According to Adam Serwer’s Birtherism Lexicon, birthers, like dwarves, come in seven different vintages: birthers, post-birthers, ironic post-birthers, pseudo-birthers, the birther-curious, reform birthers, and orthodox birthers. Newly minted GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney wants you to know he’s in that eighth category: He’s not a birther:
Mitt Romney forcefully said Tuesday night that he believes President Barack Obama was born in America and that “the citizenship test has been passed.”
“I think the citizenship test has been passed. I believe the president was born in the United States. There are real reasons to get this guy out of office,” Romney told CNBC’s Larry Kudlow the day after he formally announced that he’s exploring a run for the White House. “The man needs to be taken out of office but his citizenship isn’t the reason why.”
Romney’s right—at least about the citizenship bit. But it also goes to show just how low the bar has been set for the Republican field in 2012: A candidate can come off as reasonable and moderate simply by asserting that the President of the United States is, in fact, from the United States, and not part of some sort of vast, international conspiracy to destroy the republic.
