We all know the law of unintended consequences.  Perhaps the best example of this is with the introduction of rabbits to Australia.  It appears that there were some rabbits brought on the first ships back in 1778.  But they apparently did not become a problem until 1859.  Then a farmer named Thomas Austin decided to up the ante.  He was a member of the Acclimatisation Society which believed in introducing exotic animals in exciting new locations, like Australia.  He brought over 21 European rabbits, for hunting purposes and released them on Christmas Day, 1859.  Some present.   The rabbits bred, well…like rabbits, and the rest is history.  By 1869 hunters were killing about 2 million rabbits a year, with no noticeable impact on the population.  The rabbits did so much damage that in 1907 Australia built a rabbit proof fence over 2,000 miles long to try and keep the rabbits out of Western Australia.  The fence was completed in 1907.  Since then, Australia has waged a decades’ long battle against the rabbits using Warren & Harbor destruction, poison, fumigation, explosives, introduction of predators, parasites and even disease.  Results:  killing 80% of the rabbits wasn’t enough to even dent the population.  Most experts report you have to get rid of between 90% to 95% of the rabbits to have any significant long-term impact on its population.

In this case, the law of unintended consequences may have struck Mitt Romney.  Donald Trump surged in the polls because he pointed out the obvious fact that no one really knows where Obama was born.  In response, Mitt Romney did something incredibly stupid.  (Perhaps this is an inherited trait because his father was considered to be a Presidential candidate himself, until he told the world he had been brain washed with regard to Vietnam.)  Mitt Romney said it didn’t matter where Obama was born because his own father was born in a Mormon colony located in Colonia Dublán, Galeana, in the Mexican State of Chihuahua.  His grandparents moved there because the United States had inconveniently outlawed polygamy.  Mitt Romney’s campaign reasoned that if George Romney was eligible to be President, then Obama must also be eligible.   While this may be an interesting legal argument, it is incredibly dumb.  Romney has already been struggling with the Mormon issue.  Trotting out his polygamist grandfather, who moved to Mexico so he could keep all three wives, hardly makes that issue go away.  

So, the first casualty of the Trump birther campaign may actually be Mitt Romney.  I actually like Mitt Romney and don’t really care whether or not he is a Mormon.  Prior to this little dust up, I would have considered him to be the leading Republican candidate.  But this kind of mistake is sometimes impossible to overcome.   His own father never recovered from the brain washing comment. 

 TDM