Are Birthers Nuts?
Posted on July 29, 2009
That is, in a, if you will excuse the phrase, the issue in a nutshell. The other day, I wrote this
Look, unlike the 9/11 Twoofers, there are 3 different birther camps here. First is those who believe Obama is a natural born but just have some slight doubt due to how hard Obama and the Democrats are fighting, and spending mass amounts of money, to stop the release of a $10 long form BC, easily obtainable. Second are those who do not believe he is a natural born citizen, and may delve into some conspiracy theories, but, want a legitimate answer, and would be satisfied with the long form BC. Third, there are those who are as wacko as the Twoofers, and nothing short of impeachment will satisfy them. Unfortunately, they tend to be the most vocal and the ones who file the most lawsuits.
Like with so many things, there are folks that are plainly going way overboard, and, because of the 24 hour news cycle, the gazzilion and one news media sites, the gazzilion and one blogs out there, and a sensationalistic society, it is often the crazier stuff that gets highlighted. No one cares about the plane that made it to the terminal just fine.
Not everyone who wanted to know what was going on with the Valerie Plame affair was barking moonbat. Not everyone who wondered about the WMD not found in Iraq (although, finding WMD wasn’t really the point of going into Iraq, but, that is a different argument,) and not everyone who had questions about 9/11 was 6 short of a six pack. Some wanted actual information and to get to the bottom of the story. But, who did we hear from the most? The nuts.
Personally, I would love this whole issue to go away, and there is a simple answer. To my chagrin, Andrew Sullivan agrees with folks like myself, Tom Maguire, and others
So many readers are furious that I have dared to ask the president to show the original copy of his birth certificate. The reason for demanding it is the same reason for demanding basic medical records proving Sarah Palin is the biological mother of Trig.
Because it would make it go away and it’s easily done.
I’m tired of these public officials believing they have some right to privacy. They don’t. It’s the price of public office. If you don’t like it, don’t be president. And for goodness’ sake, don’t run for president on a platform of transparency.
Sigh. It pains me, truly pains me. But, then, I agree(d) with Al Gore, John Kerry, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and other Democrats on certain issues. As much as I called Ron Paul and some of his supporters nuts, they did have some good points (and, please, don’t start in on me on Ron P. It will be ignored and deleted.)
Now, there is a huge difference between asking for the birth records of Trig and Obama’s actual birth certificate, rather than the Certification Of Live Birth. The Trig records have absolutely nothing to do with the qualifications for Palin to be VP, or even President (not to mention it being rather obssessive and intrusive. Even politicians have some privacy rights.) Whether Obama was actually born in Hawaii does.
And, I will say yet again, I believe Obama was born in Hawaii, and is a natural born citizen, until someone can prove with concrete evidence otherwise. What keeps me mildly interested is why Obama and other Democrats are fighting so darned hard against the suits to force him to release what is essentially a $10 piece of paper. One which would list where exactly he was born. As Maguire has written many many times
As I have said before, the motive back in 1961 could have been quite different. Perhaps the mother and maternal grandparents feared for the day when the white Ms. Dunham would be contesting with a black Kenyan man in a Kenyan court for custody of a black Kenyan baby (or British, or whatever Obama’s nationality might have been.) They would have been well advised to take steps to tilt the playing field a bit by documenting their son as a US citizen, irrespective of any Presidential aspirations. Name the baby ‘Barack’ in the hope it works out, document him as an American in case it doesn’t. [But in a court case, surely the father would squawk about the fraud, yes? Well, if mom can limit the he-said she said dispute to an American court, where will his witnesses be? But it's a good point. That said, in my first post on this I did note other reasons to seek American citizenship.]
There could simply be something on there that is embarrassing to Obama on the long form. Sullivan may be a total and complete moonbat on certain issues, such as Trig, but, in this case he is correct. Release the form, and things will probably go away. Obama promised to have the most transparent administration ever. Of course, we know what his promises are worth and how they all have expiration dates.
Perhaps if we had journalists who were actually inquisitive about politicians, instead of just about Republicans. They blew off the John Edwards affair. They sat on the Bill Clinton issue. They never forced John Kerry to release his military records. But, Bush had to release everything. EVERYTHING. McCain was hounded to release his birth certificate and every shred of medical records. The media allowed Obama to release a tiny 1 pager on his health.
So, once you take the conspiracy folks digging for this and that out of the equation, we are left with a simple proposition: why won’t Obama release his actual BC? Conservatives from all over are refusing to debate the issue or even consider it, simply calling all folks who wonder about the BC nuts, after working so hard to debunk the Truthers, and Sullivan’s Trig conspiracy theories, among others. Interestingly, they are throwing up post after post, story after story, saying “we’re aren’t going to discuss this! Just move on!” I’d like to thank folks like that for keeping the issue alive 
“I, Dr. Chiyome Fukino, director of the Hawaii State Department of Health, have seen the original vital records maintained on file by the Hawaii State Department of Health verifying Barack Hussein Obama was born in Hawaii and is a natural-born American citizen. I have nothing further to add to this statement or my original statement issued in October 2008 over eight months ago….”
Just a thought here, but, if Dr. Chiyome has peeked at it and is releasing that information, that is against state privacy laws. Here’s a simple solution: let John Roberts have a peek. Let Bush 41 or 43 have a peek. Let John Boehner have a peek. Just one of them. That could solve the issue and make it all go away for the normals.
But, yeah, there are nuts in the Birther-sphere, just like in all walks of life. But, maybe some others should open their minds a wee bit and ask themselves “why would someone spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to avoid releasing a $10 form that the media clamored for Obama’s opponent to release?”
Perhaps someone who is so vehemently against this could explain what the problem with asking for the long form is, since the short form released only on the web, and to the Daily Kos first, which doesn’t list place of birth, is also not legal to apply for a passport or as a form of ID in most states.
Oh, and someone please tell me that I will never, ever, ever, agree politically with Andrew Sullivan ever again. Though, I do enjoy the outdoors photos he posts.
» Filed Under Barack Obama, Conservatives, News, Obama Birth Certificate
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13 Responses to “Are Birthers Nuts?”
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There is obviously a [BIG]reason why Obama won’t release the BC info.Same with his college records etc. Personally, I don’t think he was born in Hawaii…..I think all the people that have come out and said he was born in a hospital in Mombasa are correct.And that would really fit with who his mother was too. She was a “collector” in a way, it was so ‘daring’ and ‘hip’ to be with a black man….what would be ‘cooler’ than to give birth in his native country?
All you have to do is look at who his mother was and you’ll realize that most likely he was born in Africa.Which, in a way, is a moot point anyway considering what the law says.His mother was not old enough when he was born to make him a citizen.Since when do we cherry pick which laws we follow? Even IF he were born in Hawaii according to the law he still wouldn’t be a natural born citizen because his mother was too young and his father was a non citizen.
I’m a big fan of Occam’s Razor….so if that makes me nutty for believing that if someone won’t cough up a document they should than they are most likely hiding something.
It’s just common sense……..
This issue is yet another example of how the leaders of the supposed opposition to Obama are lacking in intelligence and integrity.
It would be possible to use this issue to smack the MSM down hard without at the same time engaging in any “birther theories”.
Let me repeat that: you can think that the “birthers” are nut at the same time as you point out that the MSM has constantly lied and misled about this issue. By doing the latter you could have an impact on the careers of Obama supporters in the MSM.
Instead the leaders of the supposed opposition to Obama have done what Obama and the MSM want them to do. Heck, some of them even got a cookie, with MediaMatters giving Allahpundit and Ed Morrissey props for opposing the “birthers”. What those two should be doing is a) distancing themselves from “HE WAS BORN IN KENYA” at the same time as b) discrediting the MSM.
Instead, those two and many other establishment hacks are helping the MSM and Obama.
Write as many establishment hacks as you can and suggest that they get a clue.
You no longer agree with Andrew Sullivan because the White House obviously got to him and made him retract his demand for the 1961 long form. So he’s now claiming that the 2007 COLB examined by FactCheck.org is the “original” birth certificate. He also expresses some confusion over how the original can be in both Chicago and Hawaii at the same time, demonstrating that he doesn’t have even a minimal grasp of the documentary iissues.
This post is far too reasonable and will, of course, be entirely ignored by all the ’smart’ people in the right-o-sphere. (See: Ed ‘Can’t We All Just Get Along’ Morrissey and Allah ‘Southerners Really do Suck” Pundit.)
You know, there is always another theory–and that would be that there IS something on the actual real birth certificate that Obama does NOT want know—like, maybe Barack Obama Sr was NOT his daddy? Perhaps it was Frank Marshall> A pedophile with communistic leanings, who, we know, had some presence in Barry’s early life. But releasing that fact would make him illigitimate…..maybe explaining the outragous amount of money he has spent, trying to keep it covered up.
And, EVEN in that case, we still have the issue of his adoption, becoming Indonesian—using an Indonesian passport, etc…..
Just thoughts………..
Are Birthers nuts? Yup!
Nice post by the way but yeah…some of them are completely Looney!
Here is a sample of a long form birth certificate. If you take a close look, you will see that some parts of the form involve personal information concerning both the Mother and the Father that Obama (or anybody else) would probably consider none of our business. Obama is not required by law to submit to bloggers anything let alone personal information involving his parents.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/88/Weird.gif
What has been submitted is what is legally recognized as a Birth Certificate that is accepted by the US State Department as legal requirements to prove citizenship. Anything more than that involving personal and confidential information is NOT required by law (blogger or legitimate) and is none of our damn business! For Conservatives who are supposed to be for less intrusion, they’re being awfully intrusive.
Leo Donfrio’s case that Obama is not a natural-born citizen regardless of where he was born is compelling to those who are Constitutional orginalists in that Obama, Sr. was never U.S. citizen and the meaning of the phrase, “natural-born” in Article II meant that both parents needed to have been U.S. citizens (”owing no allegiances to foreign powers”), and that neither in word or intent does the 14th Amendment change that requirement.
This record, of his birth, is one for a Constitutional Requirement. If pressed properly, it may begin to crack a hole in the shield being held up in front of all the other records being refused.
Regarding Dr. Fukino’s statement, George W. Bush had his Honorable Discharge, not a statement of someone seeing it, and it was insufficient to stop the massive spread of slander.
Break the shield, the Big “D”.
Get his records.
Prove Democrats are accountable to the American public, not just Republicans.
Charles Bell is completely right.
I came to this issue a total skeptic, but slowly got into researching it because of the Occam’s razor aspect of the adamant, arduous, expensive fight of Team Obama to avoid producing an actual birth cetificate (as opposed to the redacted- what’s up with THAT?- Certification of Live Birth).
At any rate, the real reason Team Obama is refusing to release the birth certificate is, imo, that the resultant controversy serves as a useful distraction from the real issue: Barack Obama is very probably not a “natural born citizen” (as opposed to, simply: “citizen”) regardless of his birthplace.
I say “very probably” only because “natural born citizen” has never been formally defined by SCOTUS.
For a fuller explanation of some of the legal issues that may well (by which I mean: “in my opinion, DO”) render the birth certificate issue moot, search for “Vattel decoded”, Vattel having offered the definition of “natural born citizen” most likely used by the Founders.
The Constitution matters. Every jot. Every tittle. Every word.
Alright then, forget the birth certificate. What about all the other records he refuses to release, records which other Presidents released. Things like transcripts, college thesis, etc. Bush knew he’d be teased for being a ‘C’ student at Yale, but he released his transcripts anyway. Obama won’t release his Occidental Scholarship records cause it might show that particular scholarship was reserved for foreign-born students. He won’t release his college thesis because the content is so radical, it would turn off most of America. What about his school records when he was in Indonesia? They might show that he was indeed an Indonesian citizen – by way of his step-father’s adoption. If you dig just a little into all the OTHER documentation that Obama is working hard to keep secret, you realize that this is much bigger than just not being able to provide a long-form birth certificate. The web is deep, and obviously there is something to hide, or else, why would he work so damn hard to hide it?
Well…good luck with it.