Obama Tries to Capitalize on Romney Son's Birther Gaffe

Matt Romney apologizes for joke about birth certificate
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 31, 2011 7:16 AM CST

Probably the weirdest thing to come off the campaign trail yesterday was the mini-brouhaha that resulted when one of Mitt Romney's sons made a birther joke. As CBS explains, Matt Romney, 40, was answering a question in New Hampshire about whether his father would ever release his tax returns, when he went for a laugh: "I heard someone suggest the other day that as soon as President Obama releases his grades and birth certificate and sort of a long list of things, then maybe he'd do it."

Romney's eldest son, Tagg, 41, immediately jumped in and added, "That was not my dad saying that," reports ABC's The Note blog. But the comment still got picked up, prompting Matt to apologize later for repeating a "dumb joke." The Obama campaign, meanwhile, sent out an email hoping to cash in on it: "This is how the Romney campaign thinks it's going to win the Republican primary: by pandering to the dead-ender fringe of extremists who still question where the president was born," it reads, before soliciting a donation. (More Mitt Romney 2012 stories.)

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