a small group, and one that’s more likely to vote third-party if it's going to vote at all.
Still, I like the idea that the GOP won’t be able to play the birther card without having to defend Romney’s Mexican heritage – especially given their general tendency to pander to voters who are afeared of Teh Mexicanz in places like (and I’m just pulling a name out of the air here) Arizona, where Mexican-American studies in schools are illegal on the grounds that they encourage students to hate white people and overthrow the govt.
I wish I was kidding.
Muy loco,
This is dF
