Could Mitt Romney's 'birther' denial hurt his campaign?

Mitt Romney says that, although there may be many reasons to get Obama out of office, his citizenship isn&#039;t one of them.

(Image credit: Getty)

last updated 8 January 2015

Mitt Romney placed himself squarely in the "not birther" column this week, telling CNBC's Larry Kudlow that President Obama has passed "the citizenship test," and "was born in the United States." Meanwhile, a national CNN poll showed Donald Trump, who's used birtherism to drum up Republican support, atop the GOP's 2012 field. Trump has scoffed at the idea that birtherism is a "losing issue," saying Sunday, "55 percent of the Republicans believe in this issue, and 70 percent think that there's at least a good chance he wasn't born in this country." Has Romney made a strategic error?

Romney just shot himself in the foot: After discounting the birthers, "Romney is doomed. Dead man walking. A political zombie," says Jay Bookman in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Trump isn't the only GOP candidate thriving because of such "eccentricities," or even the only one "banging on the birther drum." Sadly for Romney, in today's GOP, "sane ain't selling."

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Denouncing birtherism is good for Romney — and the GOP: Some Republicans will support "peddlers of paranoia," says Peter Wehner in The Wall Street Journal, but most voters are rightly "uneasy about political institutions that give a home to cranks." Trump has forced this "fringe conspiracy theory" into the spotlight, and "responsible Republicans" like Romney need to "speak out immediately" against Trump's gambit if their party is to have any shot at beating Obama.

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