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Ellen Belcher is the Dayton Daily News opinion pages editor. She writes about state government, education, the environment, higher education and all things Dayton.
Martin Gottlieb is an editorial writer and columnist for the Dayton Daily News opinion pages. He focuses on the political process itself and does such national issues as war, the economy, taxes and Social Security, as well as a hodge-podge of local and state issues.Home > Blogs > A Matter of Opinion > Archives > 2010 > March > 11 > Entry
Martin Gottlieb: Linking Portman to birthers gets Democrats noplace
When Rob Portman was in the Miami Valley to campaign for the U.S. Senate recently, he was preceded on the program by two — count them — local Republican politicians who, in the process, cracked birther jokes.
Not jokes about birthers — the people who somehow manage to believe that President Barack Obama wasn’t born in this country and isn’t a citizen; but jokes proceeding on the premise that Obama was, in fact, not born in this country.
This campaign event really did happen. There’s audio and video.
Ever since, Ohio Democrats have been having a blast. They’re e-mailing links to the audio and video. They’re calling on Portman to denounce the birthers. They’re counting the days during which he has not done so to their satisfaction. They’re reporting about how many blogs have picked up the story. (See talkingpointsmemo.com, for example, and search for Rob Portman to hear the audios.)
They’re milking the thing for all it’s worth.
But, really, it’s not worth much.
Portman was in Darke County for a Lincoln Day Dinner, a fundraising event. Introducing him was state Rep. James Zehringer. He said that Wikipedia, an online source, offers a biography of Portman that starts with he’s “an American lawyer.”
Said Zehringer, “That’s something our president can’t say.”
You probably had to be there. (Actually, though, the audio raises questions about whether even those who were present were amused.)
Before Zehringer, Jim Buchy (pronounced Beeky) spoke. He was a state legislator for many years. An assistant House Republican leader, he was known as among the most conservative people in Columbus.
He delivered a recitation that was apparently already going around in right-wing circles. It entails a comparison of Abraham Lincoln and Obama, both, after all, being lawyers and legislators from Illinois who reached the White House without great prior experience in office. It ends, as Buchy offered it:
“Lincoln was a skinny lawyer. Obama is a skinny lawyer. Lincoln was a Republican. Obama is a skinny lawyer. Lincoln was born in the United States. Obama is a skinny lawyer.”
Defenders of Buchy and Zehringer say they were just joking around, however badly. Still, one might expect experienced politicians to know it’s not a great idea to tie your guy to the birthers. Maybe what they didn’t count on was the Internet.
Portman didn’t say anything about the birther jokes at the event. But he has, upon being pressed, called the remarks “inappropriate,” before changing the subject to how the Democrats can’t do anything but take cheap shots.
The whole thing looks to reasonable people like one of those political flaps that warriors and journalists love but have no real meaning, being only diversions from serious talk about complex issues. (And you know how much people love serious talk about complex issues.)
In fact, though, there’s a legitimate, relevant issue. Portman has somehow developed a reputation for level-headedness and a kind of gentility, even while keeping the fire-breathing conservatives happy. This bugs the Democrats. They want to paint him as afraid to take on the party’s fringes. They want to undercut his reputation among independents.
They point, among other things, to a John McCain campaign event in 2008 when radio flamer Bill Cunningham carried on in a way that led McCain to explicitly “repudiate” Cunningham. Portman, another speaker at the event, kind of laughed it off, in the name of party unity.
“Willie, you’re out of control again,” he said on stage. “So, what else is new? But we love him. … I’ve got to tell you, Bill Cunningham lending his voice to this campaign is extremely important.”
Some might reasonably be put off.
Thing is, though, politically speaking, Portman probably doesn’t need to establish credentials as a moderate. If swing voters are inclined to think that the president they elected in 2008 needs to be balanced off with Republicans in Congress — as such voters often seem to think in midterm elections — they’re likely to be little concerned about varying degrees of conservatism among Republicans. They’re not electing a president, after all, just balancing the parties.
Speaking of presidents, though, look at how the Republicans did in 2008, when they pointed to Barack Obama’s embarrassing affiliations: his minister, an associate with an extremist background, ACORN.
The voters who were up for grabs just didn’t care. They judged the individual and the circumstances of the election.
For some reason, up-for-grabs voters seem to assume that everybody in politics has embarrassing friends.
Permalink | Comments (8) | Post your comment | Categories: Columns, Martin Gottlieb, Miami Valley Politics, Ohio politics
Comments
By null
March 12, 2010 8:16 AM | Link to this
It may sound trite, but a huge blow-up over corny jokes makes these liberal blogs seem to be in a panic of some kind. I was at this event—-the only topic of the whole evening was the deficit and jobs—-much more important to the voters.
By Bill
March 12, 2010 8:23 AM | Link to this
That’s the trouble…most of Portman’s friends are high paid Lobbyists
By irishguy
March 12, 2010 9:16 AM | Link to this
Martin, Mr Obama’s birth announcement appeared in the local Hawaiian paper, so there’s really no “birther” issue. What everyone seems to forget is the Birther Movement was started by Democrats. Specifically, the P.U.M.A Party. A group of Clinton supporters. Phillip Berg, former Deputy Atty Gen (D) of PA filed the lawsuit on 8/21/08 alleging Mr Obama was not native born. The Dems like to play it up as a Repub issue, when in fact, it’s Dems who brought the issue to the forefront.
By bobby
March 12, 2010 9:35 AM | Link to this
Yawn…..Relevance?
By irishguy
March 12, 2010 9:57 AM | Link to this
Sorry to wake you Bobby. I don’t think the birthers are relevant. Just pointing out how the D’s created and use them.
By bornskeptic
March 12, 2010 10:19 AM | Link to this
Obama was the child of an American mother—-doesn’t matter where he was born, he’s a citizen. Much more interesting are his sealed college applications, did he claim foreign citizenship to get preference for admission? Why are his college records sealed?
By bobby
March 12, 2010 10:55 AM | Link to this
Irish, The yawn was for the editorial, not your comment.
By Davidss2
March 13, 2010 9:28 PM | Link to this
Martin says that people didn’t care about what minister and obama’s friends did in 2008 election. Actually they did but the media didn’t want to do any investigation of the problems roiling at the surface, martin. Also after being fed, by the media, for 8 years how awful President Bush was people were voting against President Bush rather than for obama. It’s going back to the media and their improper representation of their role of fairness in reporting, not editorializing in the reporting portion of the paper.