Of the several question that arose following the news that Mitt Romney is holding a fundraising dinner with Donald Trump—if Trump eats a fried cheese product, does it count as cannibalism? It it worth it for us, as a species, to even have hair, if this is what it can lead to?—the most pressing: why was Romney doing this? 
 
 The answer, the presidential candidate said on Monday when asked about his allegiance with America’s loudest conspiracy-mongering opportunist: “You know, I don’t agree with all the people who support me and my guess is they don’t all agree with everything I believe in. But I need to get 50.1 percent or more and I’m appreciative to have the help of a lot of good people.” 
 
 Brilliant. We look forward to Romney’s future partnerships with . . . 
 
 O. J. Simpson (“I need to get 50.1 percent or more and I’m told many Americans enjoy athletics and sport!”) 
 
 Casey Anthony (“I need to get 50.1 percent or more and Florida is a swing state!”) 
 
 Jesse James (“I need to get 50.1 percent or more and this young man’s a successful small-business owner!”) 
 
 The hunter who shot Bambi’s mother (“I need to get 50.1 percent or more and, you know, gun rights!”) 
 
 ||||| TheWashingtonPost Will Romney trump ‘birtherism’? 
 
 
 
 Donald Trump speaks at a news conference in Las Vegas, Thursday, Feb. 2, 2012, to endorse Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, center, accompanied by Romney's wife Ann. (Gerald Herbert - AP) GOP candidate for president, Mitt Romney, has refused to repudiate Donald Trump, though the reputed billionaire continues to promote “birther” fantasies, the idea that President Obama was not born in the United States. 
 
 Romney’s apparent rationale for continuing to associate with Trump is “I need to get 50.1 percent or more and I’m appreciative to have the help of a lot of good people.” 
 
 What’s “good” about continuing to blow a racial dog-whistle in a presidential campaign? It is no secret that “birtherism” is racial code for “he’s not one of us.” More disturbing than Romney’s failure to disassociate himself with Trump and the birther fantasies, however, is labeling someone “good” who holds them. “Birtherism” itself is a troubling ethical failure that reveals how deeply divided Americans are on race despite their religious views that each person is created by God. 
 
 Despite decades of seeming progress on transcending racial divides, this racial gulf remains. Presidential campaigns expose this not only as candidates are selected and what those candidates say, but also through their “surrogates.” Trump’s function in the Romney campaign seems to be precisely to play the race card through birtherism. It speaks volumes to those whose ultimate choice in a Presidential candidate will be determined by the race of that candidate. Why aren’t we past this kind of division? 
 
 “Men in Black 3” premiered this weekend, knocking the comic book romp, “The Avengers,” out of its number one spot. Men in Black is a series of very popular films starring Will Smith and “Tommy Lee Jones” as two agents of a secret organization that polices aliens. One of the continuing sources of edgy humor in this series of movies is Smith (Agent J) being African American, a “man in black”; in the current film, Agent J has to travel back in time to 1969 to save a young Tommy Lee Jones (played by Josh Brolin), aka Agent K. The Will Smith character is told, as he prepares to jump through time to 1969, to be careful because that era was not that good for “for your people.” Smith’s face portrays the irony of it all: How good is 2012 for African Americans? This “man in black” is subject to prejudice in either decade. It is a brilliant, and poignant moment. 
 
 Why can we not make more progress on race? In 1969, as a college religion major supporting the Civil Rights movement, I never believed the racial divide in this country would survive this long. It is incredibly frustrating that racism is not only surviving, but even thriving, morphing into other forms to send racial signals. As a pastor, as a teacher and as a citizen, I experience this failure as enormously frustrating. 
 
 Mainstream Republicans are also frustrated that the birther fantasies will not go away. Trump’s birther views being associated with the Romney campaign frustrates George Will, for example. Will expressed this in erudite fashion this weekend, wondering what could be the cost/benefit analysis for Mitt Romney in the Trump association. What is the advantage to Romney, wondered Will, in the Trump association? On Sunday, Will called Trump a “bloviating ignoramous.” 
 
 But my own frustrations transcend those of George Will. Trump himself is not the cause of the racial divides that birtherism reflects today. His trumpeting these views, and Romney’s refusal to repudiate him for expressing these views, are a symptom of a failure of our faith traditions. We are a nation that expresses overwhelming faith in God, by some counts over 90 percent. How can we continue to ignore the religious teachings that we are to treat each other equally because we are all created by God, as Judaism, Christianity and Islam all teach? 
 
 “Birtherism,” and the racial signals it sends that the president is ”not one of us,” must be repudiated from a faith perspective. It does not speak well of the values of the Romney campaign that it continues to associate itself with these views through Donald Trump. ||||| Noonan: Romney keeps Trump GOP "freakshow" alive 
 
 (CBS News) Presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney is making a mistake to prolong the "freakshow" that was the Republican primary season by attending a Las Vegas fundraiser with reality television host Donald Trump, conservative columnist Peggy Noonan said Tuesday. 
 
 "There was a certain freakshow atmosphere to the Republican primaries of the past six months or so. Now that is kind of over. The show is over," Noonan said in an interview with "CBS This Morning." 
 
 "My view is that the Romney campaign made a mistake," Noonan said of Romney's decision to meet with Trump later Tuesday, "this is a good time for him to differentiate himself from the stranger aspects of the Republican race." 
 
 Asked by co-host Charlie Rose how the former Massachusetts governor should do that now that he is on the verge of obtaining enough delegates to win the Republican nomination for president, Noonan said "one way you don't do it I think is do a fundraiser with Donald Trump, who was part of the freakshow aspect, so it's a little surprising that he did this." 
 
 Trump as recently as this month continued to push the notion that President Obama was not born in the United States. In an interview, the publicity hungry businessman pointed to a recent report that Mr. Obama's literary agency listed him in a 1991 booklet as having been born in Kenya. 
 
 "He didn't know he was running for president, so he told the truth," Trump told The Daily Beast. "Now they're saying it was a mistake. Just like his Kenyan grandmother said he was born in Kenya, and she pointed down the road to the hospital, and after people started screaming at her she said, 'Oh, I mean Hawaii.' Give me a break." 
 
 Asked about those views by reporters traveling with him on the airplane Monday night, Romney said Trump is entitled to his opinions. 
 
 "I don't agree with all the people who support me, and my guess is they don't all agree with everything I believe in, but I need to get 50.1 percent or more and I am appreciative to have the help of a lot of good people," Romney said.
– Mitt Romney and Donald Trump will appear together at a Las Vegas fundraiser tonight, a controversial move causing pundits to raise their eyebrows: "There was a certain freakshow atmosphere to the Republican primaries of the past six months or so. Now that is kind of over. The show is over," conservative columnist Peggy Noonan said on CBS This Morning today. Trump "was part of the freakshow aspect," she continued, so doing a fundraiser with him is a "mistake" on Romney's part: "This is a good time for him to differentiate himself from the stranger aspects of the Republican race." Indeed, many conservatives are concerned about the move—and Democrats are gleeful, BuzzFeed notes. The Obama campaign released a video today capitalizing on the "freakshow" theme, with circus music accompanying some of Trump's controversial comments. In the Washington Post, Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite notes that Romney's association with Trump is particularly troubling in light of Trump's continued "birther fantasies" about President Obama. "It is no secret that 'birtherism' is racial code for 'he’s not one of us,'" she writes. "Trump’s function in the Romney campaign seems to be precisely to play the race card through birtherism." Defending the fundraiser, Romney noted that he "need[s] to get 50.1% or more" of the vote. "It‘s fine that Romney won’t distance himself from the sideshow Trump has intentionally become of this election, but to essentially come out and say, 'Bare with me while I get the minimum number of votes to get elected' is the worst way Romney could possibly respond," writes Eddie Scarry on the Blaze. Juli Weiner at Vanity Fair has an amusing take on that same quote, imagining who else Romney might do a fundraiser with using that same justification. Perhaps Casey Anthony? "I need to get 50.1% or more and Florida is a swing state!" Click for more.