(Cartoon courtesy of Donkeyhotey, via Flikr)
As if his complete and utter inability to get through a softball debate had not sealed his fate, Texas Governor Rick Perry has decided to make himself look like the First Runner Up in the Buffoon of the Century Contest by going all Birther in a Parade Magazine interview.
Here is the relevant part from the interview:
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.
Now I give Gov. Ricky a partial score because he did at least says that the president was elected and it should not matter now. But it is only a partial score because he exhibits his inability to connect the dots on any issue with his answer.
Because of people like Orly Taitz J.D., D.D.S., W.W.W. (Wicky-in-the-Wacky-Woo) we are still talking about this. Their contention is that he was never elected legally. This means, for the thinking impaired like Gov. Perry, that he can’t legally run for office this cycle either.
But beyond that bit of cognitive dissonance there is a bigger problem that shows why Perry is just not ready for national elective office. Answering that question that way is a total no-win politically.
First off it sets up a lot of stories like this one, which will bring up the fact that the president’s birth and documentation of the same have been conclusively proved as well as any citizens can be.
Second it is going to cost him in electability points. Not necessarily in votes, since we know that the Republican base voter is a conspiracy theorist at heart and does not care how often it is debunked, but it will cost him in the general election with ex-Republican independents and anyone that has half a brain (meaning George Will is definitely going to vote for him!).
Finally there is nothing, and I mean nothing, to be gained by admitting that you went to New York to kiss Donald Trump's ring. He cashed all his credibility on this or any issue when he claimed to have private investigators on the ground in Hawaii. He said they had 'bombshell' evidence but refused to name who they were and somehow, that bombshell has never been dropped.
This is yet another unforced political error on the part of Gov. Perry. The dodge on this issue is simple, when asked do you believe that President Obama was born in this country, any right leaning politician should say “The president has show all the documentation that any citizen has, it is a non issue, lets talk about X” and then change the freaking subject.
One thing is clear though, Rick Perry’s “shoot from the hip” reputation is not a P.R. fabrication. The problem for him is that he is just not a very good shot.
For those of us on the Left side of the blogosphere, this is pretty good news really. The Republican base and a lot of the Republican establishment hate Mitt Romney.
They see him as the a flag that blows in any wind and know that he is wholly vulnerable to a barrage of flip-flop commercials should he be the G.O.P. nominee. That combined with his privileged and out of touch life story makes him just the wrong man to carry the banner for the Party of Lincoln this cycle.
Yet there is no one else to do it. Herman Cain is enjoying some success in the polls right now but just like every other “anyone-but-Romney” candidate it is going to deflate shortly. After all the man is not really running for office, he has no organization in Iowa or New Hampshire. As Rudy Giuliani’s 2008 primary bid shows, if you don’t participate in the early states, you don’t have a chance in hell of being the nominee.
This sets up a situation where the candidate that will emerge from the Republican convention will have only, at best, luke warm support from his party. For all that the Koch Brothers and the unindicted criminal Karl Rove will poor hundreds of millions into defeating President Obama, they will not have a candidate that inspires or enthuses the base and without the Republican base, they can’t win.
So here is to the Republican, the party that made such a war on expertise that they can not gin up a single candidate who is smart and politically savvy enough to survive their own nomination process. May they never, ever, change.
The floor is yours.