Campaigning in Michigan today, where he grew up, Mitt Romney made a joke. He said “no one’s ever asked to see my birth certificate. They know that this is the place that we were born and raised.”
While this is a clear reference to discredited claims that Obama was not born in the US and is thus ineligible to be president, I think the not-so-subtle implication that the reason why nobody asks for Romney’s birth certificate is because he is white is off-the-mark. That would not only be racist, it would be ironic because Romney’s father was born in Mexico.
There’s a better explanation. Mitt Romney is just an insensitive jerk opportunist, who has no principles other than winning and making money.
He’s insensitive for making such a joke. He’s a jerk for thinking it was funny. And worst of all, he’s an opportunist for (once again) associating himself with the Republican lunatic fringe who is still screaming about Obama’s birth certificate. Sure, if you ask Romney point blank he will say that he believes Obama was born in the US, but he still campaigns with people like Donald Trump.
The fact that Romney is not willing to stand up to the voices of crazy in his own party is one of the things I most dislike about him. He will say or do anything to win. So he makes dog-whistle jokes like this, which he can then deny. Does he have any moral principles at all?
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I think he does, regardless of his pro-life/pro-choice, pro-equality/pro-“family values”, pro-healthcare/anti-healthcare flip flops, he does appear to be unshakable in his belief in supply-side economics and protecting the top echelons of the upper class. If you can call that moral, then yes, he has principles.
That’s not a principle, that’s just self serving.
Probably not.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/24/mitt-romney-tax-returns_n_1827632.html