Bzzz.

I just saw a headline, something like "Obama team doesn't find Romney birth certificate joke funny." If a spokesperson for Obama made some statement to that effect (and I didn't read the article), I suggest that that is precisely the wrong response because what Romney said is funny--for what it says about Romney. There isn't much to Romney's statement to get worked up about, that is, he has clearly stated that he believes Obama was born in the U.S. What it says about Romney is that he is tone-deaf and not funny even when he makes a slight attempt at humor. You know people who can't tell a joke to save themselves?  That's Mitt Romney. And humor is such a big part of being American. We love to laugh, we laugh at ourselves, at each other, and if someone doesn't have a sense of humor, if they "can't take a joke," it's almost un-American. That's Mitt Romney. It shouldn't be the Obama campaign, it certainly isn't the president, who has a great sense of humor.

Some time ago a fourth estater or fifth dimensioner asked Romney what comedians or comedic acts he likes best. Romney paused...bad sign, and with his brain going a million miles an hour reached back...backbackbackbackback...to Laurel and Hardy. You could see his mind at work, "Don't want to say I like X because maybe X said something off-color or impolitic once" and so he reached for the safest example he could. That was funny, seeing Romney's brain massage the question. In the same way Romney's birther statement today was funny. He cannot tell a joke. The way things have been going this summer, Obama doesn't have to campaign much. He can just let Romney be Romney and the Republicans be Republicans.