This is pretty obvious to those of us who pay attention...


Politico’s Roger Simon says that Republican presidential Rick Perry’s
recent embrace of birtherism amounts to a racist “dog whistle.”

“It’s not a ‘fun’ issue to poke somebody on,” Simon told CNN’s Howard
Kurtz Sunday. “It is more than a little bit racist. Not everyone who
believes it is a racist. It grew out of the belief that a black man
could not be legitimately elected to the president of the United
States.”

He continued: “Now, why would Perry use that in the primaries instead
of saving it for the general when he’s running against President
Obama? Well, it’s because being extreme, perhaps, and a little bit
racist, perhaps, gives you good bona fides in a Republican primary. It
shows them that you are on the same side as they are.”

“So, it’s a bit of a dog whistle?” Kurtz asked.

“Absolutely,” Simon replied.

After almost a week of refusing to admit that President Barack Obama
was a U.S. citizen, Perry finally said Wednesday that he had “no
doubt” that the president’s birth certificate was real.