Birthers, Redux

In an interview in Parade, Rick Perry declined to say definitely that President Obama was born in the United States. When the reporter pressed him, he said that the issue was "distractive." Linda Feldmann writes at The Christian Science Monitor:

Distractive, indeed. And now Perry, who is trying mightily to revive his presidential prospects, has created a new distraction. Maybe he’s not a full-fledged birther, part of a fringe that is convinced that Obama was born in Kenya or Indonesia or maybe Mars and is therefore ineligible to be president. But Perry has now teed up yet another diversion from what should be his dominant message as a candidate: his job-creation record.

Listen, for example, to Bobby Jindal, who won reelection as governor of Louisiana on Saturday and who addressed a recent Republican National Committee meeting in Tampa, Fla. Governor Jindal, who is the son of Indian immigrants, said this: “I do not question where President Obama is from. I question where President Obama is going.”

Jindal may well have his eye on the presidency someday, and he also wouldn’t want “distractive” questions about his eligibility. Ditto Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, the rising GOP star and son of Cuban immigrants. He’s faced some birtherism as well – as well as that little flap about misstating when exactly his parents came to the States.