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ORIGINAL: DarkSteven
...weird places in the GOP...

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ORIGINAL: DarkSteven

Uh, no. Romney didn't say that. There's some question to what degree Sununu was going off message.

I suspect that Sununu may have simply "birthed" over Obama and then retracted later, making a dual statement so to speak. But I think it about as likely that Sununu simply shSunnot off his mouth. Romney's pulling testimonials and endorsements from weird places in the GOP, and Sununu's one of them.

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ORIGINAL: kalikshama
I've reached my monthly limit of free LA Times articles - would someone please repost? I'd like to answer thishereboi's question about whether this is a legitimate birther issue or not.
From what I can read, the birther logic flows thusly - he wasn't born here, so he's not one of us, and his administration resembles foreign governments.
Romney campaign's attacks on Obama play on 'birther' fears
Mitt Romney says the Obama administration resembles foreign governments, and a chief surrogate for the GOP candidate says the president needs to 'learn how to be an American.'

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Whether described as a "proposition nation" or a "creedal nation" or simply just "an idea," the United States of America is defined by our way of life. This way of life is rooted in the ideals proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence; in the system of personal liberty and limited government established by the Constitution; in our traditions of self-reliance, personal responsibility, and entrepreneurism; in our emphasis on private property, freedom of contract, and merit-based achievement; in our respect for the rule of law; and in our commitment to affording equal justice to all. Perhaps above all, it is marked by our abiding belief that, as Americans, we have been called to a higher duty in human history. We are the "city upon a hill." We are "the last, best hope of earth."

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Americanization refers to processes of "becoming American," and to organized efforts to encourage the transformation of immigrants into "Americans." The term was in informal use in the United States in the mid-nineteenth century, but it is most prominently associated with the movement of that name during the 1910s and early 1920s. The term is often used interchangeably with assimilation.
The "problem" of Americanization arises because American national identity must be constructed in the absence of primordial ethnic mythology, and in the face of exceptional diversity. There is general recognition that the United States is a "civic nation," rather than an "ethnic nation," in which devotion to "founding principles" is the source of national identity and community. The creedal nature of American identity carries the implication that anyone may "become American" by committing himself or herself to the nation's founding principles, and to their expression in distinctively American symbols and ways of living. However, the propositional nature of American identity carries with it the question of who is capable of the necessary understanding of, and commitment to, American principles, and to the ways of living that they are taken to imply. That seed of doubt has led Americans to scrutinize cultural differences, ethnic consociation, and race as potential indicators of the lack of qualification for trusted membership in the polity, and to insist on outward demonstrations of Americanization by those considered for membership.

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It is said that being an American means sharing a commitment to a set of values and ideals*. But clearly, someone can believe in American ideals without being American.


To be or to become an American, a person did not have to be any particular national, linguistic, religious, or ethnic background. All he had to do was to commit himself to the political ideology centered on the abstract ideals of liberty, equality, and republicanism. Thus the universalist ideological character of American nationality meant that it was open to anyone who willed to become an American.**



** - Philip Gleason, "American Identity and Americanization,"

• A Conservative interpretation of the US Constitution
  
• Personal Responsibility
  
• Help for the truly needy
  
• Limited Government
  
• Consumption Tax (non-profit charities and food exempt)
  

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ORIGINAL: Musicmystery

President Obama was never born. He sprung from the foam of the sea.

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ORIGINAL: Owner59
Why is Mitt playing to the con audiance....the "base"?

Is it bcause he still hasn`t won them over yet?

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ORIGINAL: Owner59
One of his top surrogates said the American comment......that makes it Romney`s comment.