Seeking to end three days of distractions from his campaign, Texas Gov. Rick Perry says in an interview to air Sunday that he has no doubt that President Obama is an American citizen, saying he was only kidding around about the issue when he raised doubts about where Obama was born.Read the rest here.
The St. Petersburg Times reported today that Perry told the newspaper, when asked if he thinks Obama is an American citizen, "I have no doubt about it." (See transcript at the end of this story.)
Though Perry has repeatedly called the so-called "birther" talk a "distraction," he has continued the sideshow by refusing to answer questions about whether he believes Obama was born in the United States. It has had a negative impact on his campaign, overshadowing at times the tax and entitlement reform proposals he unveiled on Monday and Tuesday. And it raised the question of potential pandering by the Perry campaign to extremists in the Republican Party who maintain that Obama's origins are suspect in spite of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
Stick a fork in him. Perry is (well) done.
Perry is done, but not because of the Birther issue.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting that Perry once again sidestepped Obama's eligibility by asserting strongly that he believes that Obama's a citizen. The Birther issue was never about Obama's citizenship, but his natural-born citizenship, whatever that means. (The Supreme Court has never opined about birthplaces or Caesareans, but I'm betting that an American Macbeth would qualify.) That's why any doubt about Obama's birth within the US would fuel an eligibility controversy.
As you can see, I'm down with prolonging a frivolous issue solely for my amusement, but only because I have no immediate reason to create and maintain a stolid appearance.