Limbaugh: Romney was 'test-driving' birther attack

Barely three hours after he spoke,  Mitt Romney's birther quip was the top campaign story on Google News with over 3,500 articles.

Rather than trying to walk back the comment, RNC communications director Sean Spicer went on the attack in an MSNBC interview: "Look, it's -- I mean, it's a light-hearted moment, he was stating a fact."

Lets take another look at what Romney said:

"No one’s ever asked to see my birth certificate, they know that this is the place where both of us were born and raised."

What the RNC's Spicer said is literally true. Romney was stating a fact -- but he was not just stating a fact. He was also reminding his audience of the racist birther canard.

Rush Limbaugh believes that this is part of the Romney-Ryan game plan:

LIMBAUGH: Stay focused. Romney and Ryan in Michigan. Big, big crowd. And here is Romney, I'm convinced, test-driving something. I think this line is a test drive. 

So Ryan's out there talking about Obama and his bitter clinger quote. And Romney gets up to the microphone. It's his turn to speak, and he test-drives that line about nobody's ever had to ask to see his birth certificate.

I'm going to tell you what. You know, I'm gonna make a prediction for you. It's going to be fascinating to watch. The Obama-bashing at the Republican convention is going to be delicious. It's going to be five-star-restaurant type stuff. I mean, you're going to love it.

So according to Limbaugh, the GOP conference strategy is to spend the week calling Obama names and reminding everyone that he's black, and they're not supposed to like blacks. So much for wanting to get away from negative campaigning to have a real debate on the issues.

People can make the case for this being a clever, planned move on Romney's part, but I think they are wrong. The footage of the rally looks to me as if Romney got jealous watching Ryan getting a big reaction by throwing red meat to a willing crowd, so Romney decided to get some of that applause for himself.  And in so doing, Romney threw away the chance to set the media agenda the weekend before his convention -- rather than talking about the economy, which is supposedly a plus for Romney, everyone is talking about whether Romney intended his comments to be racist.

Romney really isn't a team player, he is a CEO who has to be the only star.

Before this story broke I was working on a post that began, "There is a large, dangerous mass of wind headed for the Republican nominating convention in Tampa. Unless tropical storm Issac forces the convention to be cancelled of course, in which case Donald Trump will have to make other plans."

Romney's gaffe probably means that Trump, the high priest of birtherism, will be making different plans for the convention next week. Assuming Romney realizes the errors of his ways, and understands that his birther joke wasn't a gotcha, it was a gaffe, we might be spared the 'hilarious' surprise video where Donald Trump fires an Obama impersonator.

Unless that is, Romney wants to double down on and go full birther. Read the rest of this post...

Trump continues birther rant (and can't even write proper English)

I only really posted this for the second tweet. Trump is wrong, it's "fewer people," not "less people." You'd think an Amurika-firster would at least hire a ghost-tweeter who speaks proper English.

Trump is referring to his appearance in this new pro-Obama ad.

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Former GOP rep uncomfortable with Romney using birther Trump to raise money

If Mitt Romney can't stand up to Trump and his crazy birther ideas, how will he stand up to the likes of Assad? Romney doesn't show very good morals or decision making if this is the best he can offer during an election cycle. More from Think Progress on the slimy move by Mitt.

NOTE FROM JOHN: Mitt Romney is an outrage-hypocrite.  He gets all hot and bothered when anyone says anything about his being a Mormon - not just when someone says that Mormonism is a "cult", but even about the simple question as to whether Mitt Romney has ever participated in a posthumous baptism in an attempt to steal the souls of dead Holocaust victims.  Romney won't say - he won't even repudiate the practice - and he's offended that anyone would ask.

But boy oh boy, when it comes time to land some low-blows against Barack Obama, Mitt Romney is right there front and center.

First there's Romney's embrace of Trump and his birtherism, and Romney's refusal to say a word about it.  Then there was Romney's gratuitous swipe about Rev. Wright a few months back.  That was even worse than the birther embrace.

Think about it.  Romney thinks that President Obama's embrace of a pastor with what he considers "weird" Christian ideas is fair game in this election.  But what does that say about Mitt Romney's embrace of Mormonism and its ideas?  Why is it off limits to even talk about Romney's Mormonism in anything short of genuflecting adulation, but it's not off limits for Romney himself to criticize President Obama's embrace of Christianity?

Now, the Romney camp could try to argue that it shows a window into President Obama's soul, and brings into question his "judgment" in relying on a preacher with such 'radical' views.

But how is the possibility of Mitt Romney having attempted to forcibly convert the souls of Jewish Holocaust victims, of his embrace of a religion that has been on a virtual jihad against the civil rights of gays, blacks and women over the years, any less a window into Mitt Romney's soul?

It almost seems as if the stronger one embraces one's own religion - i.e., the greater influence your religion has had in determining who you are, and what you will do in life and in politics - the less legitimate it is to inquire about that religion and its influence on you.  Unless it's Mitt Romney questioning Barack Obama's religion and it's influences, then it's okay.

Not to mention, Mitt Romney's son went to South America to convert Latino Christians away from Catholicism and to Mormonism.  Mitt Romney himself went to France in the early 1970s to, again, convert the French from Christianity - Catholicism, again, in their case - to Mormonism.

It's interesting that the Mormons bristle at the suggestion that they are not Christians, yet they do not seem to consider Catholics Christian enough to be exempt from Mormon attempts at conversion.  After all, why would Catholics need to be converted to Mormonism, in order to be saved, if in fact we're all Christians?

Those are the kind of questions Mitt Romney would ask of Barack Obama if the Mormon shoe were on the other foot.  But no one dares ask Mitt Romney the very type of questions he has himself posed to President Obama.

If Mitt Romney thinks Reverend Wright is fair game - an attack that many consider thinly-veiled racism - then isn't it at least fair to inquire why Mitt Romney and his son believe that Catholics are lesser Christians than Mormons?

Mitt Romney has made clear that a candidate's religion, and much worse, are fair for electoral discussion.  Then so be it. Read the rest of this post...

Trump again says Obama born in Kenya, Romney refuses to repudiate, will appear with Trump

Not very Christian of you, Mitt. Read the rest of this post...

Trump calls Paul Ryan budget "catastrophic"

I know, it's Donald Trump.  But as annoying as he is, he does matter - kind of.  He has a megaphone.  He abuses it.  A lot.  But that doesn't mean he doesn't have it.  It's embarrassing for the Republicans to have one of their prominent figures dissing them publicly.  And it only reinforces the message that the Paul Ryan budget (he's the Republican chairman of the US House Budget Committee, and the GOP's top "thinker" on budget issues) is too extreme.

Just to clarify. Trump doesn't disagree with the substance of the draconian Ryan budget. He just thinks it's a mistake to tell voters what's in it. And he's right. Since the Republicans usually only win by lying to the voters about legislation, and elections.

Everyone knows that honesty has a Democratic bias.

From Sam Stein at the Huffington Post:

"It is catastrophic what he's done," Trump told CNBC. "If they lose, it will be the single biggest reason why the Republicans lost: the Ryan plan."

Trump said he took issue not with the content of the Ryan budget -- though he declined to weigh in on that -- but rather, the timing of its introduction.

"I think the worst thing [Romney] can do is strongly embrace that budget if he wants to get elected," he said. "This will be the single worst move in the Republican Party for many years. This is going to be catastrophic."

Read the rest of this post...

Romney surrogate Donald Trump says he has a "very, very" impressive manhood

Well, we know it's not the hair. Read the rest of this post...

Billionaire endorses near-billionaire for President

As expected, Donald Trump endorsed a Republican candidate for President today but not the one people had expected. The Trump nod has gone to Romney rather than Gingrich.

Maybe it isn't so surprising though. Not only are both men very rich, they both like firing people.

As points out, this deal is much better for Trump than for Romney. Trump protects his public image as a power to be reckoned with, a king maker in Republican circles. Romney gets to tie himself to a man whose public image is damaged, to say the least. The body language in the photographs says it all.

So why did Romney do it? My theory is that he dare not offend Trump by refusing him. Trump has suggested he might run as a third party candidate and he wouldn't need to take many votes to do a Ralph Nader on Romney. Even press speculation of a Trump run could hurt Romney.

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Trump changes registration, now independent

What, is his TV show coming to an end and he needs to renegotiate again? NBC News:

Billionaire businessman Donald Trump has changed his voter registration in New York state from Republican to unaffiliated to preserve his option of running for president as an independent. Michael Cohen, special counsel to Trump, said Friday that Trump could enter the race if Republicans fail to nominate a candidate who the real estate mogul believes can defeat President Barack Obama. Cohen told to NBC News that Trump would consider his position "after the finale of 'The Apprentice' in May of 2012 if he is not satisfied with the Republican nominee for president."

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Perry now a birther?

Just when you thought Perry couldn't flounder any more, he goes birther. How did he possibly raise so much cash with this level of silliness? PARADE via ThinkProgress:

Governor, do you believe that President Barack Obama was born in the United States?
I have no reason to think otherwise.

That’s not a definitive, “Yes, I believe he”—
Well, I don’t have a definitive answer, because he’s never seen my birth certificate.

But you’ve seen his.
I don’t know. Have I?

You don’t believe what’s been released?
I don’t know. I had dinner with Donald Trump the other night.

And?
That came up.

And he said?
He doesn’t think it’s real.

And you said?
I don’t have any idea. It doesn’t matter. He’s the President of the United States. He’s elected. It’s a distractive issue.

Read the rest of this post...

Trump on Fox: Let US default so Obama loses in 2012

So ruining the country is an OK deal if that means the GOP might win in 2012. How patriotic. McClatchy:

Donald Trump has some advice for the Republican Party. The New York real estate tycoon went on "Fox & Friends" Monday morning and told the hosts that if the GOP wants to ensure that President Barack Obama isn't re-elected, all it has to do is not make any deals with Democrats and default on Aug. 2.

Trump seems to think that using the country's sparkling AAA credit rating as a sacrificial lamb and letting the nation default would damage Obama, who has been willing to put everything including entitlements on the table, more than it would hurt Republicans, who have refused to raise revenues on the richest Americans and companies during the debt ceiling negotiations.

"When it comes time to default, they're not going to remember any of the Republicans' names. They are going to remember in history books one name, and that's Obama," Trump said.

Read the rest of this post...

Trump actually could have been a contender

Before lapsing into a self defeating orgy of birtherism and buffoonery, Donald Trump was actually enunciating some positions that could have resonated with Republicans, and then with the general public. They might have formed the basis for a successful candidacy. They also provide insight into what someone not steeped in conventional beltway wisdom, but with a P.T. Barumesque feel for what people are actually feeling, comes up with.

On the actual real issues, The Donald was the only one saying some things that need to be said. Things that someone on our side should be saying, but isn't. And frankly, he hit on some things that could have been a winning message:

Economic Nationalism: Trump first made headlines with his attacks on China. The Chinese were playing us for chumps and taking our jobs and he was going to stop it. Later he broadened the attack to include OPEC and others. And we didn't just need jobs, we needed industrial jobs, we needed to make things again. Although simplistic, this message had more truth and much more resonance among the public than the Beltway Villagers realize.

It's not the Deficit, it's Jobs: Trump answered every question about the deficit by saying we needed to fix the economy and get back our jobs. He would absolutely refuse to discuss any other steps on the deficit. To the Villagers, this was of course the ultimate demonstration of his lack of seriousness.   Except, as the last two years of Paul Krugman's columns demonstrate -- restarting the economy is the correct answer to the question of what we need to do NOW.

He rejected Paul Ryan's budget, especially cutting Medicare out of hand: Although even Newt Gingrich seems to be realizing what a loser the Ryan Budget's destruction of Medicare is, Trump was the first Republican candidate to say so.

Get Out of Afghanistan: Trump said we needed to pull our troops out and control any resurgence of terrorism with drones. With the Obama administration stuck in a Vietnam Syndrome of "We're there because we're there, because we're there," getting out of Afghanistan is 2012's sleeper issue. If the Republicans realize how unpopular this war is, Obama could be in real trouble. And again (except for Ron Paul) Trump was there first. Read the rest of this post...

Donald Trump is out, not running for Prez

It seems Trump suddenly realized he's more interesting in making money than ruling the land he claimed he loved.  Kind of funny he'd spend all this time pretending he was running for president, only now to "realize" he wasn't interested.  I wonder if he conducts business deals like this, realizing halfway through the negotiation that he's not interested.

Now, while one could argue that Trump got what he wanted, more publicity, I'm not so sure this presidential flirtation was the wisest thing for brand Trump. Note his favorability and unfavorability ratings since he threw his hat, kinda sorta, in the ring - the red line is unfavorable:

Looking at those plummeting numbers, Trump just declared the political equivalent of bankruptcy.

How does this help Trump, alienating far more Americans than ever before? That certainly doesn't help his TV brand, nor his hotels/casinos, etc. Read the rest of this post...

Rolling Stone asks Donald Trump about his "most memorable orgasm" (seriously)

I understand the reporter's desire to shake Trump up a bit, put him off his guard, especially after a really boring interview, but I think I'd have walked out on someone asking something this inappropriate.  It's odd that the question didn't even cause a blip in Trump's response.  From Rolling Stone:

And then he goes on about the ratings of Celebrity Apprentice and the ratings of himself in presidential polls, both of which are "very, very" high. This is all well and good, but it's incredibly boring, and eventually you are forced to cut him off, with, like, is there one orgasm in his life that he would consider the most memorable?

He leans back in his chair, tilts his head up, takes a long time to think this over, his cherubic cheeks reddening either with the effort of recollection or the maintenance of a boiler about to explode. At last, very smoothly, he says, "Well, always the children. And this building. Trump Tower." A duller answer one cannot imagine. Maybe he'll take a shine to something larger, like naming the central problem of existence.

What do you think? Coarsening the culture, or meh? Read the rest of this post...

Support for Trump presidential run collapses in PPP poll

PPP:

Donald Trump has had one of the quickest rises and falls in the history of Presidential politics. Last month we found him leading the Republican field with 26%. In the space of just four weeks he's dropped all the way down to 8%, putting him in a tie for fifth place with Ron Paul.

Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney are at the top of the GOP race with 19% and 18% respectively. Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin are further back at 13% and 12%, followed by Trump and Paul at 8%, Michele Bachmann at 7%, and Tim Pawlenty at 5%.

Read the rest of this post...

Bankruptcy and other Trump failures

How exactly does one manage to bankrupt a casino? It must take a special kind of leader to do that. These stories take me back to the glory days of "Bush the CEO President" when most of the media ignored the reality that Bush had the reverse Midas touch on businesses that he ran. Bush was expensive enough for the US, so it sounds expensive to even consider a Trump presidency. Top 10 Trump failures, by Time:

"I don't like the B word," Donald Trump said in 2010 while testifying in a New Jersey bankruptcy courtroom about his gambling company, Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc., which had filed for bankruptcy for the third time. Given the number of times Trump has flirted with bankruptcy, you'd think he'd be used to that word by now.

In 1990, the banking institutions that backed his real estate investments had to bail him out with a $65 million "rescue package" that contained new loans and credit. But it wasn't enough, and nine months later the famous developer was nearly $4 billion in debt. He didn't declare personal bankruptcy, although his famous Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City, N.J., did have to file for it (bondholders ended up taking a 50% stake in the investment). Trump's economic troubles continued through the early '90s, while he was personally leveraged to nearly $1 billion. In 2004, Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts also filed for bankruptcy. The company was only a small portion of Trump's real estate empire, but he did still have to personally cough up $72 million to keep it afloat. In 2009, the same company (by then renamed Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc.) filed for bankruptcy again. Yet during all of this, no one ever told Trump, "You're fired!" Probably because no one could.

Read the rest of this post...

Donald "China is raping America" Trump clothing line made in China

To be fair to Trump, it is a snazzy line of clothes that really let's everyone in the room know that you've made it. I think a few of the dictators attending the royal wedding were even wearing his exclusive line. Salon:

Donald Trump has emerged in recent years as the nation's foremost China basher, going after the Asian superpower for undervaluing its currency and for taking American manufacturing and jobs. So it's at least ironic -- and at most an example of gross hypocrisy -- that Trump's own line of men's wear, the Donald J. Trump Signature Collection, is manufactured in China.

I discovered this after walking from Salon's offices to the large Macy's in midtown Manhattan, where an entire section is devoted to the Donald J. Trump Signature Collection of suits and ties. This particular corner of the store is decorated with an oversize portrait of Trump; the line promises to provide "the pinnacle of style and sophistication" and "the necessities to be boardroom ready all of the time."

Read the rest of this post...

Report: Trump avoided Vietnam thanks to multiple deferments

His odd tirade about a CNN poll that doesn't exist was suspicious but now it seems that his story about having a high draft number was not true. Like others born with a silver spoon in their mouth, he skipped past his military service thanks to deferment after deferment. Trump continues to struggle with the truth, but that's not really a problem with the GOP. Sounds like yet another GOP Chickenhawk.

During a TV interview Tuesday morning, Trump--who spent his high school years enrolled at the New York Military Academy--said, “I actually got lucky because I had a very high draft number. I’ll never forget, that was an amazing period of time in my life.”

He went on to recall, “I was going to the Wharton School of Finance, and I was watching as they did the draft numbers and I got a very, very high number and those numbers never got up to.” The word “deferment” was not mentioned by Trump during his chat with the morning show hosts on WNYW, the Fox affiliate in New York City.

However, Selective Service records reveal that Trump, the fortunate son of a multimillionaire real estate baron, took repeated steps to avoid serving in Vietnam.

By the time his number (356) was drawn during the December 1, 1969 draft lottery, Trump had already received four student deferments and a medical deferment, according to military records on file with the National Archives and Records Administration. An extract of Trump’s Selective Classification record, seen here, was provided in response to a TSG records request.

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Donald Trump drops the f-bomb, I fear people will like it

This is one of those cases where I think we might just be acting a bit elite expressing shock at Donald Trumps repeated use of the f-word the other day.

First off, it was clearly intentional.  He figured it helped him with that audience, and a larger audience.  And he might be right.  I've heard people back in the Midwest this past week talking about how Trump was standing up to those Arab oil countries, and good for him, they said.  And I can't help admitting, I agreed with him.  Not that we should invade, but that we should tell them they'd better not increase the price of oil.  We saved Kuwait's behind, and Saudi Arabia's.  They owe us, to their dying days.  The least we should have gotten out of the deal was eternally low oil prices for the US.

Let me reiterate: Kuwait would be a province of Saddam Hussein's Iraq right now if we hadn't invaded.  Saddam would have executed the entire Kuwaiti ruling class.  They owe us their literal lives.  And the next stop would have been Saudi Arabia.  I'm not feeling a lot of oil love from either country.

Don't underestimate America's populist leanings.  Trump is clearly playing to them.  And while he's a bit coarse the way he's going about it, and a bit racist at times as well, I think some of it resonates with actual normal people. Read the rest of this post...

Wash Post's "Fact Checker" rips Trump

Washington Post's "Fact Checker":

Trump speculated that maybe Obama was hiding the fact that the birth certificate said he was Muslim, even though the so-called “long form” does not ask for religion. He claimed, without offering evidence, that he had hired investigators who “cannot believe what they’re finding.” To his credit, CNN’s Anderson Cooper confronted Trump with the fact that there was no sign of any Trump-sponsored investigation in Hawaii.

Trump, in response, said that he had just learned that “the birth certificate is missing.” This was two days before the White House released the version that Trump claimed was gone.

Trump also suggested he would release his tax returns if Obama released the long-form document. After Obama took that step Wednesday, Trump said he would do so “at the appropriate time” — meaning it might be a very long wait.

Read the rest of this post...

Maddow calls out CNN — Why is the press abetting the "birther racket"?

It's been birther heaven the last few weeks, with Trump trumpeting his claims (and letting his freak flag fly) and everyone else covering it like it matters.

The O'Donnell program was particularly strange, in that he excoriated the whole world, it seems, for giving voice to The Donald ("that silly man") and to the racist claims he touts, yet doing so in a show devoted almost entirely those claims and those silly people.

He even dragged in Orly Taitz for a cameo. She didn't disappoint. It was, well, asking much to take it all in, but sometimes O'Donnell does ask much.

Rachel Maddow did the Diss-the-Donald thing much more succinctly (one segment) by calling out birtherism as "a racket," then asking, Why, mainstream press, are you covering it?

In her version, CNN's Ed Henry makes a cameo appearance, in the portion that starts at 11:40. (Ed appears for a close-up at 12:12.) Watch:



Yes, Ed Henry was indeed called out. It makes you wonder. Is he an unwitting tool? A closet "fellow traveler"? A common career-seeker? Or just a guy whose dog really did eat his homework? Who knows — I leave it to the Henry-followers to figure that out.

But something that slipped by me the first time, and didn't the second, was this (at 1:55) — you can help underwrite ads for the Corsi birther book with a monthly deduction from your account. A monthly deduction.

They might as well just stick their hand in the pocket of the rubes and ask, "Can I leave this here for a while?"

P.T. Barnum on steroids. At least with Barnum, you only paid once to get into the girlie tent. Jeez. (And I mean that literally, since Jesusland is the target for this stuff.)

But back to Maddow's main question. "Why is it being pushed by journalists?" Why indeed; I leave the reason to your conspiracy-addled imaginations.

GP Read the rest of this post...