Southern senator: ‘My people’ dislike Obama because he is too ‘exotic

By Eric W. Dolan/Raw Story

A southern senator said that his constituents disliked Barack Obama because the President seemed “exotic,” Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) told the editorial board of the Des Moines Register on Wednesday.

The comment from the unnamed senator came during a closed-door meeting about filibuster rules last month.

“And, not naming any names, but one senator got up from a Southern state and said, ‘You’ve got to understand that to my people down here, Obama seems like’ -– he thought for a second and he said -– ‘like he’s exotic,’” Harkin told the Des Moines Register.

“We kind of laughed at that –- what’s that mean? Exotic? That he’s just exotic, that he doesn’t share our values and that kind of thing. It was kind of a strange comment.”

Many conservatives falsely believe Obama was not born in the United States and not a Christian. A Public Policy Polling survey from 2011 found slightly over half of Republican primary voters believed Obama was born outside the United States. The Pew Research Center found last year that 34 percent of conservative Republicans believed was a Muslim.

“Do they still think he’s a Muslim or wasn’t born in this country? Do they still spout those kinds of theories?” Des Moines Register columnist Rekha Basu asked.

“Yeah, I guess so. I don’t know. He never explained it. Everybody just kind of laughed at the idea of exotic,” Harkin replied.

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How Romney Spent All Day Calling Obama A Foreigner

By Igor Volsky/Think Progress

Mitt Romney’s campaign is hoping to distract voters from thegrowing drum beat of conservatives calling on the former Bain Capital executive to release his tax returns by smearing President Obama as a foreigner, in a not-so-subtle effort to revive the right-wing conspiracy theories surrounding his birthplace.

Indeed, the Romney team, and even Romney himself, spent all of Tuesday painting the president as not a “real” American. Here is a timeline of the campaign’s orchestrated smear:

11:00 AM — OBAMA IS ‘SMOKING SOMETHING,’ GREW UP IN INDONESIA: Obama “has no idea how the American system functions, and we shouldn’t be surprised about that, because he spent his early years in Hawaii smoking something, spent the next set of years in Indonesia, another set of years in Indonesia, and, frankly, when he came to the U.S. he worked as a community organizer, which is a socialized structure, and then got into politics in Chicago.” [Co-chair John Sununu, Fox News]

11:30 AM — OBAMA HAS TO ‘LEARN HOW TO BE AN AMERICAN’: “The men and women all over America who have worked hard to build these businesses, their businesses, from the ground up is how our economy became the envy of the world. It is the American way. And I wish this president would learn how to be an American. [Co-chair John Sununu, Romney campaign conference call]

11:30 AM — OBAMA’S AMERICA IS ‘SOCIALISM’: “It seems to me that the Obama America, there’s no risk but there’s plenty of reward. That’s called socialism to me. In the small business America, there’s a lot of risk, and a chance of reward, and that’s called capitalism, and that’s what made the United States the greatest nation on the face of the earth.” [Businessman Kyle Koehler, Romney campaign conference call]

1:35 PM — ROMNEY SAYS OBAMA’S POLICIES ARE ‘EXTRAORDINARILY FOREIGN’: “Celebrating success instead of attacking it and denigrating making America strong. That’s the right course for the country. His course is extraordinarily foreign.” [Mitt Romney, Pennsylvania]

Roland Martin accuses Romney of using ‘coded language’

By Eric W. Dolan/Raw Story

CNN contributor Roland Martin on Thursday accused Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney of using “coded language” when talking about African Americans.

Romney on Wednesday said those at the NAACP convention who booed him should “vote for the other guy” if they wanted government handouts.

“When I mentioned I am going to get rid of Obamacare, they weren’t happy,” the Republican candidate said. “That’s OK. I want people to know what I stand for. If I don’t stand for what they want, go vote for somebody else. But I hope people understand this, your friends who like Obamacare, you remind them of this. If they want more stuff from the government, tell them to go vote for the other guy, more free stuff.”

Martin said Romney was using coded language when he used the words “they” and “free.” Republican presidential candidates, such asNewt Gingrich, have received criticism this year for allegedly using subtle and indirect language to perpetuate racial stereotypes.

“We’ve seen that happened before with Republicans,” Martin said.

“I’m sorry, Roland. It is Will, just so I am clear, you’re saying he is using the term ‘they’ and ‘free’ as code for what?” CNN contributor Will Cain later asked.

“What I am saying is when he is they, when talking about ‘they’ and ‘free,’ I am saying that has been coded language that we have heard before,” Martin said.

“Coded for what?” Cain interrupted.

“Excuse me, I am going to make the point, from Republican candidates speaking of either poor people, speaking of African- Americans,” Martin continued. “We can talk about I remember the image of the welfare queen going back to the ’80s, what that looked like. And this morning on the morning show I interviewed Sophia Nelson who was a GOP general counsel, long time Republican and she also said this is one of the problems Republicans do, using certain language speaking of certain groups. That’s what I’m saying.”

Watch video, courtesy of CNN, below:

Romney advises NAACP to vote Obama if they want more stuff from government

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