Perry Becomes A Birther

Rick Perry dropped by to visit Donald Trump the other day, probably to beg for money and hope Trump would put in a good word for him with the teabaggers (who seemed to like Trump while he was playing with the idea of entering the race). Then Perry gave an interview to Parade Magazine, in which he said he didn't know whether President Obama was born in the United States or not. Here are his actual words:

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 all the media wants to talk about is Perry becoming a "birther". I don't believe it. Perry's not very bright, but he's not Tait/Trump stupid. He's just trolling for votes among the intellectually-challenged.

You have to understand what a disaster his presidential bid has been. He started out with a lead over everyone else, including Romney. But after the public found out about his views on Social Security and Medicare, and then watched his flailing around in the Republican debates, they started to have serious doubts about him. Since then, he fallen like a rock in the polls.

Perry knows he's not going to get establishment Republicans to vote for him -- Romney has that vote sowed up. But its not the establishment Republicans who will be picking the candidate this year -- its the teabaggers, the idiot wing of the party. Right now the flavor of the month for the teabaggers is Herman Cain, but no one really expects him to get the nomination. And if he doesn't, who will the teabaggers back? Currently that vote is being split by Cain, Perry, Bachmann, Gingrich, Santorum, and Paul, but in the next few months they'll have to settle on someone.

Perry's "birther" statement was just the opening volley in the war for the teabagger vote. He knows they won't vote for mainstream ideas or candidates, so he's going back out to the lunatic fringe (where he's pretty comfortable anyway). He tried to mitigate the idea by calling it a distraction (just in case he makes it to the general election), but there is no doubt he was aiming his remarks at the teabaggers. Will it work? Maybe, he does have $17 million to try and rehabilitate his candidacy. We'll just have to wait and see.