During a Friday afternoon visit to beautiful downtown Commerce Township, Mitt Romney told supporters: “Ann was born in Henry Ford Hospital, I was born in Harper Hospital. No one’s ever asked to see my birth certificate; they know that this is the place that we were born and raised.”
When Romney made that statement, it may have been true. However, after the speech, Deadline Detroit requested a copy of his birth certificate through Romney’s Michigan campaign office. As of this writing, no one has responded to either our voicemail or email.
The Romney campaign was quick to deny their candidate’s comments had anything to do with the birther movement, which holds that Barack Obama wasn’t born in the United States, or even if he was, he’s still ineligible to be president because his father was a foreign national, or (if they were honest about their feelings) that his unforgivable blackness disqualifies Obama in their eyes.
It seems improbable that anyone would see the birth certificate reference as anything but an attempt to curry favor among the unhinged set. Then again, it seems improbable anyone would believe a colonic offers health benefits, but people do. Birthers and colonics have much in common.
The Republican National Convention will almost certainly formally nominate Romney for president this week . He will join an elite club that includes Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower, and Ronald Reagan. Grubbing around with dreck like Jerome Corsi and Donald Trump—a short-fingered vulgarian who uses bankruptcy as a wealth-creation strategy—is simply undignified for someone in Romney’s position.
Since we asked, Romney can now drop this unbecoming “no one asked to see my birth certificate” trope.
For that, well, you’re welcome Mitt.
UPDATE: At 12:46 PM Monday afternoon Romney's Michigan campaign responded with the following email.
This is something that you should request through our Boston HQ. Please visit http://www.mittromney.com/forms/other to make a request.
Thank you!
Team MI
Deadline Detroit contacted Romney's headquarters on another story. That time we were directed to the state campaign, that's why we went through the state office this time. Apparently "Team MI" was unable to forward our request so it's been resubmitted using the link provided. It's not terribly surprising that Romney, arguably the most corporate presidential nominee in U.S. history, would have a cumbersome contact process befitting a corporate bureaucracy. At least we didn't have to press "1" for English or "2" for Spanish.
If/when "Boston HQ" delivers the birth certificate, we will post it. Either way, it's safe to say Romney was born in Michigan and Obama was born in Hawaii.
