SuperKenyan

[dexfarkin]

http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/2011/04/why-did-obama-wait-so-long.html

So, the White House finally released US President Obama's long form birth certificate today, with reality television favourite Donald Trump taking credit for it. Andrew Sullivan, who at one point was a decent writer, has now fully transitioned into his role as apologist and faux 'objective' columnist, added his own 'tut-tut'ting response to the release, predictably blaming the entire thing on the President since he should have done this months ago.

Really?

I mean, isn't the response to a blatently racist question to invalidate it as a question, as opposed to giving it legitimacy? The subject of Obama's citizenship is entirely due to his race. Not a single white candidate was charged with proving their nationality during the campaign. My knowledge is by no means comprehensive, but I can't think of a single time in the last five US Presidential elections that a candidate was accused of not being an American, and the onus of proof was on them. This is ignoring the fact that the Obama campaign, with no lack of eyerolling and silently exchanged WTF? looks, provided a copy of his birth certificate during the election.

Short answer is that this is not a credible news story, that has somehow been obfuscated and stonewalled by the White House, despite the plucky media's honest attempts to find the truth. It's a push back against a racist driven agenda with no validity, that has been given credence in return for ratings. That's why the White House shouldn't have released it even now, because only mentally deficent fuckwits think this is a legitimate issue.

Of course, the conspiracy theorists have already gone into overdrive, talking about the release as a two and a half year photoshop job and already pointing out 'inaccuracies' in the document that disqualify Obama from holding office.

Personally, I think they should have released this brilliant birth certificate instead:

Comments

[jim-smith.livejournal.com]

I haven't followed Sullivan's blog in months, but I would guess his position on this is based entirely on his commitment to the "Sarah Palin faked her last pregnancy" conspiracy theory. He's staked his reputation on this, with the logic of "If I'm wrong, Palin should just disclose her son's birth certificate and I'll shut up," so rhetorically he's backed himself into a corner where every public figure has to prove the crazies wrong.

[pathology-doc.livejournal.com]

Except that in Obama's case, it impacted directly on the perception of his legitimacy to hold the highest US public office. The smartest thing to have done was simply to release the certificate immediately and step on the whole business.

There was never any question of the electoral college letting him even stand if he hadn't been legit, but on this occasion yes, he did need to put it to rest publicly and IMO he waited far, far too long.

[dexfarkin.livejournal.com]

Obama's team released his birth certificate during the campaign. You know, the document that that pretty much any American who claims to have their birth certificate holds. The demand for the long form is based on a lunatic right-wing hysteria that the short form is somehow invalid (although why is never quite explained). There was never, at any point other than in the media, that his legitimacy to hold office was seriously questioned or challenged at any level of merit at any official or legal level.

Short answer, media hyped up a bunch of fuckwit talking points because the darkie with the scary name might end up President, and that doesn't sit well with racist Americans.

[pathology-doc.livejournal.com]

In Australia, the long form is the only form that is acceptable as proof of ID... to the point where I don't think our short form even exists any more.

The puzzlement remains: why wait so long? Why not just release the long form at once and shut them up?

[dexfarkin.livejournal.com]

You're missing the point. There should have never been any credible skepticism past the point of release of his short form birth certificate. Every Hawaiian state official - from either party - confirmed his birth there. The state of Hawaii recognized his birth there. There is exactly zero evidence to justify any further investigation. It is akin to some UFO nut jumping up and down and saying even though he has no evidence whatsoever of alien corpses and crashed UFOs being hidden by the government, he deserves a guided tour of every US air force base and facility to prove it.

So, there's really a couple of ways to look at it. Why wait for so long? Well, perhaps he decided to treat it as the lunatic, tin-hat wearing nutjob belief that it was, soaked in racism and motivated by xenophobia. From a moral sense, why should he stoop to a level that no President has ever been forced to just to prove his citizenship?

There's also the political side, which is that the 'birther' movement has wonderfully handicapped the GOP. They can't risk alienating the psychotic white supremist part of their base who is absolutely sure that 'goddamn socialist nigger muslim can't be 'merrikan'. They've lost the Latino vote, they've cratered in youth and they're in the process of going to war with the AARP. They need the birthers and the price they pay is getting tarred as even more extreme from the political centre.

I honestly believe that the President likely believes that there's no evidence that will satisfy the kooks and hicks who are convinced he's the product of a Kenyian hospital, so what's the point in trying? I also honestly believe that the political advisors to the President privately click coffee mugs every time Orly Taitz appears on cable news and spouts a new line of completely ratfuck crazy on the side of Republicans.

What I can't stand is the hypocracy of the media attempting to argue that the responsibly to answer to crazy, ginned up lunatic nonsense that has been humped as hard for ratings as possible by the American media lies with the President. Every news agency had available on-record proof that Barack Obama was born in Hawaii on July 8, 1961, and chose to muddy that fact by pretending the claims otherwise had even the slightest credibility or any legitimate points.

[deathpixie]

It also hasn't shut them up. There's now assertions that the long form that was released was in fact Photoshopped to say he was born in Hawaii. Responding any further basically gives credibility to a group of tin hats. It's like internet trolls - you can't make them see reason, so in the end it's more worthwhile not to legitimate their trollishness with interaction and just get on with business.

[jim-smith.livejournal.com]

Except that in Obama's case, it impacted directly on the perception of his legitimacy to hold the highest US public office.

I'd argue it's the same situation, in that both the Palin birthers and Obama birthers are challenging their target's credibility in public office. The Obama birthers happen to have latched onto something that, if true, would legally disqualify him from the presidency, but the true goal is to suggest that he's actively deceiving the electorate and is undeserving of his base's support. That's the goal of the Palin birthers--to deal a mortal blow to her political career by suggesting she not only lied to the nation about her pregnancy but so in a half-assed, incompetent manner. George W. Bush's alleged absence from National Guard duty? Same thing.

Whether any of these claims are true, have merit, or warrant a response is not the issue. The bottom line is that it the burden of proof is on the accuser, not the accused. That's why these are all still fringe theories, because years later the only "evidence" in each case is a supposed lack of response/cooperation from the subject. That's where we start getting into "If he has nothing to hide he should answer the charges" territory, which has not been a good place to go, historically.