Opinion: The Rebirth Of The Birthers Aborted By Romney
There have been several controversies surrounding President Barack Obama in recent days that should have given “the right” and Mitt Romney, the presumptive GOP presidential candidate, opportunities to put Obama in a negative light. Yet, every opportunity has passed without seeing the light of day.
In recent weeks, the rebirth of the 2008 story involving Reverend Jeremiah Wright, Obama’s former fire and brimstone preacher who cursed America, was dead on arrival with Romney saying the revival of the story would be wrong. If Romney thinks this presidential race isn’t going to get dirty, he’s got another thing coming. Obama is obviously not going to give up his DC residence without a good and - likely necessary - dirty fight.
Yet, Romney discards the opportunity, probably for the desire to look like a nice guy. How long it will take Romney to realize that being “nice” can easily equate to being “weak” is to be seen.
Also, in recent weeks, Obama’s girlfriend in “Dreams from My Father” was found to be a composite of a person – not a real woman at all. Though the “fine print” disclaimer has been in the book all along, it was only noticed and publicized recently.
It would be so easy for Romney to insinuate that Obama had too many girlfriends, too few girlfriends, or - speaking of same-sex relationships in recent days – maybe a bi-gender composite of males and females as the alleged girlfriend.
Whatever the opportunities for dirty political insinuations, Romney has been letting them all slide.
Then there was the best opportunity for Romney to attack Obama with the revival of the birthers issue via an Obama publicist’s bio which was written in 1991. What could possibly be more perfect for Romney than the news that Obama claimed to be born in Kenya, which is the same as saying that he isn’t eligible to be the President of the United States.
Yet, Romney remains attack-less on that story, too.
In spite of the fact that most people appear to be totally convinced that Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii on August 4, 1961, there is so much more that Romney could be doing with revival of the rebirther story. But then again, it would involve getting dirty – apparently something that Romney won’t do.
Latching onto the story published by Breitbart News would have been Romney’s greatest opportunity to raise doubts about Obama’s honesty and integrity. The Breitbart news source gathered proof that Obama’s former literary agency, Acton and Dystel, wrote in his biography that he was born in Kenya and raised in Indonesia and Hawaii, contradicting Obama’s questionable birth certificate showing that he was born in Hawaii.
What more could Romney want than something like this?
The story continues that the Kenyan-born bio remained for some 16 years until Obama was about to announce his candidacy to run for president. Even though it seems somewhat logical to believe that Obama and his publicist published a lie about his birthplace to make Obama more marketable for the books he was writing, Romney could easily attack the president.
If Obama allowed his publicist to lie about his birthplace in his bio to promote his books, how many other lies are in the books?
This is the angle Romney should consider running with to convince Americans that one shouldn't trust everything Obama has said about his past – as well as about his present and America’s future. Besides making Obama look like a liar who is extremely evasive about his past, he could also follow up the rebirth of the birther issue with the age-old question about Obama’s academic transcripts not being offered to the public.
Even Donald Trump, after all the embarrassment he endured for his birther comments last year, stepped from behind the curtain last Friday to tweet on Twitter: “Let’s take a closer look at that birth certificate. @BarackObama was described in 2003 as being “born in Kenya.”
While few, including Romney, will never be as gutsy as Trump, there is so much that Mitt Romney could be talking about that he isn’t talking about. Apparently, he’d rather be a nice guy. He better wise up soon if he plans on winning this presidential race because everyone knows where nice guys finish – last.
About Scott Paulson
Scott Paulson writes political commentary for Examiner.com and teaches English at a community college in the Chicago area. The views and opinions expressed in this post are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of CBS Local.
