That’s a darned good question, one that has been answered within the blogs and forums long ago, but, The Politico’s Ben Smith and Byron Tau take a stab at in the mainstream Obama media
Just when it appeared that public interest was fading, celebrity developer Donald Trump has revived the theory that President Barack Obama was born overseas and helped expose the depth to which the notion has taken root—a New York Times poll Thursday found that a plurality of Republicans believe it.
If you haven’t been trolling the fever swamps of online conspiracy sites or opening those emails from Uncle Larry, you may well wonder: Where did this idea come from? Who started it? And is there a grain of truth there?
The answer lies in Democratic, not Republican politics, and in the bitter, exhausting spring of 2008. At the time, the Democratic presidential primary was slipping away from Hillary Clinton and some of her most passionate supporters grasped for something, anything that would deal a final reversal to Barack Obama.
So you Democrats are to blame for this? Interesting. And a lot of the early believers were….9/11 Twoofers, who were and are primarily liberals and Democrat voters.
While there is no grain of truth to either fantasy, there’s something else when it comes to Obama: A visceral reaction against him, a deep sense that the first black president, with liberal views and a Muslim name, must be—in some concrete, provable way—foreign.
Well, at least he didn’t call Birthers “raaaaacists”, which is the norm for left leaners.
Then, as Obama marched toward the presidency, a new suggestion emerged: That he was not eligible to serve.
That theory first emerged in the spring of 2008, as Clinton supporters circulated an anonymous email questioning Obama’s citizenship.
“Barack Obama’s mother was living in Kenya with his Arab-African father late in her pregnancy. She was not allowed to travel by plane then, so Barack Obama was born there and his mother then took him to Hawaii to register his birth,†asserted one chain email that surfaced on the urban legend site Snopes.com in April 2008.
So, there it is: this whole thing was started by Hillary supporters. So, you can Blame Yourselves.
Politico goes on to provide the “debunking”, but, actually makes a mistake when discussing the Certificate Of Live Birth which was released by Team Obama, and which many proclaimed was a fake, particularly since it was released at the Daily Kos, along with the whiny “Fight The Smears” website
FactCheck.org, the non-partisan website, was allowed to examine the physical copy of the birth certificate in August 2008, and concluded it was real, that it had a raised seal, a signature and met all the State Department criteria for proof of citizenship. Combined with the state’s recognition that the record was real—and contemporary newspaper announcements of Obama’s birth, submitted by the hospitals —they concluded that he was a natural born citizen.
Actually, no. They viewed the same COLB, not the physical copy of the BC. FactCheck calls it a BC, but, it was still the same COLB.
Look, regardless, it is time to put this silliness away, folks. I’ve blogged this issue a few times, in a “just wondering” tone. Hey, if the NY Times can “just wonder” in Feb 2008 if McCain was eligible to be President because he was born in the Panama Canal Zone (shortly after Liberals floated this, and the Times did it again in July 2008), I can “just wonder” why Obama won’t release the long form. If the NY Times can “just wonder” if McCain was having a resurgence of cancer without proof, I can wonder if there is something on the BC that needs to be hid. If the Times can “just wonder” if McCain had an affair, we can “just wonder” if the long form BC has “Muslim” in the box marked religion. If the NY Times can….well, they run lots of “just wondering” stories about Republicans. It’s high time to put this conspiracy theory about Obama away (even though Liberals still whine a bit about 9/11 being an inside job and Bush stealing the 2000 and 2004 elections).
First, Obama will never release the long form. The media demanded McCain’s, but, will never demand Obama’s. He certainly knows this will make right side voters look foolish. 2nd, as I’ve said many times, there is a 99.9% chance that the only thing you might find will be some embarrassing information on it, but nothing that would disqualify him. 3rd, if Donald Trump wants to go full on crazy, let him. But, don’t follow. Because Trump is no Conservative. And there are many more issues to deal with in this country. We can’t afford to lose in 2012 and have 4 more years of this incompetent hack destroying our country. If he does win, we need to make sure we hold the House, and take control of the Senate. Let’s deal with real issues that we can do something about.
PS: Let’s not forget how so many on the left are caught up in Trig Trutherism. Apparently, it’s OK to “just wonder” if Sarah Palin is actually Trig’s mother, but not OK to “just wonder” what is on The President’s long form BC.
Crossed at Right Wing News and Stop The ACLU.
My pet theory: There is a long form, it proves birth in Hawaii, *but* it has something on it showing Frank Marshall Davis as the birth father. Not disqualifying, but embarrassing enough for a messianic politician to spend 200 grand in legal fees to keep it hidden. Any known facts contradicting the theory?
d(^_^)b
http://libertyatstake.blogspot.com/
“Because the Only Good Progressive is a Failed Progressive”
Completely agree with you. Hold the house and gain the Senate if all else fails. And who’s to say Obama is holding on to this as an Ace in his pocket, releasing the real BC right before the 2012 election? I don’t follow the ‘birther’ thing and really have done very little reading on it. So, I have a question: Is there the possibility that on the BC it says ‘White’ as race, and that’s why he’s hiding it? So as not to turn away black voters? I think we all know Obama had work hard at appealing to black Americans since his priviliged life abroad was so different than many in the black community here. Maybe, having ‘white’ listed on his BC, may hurt that work in his mind. This may have already been discussed, but like I said, I don’t follow the birther scene, so have no idea. Thanks brutha! Great work as always!
Interesting points. Race = ‘white’ may have been seen as a liability to BHO early in the 2008 race, setting this Crazy Train down the tracks. I don’t see how it’s a liability to BHO anymore – but BHO and company are definitely cynical enough to hold onto it until they can use it as an asset. However, I disagree with the supposition that simply asking the obvious question turns it into an asset for them. When we do know the truth – whatever it is – the drama will redound to BHO’s detriment – exposing his cynicism. And simply asking the obvious question is in no way mutually exclusive with winning on the issues, either. The station this Crazy Train will crash into has a predictable name: Leftists always too smart by half.
d(^_^)b
http://libertyatstake.blogspot.com/
“Because the Only Good Progressive is a Failed Progressive”
Haven’t seen more than a tiny bit about that, Liberty, but, could be. Like you, I think there is simply something embarrassing on it.
I never got beyond the top level, and didn’t dive into the serious stuff, but, you never know about that, Jake.
My mother (bless her liberal heart) and I had a conversation about this the other day. In response to Trump hitting the birth certificate issue hard, she said that one of the local news stations in Baltimore had done an investigative report on the birth certificate.
She said that they proved he had released his birth certificate. I explained the difference between a “birth certificate” and “certificate of live birth,” but it didn’t matter. She then said that the newspaper had printed an announcement of the birth at the time to which I said “we don’t know who paid for the announcement and the announcement alone doesn’t qualify him Constitutionally to be president.”
I asked if the station had been able to reconcile the two birth stories in Obama’s autobiographies, making sure she knew that they were autobiographies and not biographies. I asked if she was aware that there were statements made by his grandmother that contradicted his story.
Her response?
“Republicans are idiots.”
To which I responded with “Democrats and facts are like garlic to vampires.”
I personally don’t care about the “birther” issue as it applies to Obama. On some level, I think it is a distraction. At the same time, I would like to see more clarification from the Congress on Presidential qualifications given the length of time between the writing of the Constitution and today.
There is enough to go after Obama on without the birther issue. It would be great to catch him in such a huge lie, but it won’t matter to most people.
That is the saddest thing of all. It doesn’t matter how much Obama lies, distorts the truth and does not lead. The fact that they like him is what matters to them.
I have to agree that one of the reasons for not showing his certificate would be the issue of race. We would always file the certificate with the race of the mother. The reason for this is that it is hard to determine race of the child at birth. Some will be very light skinned and darken with age. Add that to the fact that the father might not have been present and you can see where the designation would come from. I am sure that he does not want anything to disturb the image of his superiority to us.
[…] ‘Distraction Certificate’ An Ace in the pocket. Thats right. I’ve commented on this before. Obama held onto this (when he should have released back in 2008) to use later when he needed […]
Told ya. An ace in the pocket.
@Jake_G: Ace in the pocket it would appear … demonstrating BHO’s cynicism, and the metaphysical truth progressives are always too smart by half – leaving the rest of us to scratch our heads and wonder ‘WTF’? Hopefully GOP professional pols learned the real lesson – the way to campaign against Barry is to come right at him – ruthlessly.
d(^_^)b
http://libertyatstake.blogspot.com/
“Because the Only Good Progressive is a Failed Progressive”
[…] you read that right. When a desperate Hillary Clinton campaign first made the allegations of foreign birth during the Democratic primaries, the Obama […]