Gov. Martin O’Malley (D-MD) blasted Mitt Romney’s joke Friday in Michigan, about how nobody has ever asked him for his birth certificate from the state — a reference to the conspiracy theories levied against President Obama — which O’Malley said was an example of the Republicans being “a party of exclusion” with problems appealing to minorities.
“Well, I think that what it betrays is a loss of, and a lack of perspective,” O’Malley said on CNN’s State of the Union. “And an appreciation when you have policies and when you advance positions that are bashing of new Americans and new immigrants, and when you have policies that want to take us back in terms of women’s rights and freedom of women to choose, I think it becomes a very exclusive party. And that birther comment is simply more, more icing on that cake.”
He later added: “When you have a party that says coded things, that makes totally false ads up about — falsely saying that the president is trying to undo welfare reform — I think you’re going to see a lot of pretty heavily and not so subtly coded messages from the Romney/Ryan campaign that’s not in keeping with an America that’s moving going forward, that’s growing, and that’s becoming more diverse with fuller freedom for every individual.”
