The whole story — from gaffe to attack to defense — was shorter than a sitcom episode.
“No one’s ever asked to see my birth certificate,” Romney said, introducing himself to supporters. “They know that this is the place where we were born and raised.”
The Washington Post’s Phil Rucker tweeted the remark at 12:23 — before 60 seconds had even passed — followed quickly by many of the other reporters on hand. Immediately, tweets with the phrase “birth certificate” went from no more than five-per-minute to 138-per-minute in a matter of four minutes, and rose from there to 275-per-minute in less than an hour, according to Topsy, a Twitter analytics service.
At 12:27, POLITICO posted Romney’s remark online. In the same minute, the Washington Post asked, “Did Mitt Romney make a birther joke?” At 12:28, BuzzFeed posted video of Romney’s remarks to YouTube.
At 12:41 p.m., the Romney campaign issued a response.
Three minutes later - 21 minutes after Romney’s comments - the Obama campaign provided its own interpretation of events, accusing Romney of being a “birther.”
