Romney Panders to Birthers by Using Son as Proxy
Romney has involved his sons in his campaigns for a long time, including through blogging during the 2008 campaign primaries. That makes me believe that this is not a slip or accident, but rather that it was wholly contrived.
At an event in New Hampshire today, Romney’s adult son Matt Romney responded to a question regarding the potential release of his father’s tax returns with a joke alluding to doubts about Mr. Obama’s place of birth: “I heard someone suggest the other day that as soon as Obama releases his grades and birth certificate and sort of a long list of things, then maybe he’d do it,” he said.
Romney’s other son, Tagg Romney, jumped in to say, “That was not my dad saying that.”
Matt Romney subsequently released his first-ever tweet in response to reports about his comments: “I repeated a dumb joke. My bad. RT @emilyrs Romney’s son Matt made an Obama birth certificate joke on the trail in NH.”
The Romney campaign in all likelihood would like to avoid wading into conspiracy theories that could chip away at the perception that Romney is a serious candidate, but Mr. Obama’s re-election campaign is already exploiting the gaffe.