PJ: President Obama has tried to put an end to the rising vitriol about his place of birth (since many on the right insist that he was not born in the US and thereby ineligible to serve as the President). Recently he requested that the State of Hawaii make his long-form birth certificate available, which the White House released today. The President had years earlier made his certified copy of his Certificate of Live Birth available for inspection (this document is the same type of legal document most people in the US are issued for proof of birth and citizenship). By identifying that this is nothing more than a distraction when important issues are in need of attention, Mr. Obama said that he hopes that this will mean an end to the nonsense of this non-issue.
It must be noted that this non-issue was originally the brain-child of people on the far-far-right but has since been embraced by more mainstream conservatives, Fox News, Donald Trump and Sarah Palin, who have used the birther issue to pander to the fringe in their party. Mr. Trump even went so far as to announce to the world recently that Mr. Obama's birth certificate had mysteriously disappeared (according to his sources). Mrs. Palin simply cheered on Mr. Trump's efforts in getting to the bottom of this supposed mystery (although there never was one). She even went so far as to spread proven false rumors that Obama had spent millions in trying to cover up his proof of birth. But even though the issue is considered a fringe issue, recent polls now show that nearly half of Republicans do not believe that the President was born in the US.
Do I need to say it? Only in America!
The Guardian
Republicans will rue their birther backing
The timing of the release of Barack Obama's birth certificate expertly made a fool of Donald Trump – and the GOP with him
By Paul Harris
Given that his credentials as a citizen have been questioned by a significant minority of his fellow Americans, President Barack Obama could have justifiably been a bit annoyed as he finally released his long-form birth certificate.
After all, he has more pressing things on his mind: like numerous wars and the ever-stuttering US economy. But the lunatic birther movement, championed by Donald Trump, appeared to have forced his hand, questioning the very Americanness of the country's first black president so loudly that he had to act. To the surprise of no one with two brain cells to rub together, the document (pdf) proved that, yes, in fact, Obama was indeed born on American soil.
Yet Obama seemed barely in chiding mode at having to deal with this idiocy. Instead, he appeared relaxed. He told reporters that he had "watched with amusement" as the rumours spread and been surprised they refused to go away. "I have been puzzled with the degree with which this thing just kept going," he said, before adding the sanest words anyone has uttered on the subject: "We do not have time for this kind of silliness."
So, why the good mood in the White House?
The fact is that the Obama administration has played the recent spasm of birther attention remarkably well. They have let Trump rise up on a balloon of inflated birther nonsense – getting near the top of Republican polls for the 2012 nomination – and then promptly popped it underneath him. Look at the timing. This was meant to be a moment all about Trump appearing in New Hampshire, the vital first state to hold a primary in the nomination process. It was a moment where Trump the outsider upstart was meant to begin to look a little serious.
Instead, the White House timed the release so that Trump would be right in the media's glare when the birther bubble burst. Not surprisingly, he looked like an idiot. At a news conference, he blustered about his proud achievement in forcing the release of the birth certificate, then attempted to cast a little doubt on it and finally made up a CNN poll that he claimed showed him neck-and-neck with Obama in the race (CNN promptly reported no such poll exists).
No one needed any more proof to understand that Trump is a joke in very poor taste. But he provided it anyway – in long form. Not that Trump will give two hoots. His brand is about reality TV and celebrity, not political, reality. But the Republican party should care. A lot.
Which is why Obama has played this well. His team waited for Trump to have enough rope to hang himself on the birther issue, and in doing so, have helped him toxify the Republican brand – just as he tried to debut his serious side.
Birtherism has thus worked well for Obama. No one who has embraced the birther cause was likely much of an Obama supporter to begin with (hence the heavy skewing of birthers towards the Republican party: according to one recent poll, more than half its membership believed Obama was born abroad). But the sheer and increasing madness of the issue – especially now that the long form birth certificate has been released – must be offputting for the independents and moderates who are often so crucial in American elections.
There are plenty of reasons to be mad at President Obama after two and a half years in office, but you look at the bug-eyed, drooling internet conspiracists now lurking among the Republicans and suddenly he looks like the voice of reason all over again.
Which is why the reverse of the fact that Obama has played the birther hand well is that many senior Republicans have played the issue so badly. Too many top party figures sought to "dogwhistle" the issue, using various formulations designed to stoke it up without actually embracing it. "I think the public rightfully is still making it an issue. I don't have a problem with that," Sarah Palin told one interviewer. "It's not my job to tell the American people what to think," said House speaker John Boehner in response to a question about whether he should challenge birthers' views. "I don't think it's nice to call anyone crazy," said House minority leader Eric Cantor. It is a sad indictment of the Republican party that its own leaders took the attitude of not dismissing birtherism and its followers without qualifying their stance or hinting at closet sympathies.
Come 2012, they may yet pay at the polls for that cynicism and moral cowardice. It is going to be an easy task for Democrats to paint the Republicans as extremists with little grasp of reality and many Republicans will have only themselves to blame.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/apr/27/donald-trump-birth-certificateration
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