Colorado Republican Congressman Mike Coffman, played the ‘Birther’ card last week, at a fundraiser in Elbert County, CO. Towards the end of a speech that claimed that the current economic downturn, “started in the last quarter of 2008,” he brought out the big guns. Coffman didn’t make any direct claims, instead choosing to coyly dance around the subject, “I don’t know whether Barack Obama was born in the United States of America. I don’t know that. But I do know this, that in his heart, he’s not an American. He’s just not an American.”

You can hear the an excerpt of the speech here, the birther comments start at around the 3:20 mark:

This has become the modus operandi  among Republican candidates. An expression of  uncertainty about the President’s birth place, buffered with the suggestion that he in some way just doesn’t seem American.  It’s a comment that always has the appearance of just being slipped in, off-the-cuff. That way, if called on it, the candidate can walk it back.

That’s what Coffman had to do to yesterday. In a statement released Wednesday, Coffman began, “I misspoke and I apologize,” the I have confidence in President Obama’s citizenship and legitimacy as President of the United States.” He also ‘clarified’ his feelings about Obama’s patriotism saying, “”I don’t believe the president shares my belief in American Exceptionalism . His policies reflect a philosophy that America is but one nation among many equals.”

It’s just another example of a right-wing politician, whispering nightmare fairy-tales about a foreign boogeyman stealing their freedoms, and then shouting, ‘Just kidding!’ when he got caught.

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