Ed Morrissey today:
Breitbart is entirely correct, and perhaps even understated the case. In the earlier exchange with Schilling, she said that her boss was asking Obama to prove something rather than disprove Birtherism, to which Breitbart responded, “When has a president ever been asked to prove his citizenship?” But in fact, Obama did do just that when he released the Certification of Live Birth in June 2008, in response to an entirely different question. That may have been the first time a Presidential candidate has ever done so, and the COLB is a document that could get Obama a passport, a driver’s license, and a Social Security number. It’s all the legal proof required. If that wasn’t enough, Obama’s political opponents found contemporaneous records of his birth in the Honolulu Advertiser from August 1961.
The wins in Virginia, New Jersey, and Massachusetts over the last three months did not come from people questioning Obama’s birthplace. They resulted from grassroots opposition to the Obama-Nancy Pelosi policy agenda. Scott Brown won the seat held by the Kennedys and their cronies for almost 60 years by pushing back hard against ObamaCare and the counterterrorism policies of the White House. If anything, the continued focus on Birtherism at these rallies undercuts the mainstream nature of the opposition to the Democratic agenda and allows the media to paint it as a paranoid mob obsessed with conspiracy theories. Not only is it not a winning issue, it will hang like an albatross around the necks of conservatives who tacitly or expressly link themselves to it.
11 responses so far
1 rbottoms // Feb 6, 2010 at 8:35 pm
Now find me one one elected Republican who will come right out and call these people the lunatics they are. No, what you get are hedges and qualifiers so as not to piss off the teabaggers and birthers. or as we call them the GOP base.
Listen for outright denunciation and all you hear is the sound of crickets.
2 cporet // Feb 7, 2010 at 12:54 pm
Let’s not get ahead of ourselves here. The GOP gains in the off-year elections had as much, or more to do with the Democrats offering piss poor candidates. Here in Virginia, at least, Creigh Deeds ran an inept and boring campaign. Coakley was her own worst enemy. Before the GOP tout these victories as transformational, ask yourself, “would Bob McDonnel have won against Mark Warner, or Terry MacCaulif?
3 balconesfault // Feb 8, 2010 at 12:33 pm
The birtherism movement is based on one principle.
You see, there are many Americans who are predisposed to support the elected President of the United States. And so Republicans needs to convince these people to NOT support the President, so that the President can fail.
Thus, from the day Clinton was elected, we heard a constant drumbeat about his “draft dodging” – the idea being that since he did what he could to avoid serving in uniform during the Vietnam war (albeit by legal means, like a Cheney or any other number of neocons) that should disqualify him from being Commander in Chief.
With Obama, the idea is to discredit his eligibilty for being elected President itself.
The charges are given widespread airtime among the media, and credence by even some elected Republican officials, specifically because they know how valuable a tool it is if you can convince some number of Americans that the President needs to be opposed not because of his policies, but because of who he is.
The particular value in this tool is that it’s like a minister telling his flock that a certain person is “sent from the devil” – at that point, those who are convinced (or who even have doubt) will no longer even listen to any case the person might make.
And that is the point of birtherism. To make sure that as many people as possible don’t even listen to Obama, because they doubt his legitimacy. And from all evidence, it’s working quite well.
4 sinz54 // Feb 8, 2010 at 12:35 pm
cporet:
I live in MA.
Believe me, until recently a piss poor Dem candidate had no trouble getting elected. Dems outnumber Repubs 4 to 1 in MA.
5 sinz54 // Feb 8, 2010 at 12:37 pm
balconesfault:
The birthers are NOT supported by Michael Steele and the GOP leadership. McCain wrote them off too.
The birther movement isn’t even supported by much of the GOP base. Redstate.com summarily bans birthers off their website.
But it’s a grass-roots thing that is kept afloat by the Internet, just like most other conspiracy theories. UFO nutcases have flourished for a long time despite getting no official support from anywhere.
6 balconesfault // Feb 8, 2010 at 2:17 pm
No, Fox News has given ample publicity to the birther movement all along:
http://www.newshounds.us/2009/07/14/fox_news_legitimizes_birthers.php
Then, interspersed through town hall meetings across the country, you’ve been seeing Republicans without courage finally giving in and agreeing with birthers, rather than taking an unequivocal stand – which only adds fuel to the fire.
November 19, 2009. A constituent of Rep. Scott Garrett (R-N.J.) asking his congressman why Republicans won’t do anything about the “eligibility issue.” It makes for awkward viewing, as Garrett’s staff clearly wants a change of subject from an audience that seems to be fine with pushing the question. At around 4:40 in the video, the congressman finally engages.
“Obviously, there is no political solution to it,” says Garrett. “Even if the entire Republican Party was united on the issue–”
He’s cut off by another constituent. “Have him show his birth certificate! It’s as simple as that! None of this ‘talk about it, talk about it’ — just let’s see the birth certificate!”
“I agree,” says Garrett
Meanwhile, chief birther Orly Taitz was bragging last summer I am in total disbelief and greatly honored. Eric Cantor, Republican whip, second ranked Republican congressman has joined congresswoman Mary Bono and became my friend on Facebook. To me it means that the leadership of the Republican party understands the importance of the issues and legal cases I brought forward.
And how many Republicans in Congress co-signed the “birther bill”? 10? A dozen?
It’s nice for Steele – he gets a chance to talk about how these birthers are “distractions” … but he doesn’t actually seem to impose any consequences on the birther coalition in Congress. Thus, he gets to act reasonable while their nasty work is still taking place.
7 brandon // Feb 8, 2010 at 2:53 pm
The “birthers” are wackos and the vast majority of Republicans would agree.
“To make sure that as many people as possible don’t even listen to Obama, because they doubt his legitimacy. And from all evidence, it’s working quite well.”
You give them far more credit than they deserve. The reason many people aren’t listening to Obama is because the perception has become that he isn’t saying anything of substance.
8 balconesfault // Feb 8, 2010 at 3:28 pm
Brandon: The “birthers” are wackos and the vast majority of Republicans would agree.
As much as Republicans hate the Daily Kos poll that was released last week – there aren’t yet any serious challenges to its methodology, or to its results.
QUESTION: Do you believe Barack Obama was born in the United States, or not?
NO 36%
YES 42%
NOT SURE 22%
Those results suggest that in fact only 42% of Republicans consider birthers to be wackos. Meanwhile, 36% of Republicans are birthers … and 22% obviously don’t think the birthers are wacko, or they’d have responded “Yes”.
Propoganda works.
9 msmilack // Feb 8, 2010 at 11:11 pm
Birthers’ great advantage is they are not at all inhibited by facts and show no embarassment about being ignorant; to the contrary, they take pride in their ignorance, much like members of any fascist movement. The important thing to remember about many members of the Republican party is that they are perfect projectionists; whatever they fear about themselves they pin on the opposition. Blame Acorn for losing the election? Try looking at Rove’s behavior in Tennessee and the way he stole previous elections. Even when certain members call Dems Nazis or Communists, it is startling how ignorant they are about either: has none of them ever read a book or attended school? Their ignorance of history makes them appear beyond stupid. The birthers are the worst case but the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
10 kevin47 // Feb 9, 2010 at 12:23 pm
“Try looking at Rove’s behavior in Tennessee and the way he stole previous elections. ”
Exactly, for every person who believes Obama was born in Kenya, you have a Democrat who believes Bush allowed 9/11 after stealing the first of two elections. People like conspiracy theories.
11 gary // Feb 9, 2010 at 2:25 pm
Don’t credit opposition to Obama policies, either. Massachussetts did not turn from Blue to Red or even to Blue Dog overnight. People are fed up with anything that comes from the “central office” of either party. As evidence, I cite the recent race in NY’s 23rd Congressional District. Republicans held that slot for over a century. Sarah Palin and the party brass got involved, and NY’ers told them, and their designee, to get lost. The GOP snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, and one moderate Republican has been replaced by an undoubtedly more liberal Democrat.
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