Never let a (manufactured) crisis go to waste.
(CBS News) — After Mitt Romney’s son made a “birther” joke on the campaign trail, he quickly apologized and downplayed the taboo remarks. President Obama’s re-election team, however, is keeping the moment alive and hoping to earn a few bucks off of it.
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. […]
In an email to supporters today about the joke, Obama for America campaign manager Jim Messina wrote, “This is how the Romney campaign thinks it’s going to win the Republican primary: by pandering to the dead-ender fringe of extremists who still question where the president was born.”
While asking for a donation, Messina said, “we can drive up the cost of this kind of politics. . . when they do this, you’ve got to do something about it.”