It is, at least in this little corner of God’s creation, a lovely late-summer Friday afternoon:  sunny but not too hot, a light breeze with puffy clouds scattered across the sky.  The weekend forecast is for more of the same.

So the last thing I want to do is start an argument.  Well, actually, I guess that’s the next-to-last thing I want to do.  Because what I really don’t want to do is let that racist thing Mitt Romney just did pass quietly by.

In case you missed it:

“Mitt Romney, who has decried the nasty personal tone of the presidential campaign, seemed to make a joke about President Obama’s birth certificate while speaking to voters here Friday, re-injecting the issue of the president’s birthplace into the campaign.

“Now I love being home in this place where Ann and I were raised, where both of us were born,” Mr. Romney said, standing alongside his wife, Ann, and his running mate, Representative Paul D. Ryan. “Ann was born in Henry Ford Hospital. I was born in Harper Hospital. No one’s ever asked to see my birth certificate. They know that this is the place that we were born and raised.“

Mr. Obama, who was born in Hawaii and shared his birth certificate with the national media, has long been dogged with “birther” rumors, from those who falsely question where he was actually born in the United States.” (emphasis added)

I’m not saying Mitt Romney is a racist*.  I’m saying, whether intentionally or unintentionally, scripted or unscripted, that’s a racist thing Mitt Romney did earlier today in Michigan.  He should be called on it.  He should apologize for it.  He should be grateful to anyone who does call him on it because they’re giving him a chance to apologize for doing a racist thing.

And he should never say it again.

*For the difference between calling someone a racist and saying they did a racist thing, see below for an explanation from the one and only Jay Smooth.

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Crossposted at: http://masscommons.wordpress.com/