….the birther question was never really about citizenship; it was simply a proxy for those who never accepted the president’s legitimacy, for a toxic mix of reasons involving ideology, deep political anger and, most insidious of all, race….
….mainstream Republican leaders allowed it to simmer to satisfy those who are inflamed by Mr. Obama’s presence in the White House….
….That signal was clearly received. Lawmakers in nearly a dozen states introduced bills requiring presidential candidates to release their full birth certificates.
It is inconceivable that this campaign to portray Mr. Obama as the insidious “other” would have been conducted against a white president…
Go. Read the whole thing.
Almost seven years ago:
Thursday, September 16, 2004 – Page updated at 12:00 A.M.
WASHINGTON – Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, an Orange County, Calif., Republican and longtime friend of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, introduced a constitutional amendment yesterday to allow foreign-born Americans who have been citizens for 20 years to run for president….
President Andrew Shepherd: ….I’ve known Bob Rumson for years, and I’ve been operating under the assumption that the reason Bob devotes so much time and energy to shouting at the rain was that he simply didn’t get it. Well, I was wrong. Bob’s problem isn’t that he doesn’t get it. Bob’s problem is that he can’t sell it! We have serious problems to solve, and we need serious people to solve them. And whatever your particular problem is, I promise you, Bob Rumson is not the least bit interested in solving it. He is interested in two things and two things only: making you afraid of it and telling you who’s to blame for it. That, ladies and gentlemen, is how you win elections. You gather a group of middle-aged, middle-class, middle-income voters who remember with longing an easier time, and you talk to them about family and American values and character….
….This is a time for serious people, Bob, and your fifteen minutes are up. My name is Andrew Shepherd, and I am the President….
Today, at the White House, President Obama fired that fool birther, Donald Trump:
The transcript:
President Obama: …Now, uh, let me just comment first of all on the fact that, uh, I can’t get the networks to break in on all kinds of other discussions. [laughter] I was just back there listening to Chuck, he was saying, it’s amazing that he’s not gonna be talking about national security. I would not have the networks breaking in if I was talking about that, Chuck, and you know it. [voice off camera] Ah. [laughter]
Uh, as many of you have been briefed, uh, we provided additional information today about, uh, the site of my birth. Now, this issue has been going on for two, two and a half years now. I think it started during the campaign. And I have to say that over the last two and a half years I have watched with, uh, bemusement, I have been puzzled at the degree to which this thing just kept on going. Uh, we’ve had every official in Hawaii, Democrat and Republican, every news outlet that has investigated this confirm that, yes, in fact, I was born in Hawaii August 4th, nineteen sixty-one, in Kapiolani Hospital. We’ve posted the, uh, certification that is given by the state of Hawaii on the Internet for everybody to see. People have provided affidavits that they in fact have seen this birth certificate. And yet this thing just keeps on going.
Uh, now, normally, uh, I would not comment on something like this, uh, because, obviously, there’s a lot of stuff swirling in the press at any given day and, uh, I’ve got other things to do. But, two weeks ago when the Republican House had put forward a budget that will have huge consequences potentially to the country and when I gave a speech about my budget and how I felt that we needed to invest in education and infrastructure and, uh, making sure that we had a strong safety net for our seniors, uh, even as we were closing the deficit, during that entire week the, the dominant news story wasn’t about these huge monumental choices that we’re gonna have to make as a nation, it was about my birth certificate. And that was true on most of the news outlets that were represented here.
And so I just want to make, uh, a larger point here. We’ve got some enormous challenges out there. There are a lot of folks out there who are still looking for work. Everybody is still suffering under high gas prices. We’re gonna have to make a series of very difficult decisions about how we invest in our future, but also get a hold of our deficit and our debt, how do we do that in a balanced way. And this is gonna generate huge and serious debates. Important debates. And there are gonna be some fierce disagreements. And that’s good. That’s how democracy is supposed to work. And I’m confident that the American people and America’s political leaders can come together in a bipartisan way and solve these problems. We always have.
But we’re not gonna be able to do it if we are distracted. We’re not gonna be able to do it if we spend time vilifying each other. We’re not gonna be able to do it if we just make stuff up and pretend that facts are not facts. We’re not gonna be able to solve our problems if we get distracted by sideshows and carnival barkers.
We live in a serious time right now and we have the potential to deal with the issues that we confront in a way that will make our kids and our grandkids and our great grandkids proud. And I have every confidence that, uh, America in the twenty-first century is gonna be able to come out on top just like we always have. But we’re gonna have to get serious to do it.
Now, I know that, uh, there’s gonna be a segment of people for which no matter what we put out, uh, this issue will not be put to rest. But I’m speaking to the vast majority of the American people, uh, as well as to the press.
We do not have time for this kind of silliness. We got better stuff to do. I’ve got better stuff to do. We got big problems to solve, and I’m confident we can solve them, but we’re gonna have to focus on them, not on this.
Thanks very much, everybody.
[emphasis added]
He called out the beltway media in public. The fools. It’s about time.
Carnival barkers. That would be the Faux News Channel, don’t you think?
Of course, the republican birther establishment will continue with their willful insanity. Count on it.
