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"No one's ever asked to see my birth certificate. They know that this is the place that I was born and raised."

With that comment to a crowd in Michigan, Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney officially embraced the "birther" movement and touched off a firestorm of protest across the airwaves and internet.

Of course, those protesting didn't include his live audience or the extremists on the right. Nor, given Romney's embrace of Donald Trump, should we be surprised by this joke-that's-not-a-joke. Ari Melber of The Nation put it succinctly: "Jokes can be more revealing than talking points."
But what, exactly, did Romney reveal with this pre-meditated "offhand" remark? That he's courting the radical right? He already chose Paul Ryan as his vice-presidential nominee. That he's pandering to the right-wing noise machine and the corporate special interest propaganda machine? We already know that because he appears on media friendly to the right but limits the number and kind of questions reporters can ask him, and then responds with dodging answers.

That he's following the Bush-Cheney-Rove "keep it vague, keep them afraid" playbook? Commentators and analysts have been pointing this out since Romney entered the campaign.

Romney -- hiding behind the plausible deniability that it was just a joke, with a wink and a nod to the extremists in his base -- tried to divert attention from the ABC's haunting his campaign: Akin, Bain, "Corporations are people." His comment has the added benefit of satisfying his most fervent supporters and those anonymous supporters bankrolling one of the most misleading advertising campaigns, a blitzkrieg that strikes just the right partisan undertones.

The real story is that there's nothing unusual about the remark. It's no more in the gutter than a lot of things that have been said about President Barack Obama since coming into office. It's just one more insinuation designed to distract us from the most disconcerting weaknesses of Romney's candidacy -- that he fails to offer details about his policy proposals and stubbornly refuses to disclose more than two years of tax returns.

But it is sad and revealing, nevertheless. It is sad that a campaign stretch that began with his asking Obama to stop apologizing for America (something fact checkers noted the president never did) and roundly debunked welfare attack ad ended with a xenophobic and roundly debunked birther reference. And it reveals not just moral turpitude, but moral vacuity.

His birth certificate dog-whistles are not just desperate, they are deliberate. Romney is campaigning as if he feels he is entitled to the White House -- that, like a feudal lord or European aristocrat, he does not have to answer questions, he does not have to be forthright, he does not have to be honest.

It also reveals, as so much before it has done, that he believes the American people are too ignorant, too indifferent, too lazy, too afraid to bother and that we can be fooled. He also knows that the American press will, after huffing and puffing, give him a free pass on this one, too.

How we respond to Romney's remark will reveal a lot about us, as well. Will we get what he's doing? Will we reject the noxious condescension and the patronizing? Will we demand an open and honest accounting of his business dealings? If he wants to be in charge of our business, we should see how he's run his.

The media, too, will reveal a lot about itself by its response. Outrage, shock, tongue-clicking - these are superficial and useless. Allowing Romney to backpedal -- "it's only a joke" -- misses the point. The media needs to press for policy specifics and contrast claims with facts.

As I said, we shouldn't be surprised by Romney's remark. Trying to pretend that somehow Obama is not an American-born leader, or questioning his patrioism, or his values by using the Big Lie often speaks in code.

Romney's birther remark was less a surprise than a confirmation that his moral compass is off center.

Mr. Romney, America's not an aristocracy. http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/25/opinion/brazile-romney-birther-line/inde
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Donald Trump will play a "surprise" role when the Republican Party kicks off its national convention next week in Tampa, Florida, a party official said on Monday.

The real estate mogul and reality-television star is scheduled to participate in a to-be-revealed fashion on the first day of the four-day convention, where Republicans are to formally nominate former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney to face Democratic President Barack Obama in the Nov. 6 election.

"I am doing something that is going to be, I think, really amazing; it'll be great," Trump said last week on the Fox Business Network. "We'll see what happens. We'll see how it's received."

Trump is not listed as one of the official speakers on Aug. 27, the first day of the convention, but he will participate, a Republican official confirmed.

"There will be a surprise," the official said.

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Donald Trump is keeping his Republican National Convention role a secret for now, but on Wednesday he hinted that whatever it is — it’s going to be “pretty wild.”

“They’ve asked me to speak,” Trump told Imus. “I may do it, but I don’t think you can do both. And you’ll understand when you see what I’m doing. So, it will be one or the other.”

Earlier this month an aide to Trump said he would play a “major role” at the convention where delegates will officially nominate Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan to the GOP presidential ticket.

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Human candy corn Donald Trump, a well-known Political Expert and Successful Reality-Television Business Actor, has a "big surprise" planned for the Republican National Convention.

What could be the surprise? Maybe he will reveal that he is actually a pile of quivering, sentient eels projecting the form of "Donald Trump" onto an unwitting populace. Or maybe, Loser Salon's Alex Pareene writes, the surprise will be "some idiotic video where Trump 'fires' an Obama impersonator."

And, lo:

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Last night, Obama impersonator (or "Fauxbama," if you prefer) Kevin Michel posted a picture posing with Trump, along with a caption urging his Facebook friends to "(b)e sure to watch the Republican National Convention."

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Yeah, it's gonna be a stupid video where he "fires" an Obama impersonator.

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