The Many Faces of US Politics...

[Tyrones own]

You're probably right...could be a photoshop job perhaps 

[J70]

Part of me thinks he should have told them to go f**k themselves and let them continue tying themselves up in knots over what was plainly a ludicrous, paranoid, petulant conspiracy theory. Politically, it was a no-lose situation. But Trump's presidential PR campaign was raising it to ridiculous levels of "newsworthiness", so he was probably right to release it at this stage. Not that its going to satisfy the more insane elements of the right wing, but I doubt if he gives a f**k about what they think anyway as nothing he can ever do will be greeted by anything other than irrational hatred on their part.

[Tyrones own]

so he was probably right to release it at this stage.

He had no choice but release it... have you seen the poll numbers as to the questioning his
eligibility for office owing to the fact that he has went to such lengths, not to mention cost, to conceal most all of his past

but I doubt if he gives a f**k about what they think anyway as nothing he can ever do will be greeted by anything other than irrational hatred on their part.

That's quite a strong word there... He's absolutely everything I said he would be, a complete fecking disaster and the country has finally woken up to it, well most of it, your good self excluded
of course 
Pray tell you're not not still buying or waiting on the Hope and Change thing are ye 

[deiseach]

He shouldn't have bothered. The only reason someone could think that Obama was not born in Hawaii even before today is that they didn't want a black person in the White House, unless they were there to shine whitey's shoes, and this isn't going to change that state of affairs

[deiseach]

David Fum gives a good summary of the real story behind birtherism:

The Birther Disgrace

Even for the small band that sustained the phony controversy until now, the birth certificate so-called issue ends today.

Any last lingering doubts that maybe, perhaps, a pregnant Stanley Ann Dunham in the summer of 1961 boarded a propeller plane from Honolulu to Los Angeles, then from Los Angeles to New York City, then from New York City to Gander, then from Gander to London, then from London to Nairobi – and then repeated the trip backward a few weeks later – all so that her baby could acquire Kenyan nationality – those doubts are definitively squelched, as they should have been three years ago.

Now the more haunting question: How did this poisonous and not very subtly racist allegation get such a grip on our conservative movement and our Republican party?

I know there will be Republican writers and conservative publicists who will now deny that birtherism ever did get a grip. Sorry, that's just wrong. Not only did Trump surge ahead in Republican polls by flaming racial fires – not only did conservative media outlets from Fox to Drudge to the Breitbart sites indulge the birthers – but so also did every Republican candidate who said, "I take the president at his word." Birthers did not doubt the president's "word." They were doubting the official records of the state of Hawaii. It's like answering a 9/11 conspiracist by saying, "I take the 9/11 families at their word that they lost their loved ones."

Yet even now, the racialist aspect of the anti-Obama movement has not subsided. Trump has moved from the birth certificate to questioning the president's academic qualifications for the Harvard Law School. Trump himself was a troubled student (at one point he attended a military school) who nonetheless gained admission to Wharton. His father's wealth and business success cannot have hurt with that application. Yet he feels himself qualified to pronounce on who is and who is not smart enough to attend Harvard Law. Barack Obama graduated magna cum laude. (And to anticipate a new line of attack – yes, Harvard Law School exams were blind-graded.) He was elected editor of the law review. And his classmates, left and right, universally admired his abilities.

I wish it were otherwise, but it does seem that these racialized attacks on Obama have exacted a toll on him. But they also have exacted a toll on the opposition to Obama. The too-faint repudiation of birtherism by regular Republicans has shaped not only the Obama brand, but also the Republican brand. It was not only white people who heard the implied message about who counts and who does not count as a "real American."

I write as an opponent of virtually every major and minor action of this administration. Republicans should be fighting this president on policy, not winking at those who use race as a weapon. It's worth recalling the generous words of John McCain on election night 2008:

Though we have come a long way from the old injustices that once stained our nation's reputation and denied some Americans the full blessings of American citizenship, the memory of them still had the power to wound. A century ago, President Theodore Roosevelt's invitation of Booker T. Washington to dine at the White House was taken as an outrage in many quarters. America today is a world away from the cruel and frightful bigotry of that time. There is no better evidence of this than the election of an African-American to the presidency of the United States. Let there be no reason now for any American to fail to cherish their citizenship in this, the greatest nation on Earth.

And those who imagine that they somehow enhance the value of that citizenship by belittling the American-ness of their president – they not only disgrace the politics they uphold, but they do damage that will not soon be forgotten by the voters a revived Republicanism must win.

[dec]

He had no choice but release it... have you seen the poll numbers as to the questioning his
eligibility for office owing to the fact that he has went to such lengths, not to mention cost, to conceal most all of his past

So what lengths and cost is he supposed to have gone to, to conceal this?

[deiseach]

He had no choice but release it... have you seen the poll numbers as to the questioning his
eligibility for office owing to the fact that he has went to such lengths, not to mention cost, to conceal most all of his past

So what lengths and cost is he supposed to have gone to, to conceal this?

Supposedly Obama spent $2 million on lawyers fighting people who took law suits demanding to see the birth cert. This is a barefaced lie, but facts have a well-known liberal bias

[Fear ón Srath Bán]

Had he shown it from the get go like he was supposed to instead of spending
an astronomical amount of money to conceal his secretive past,
The birthers would never have gotten of the ground 

You underestimate the birthers. They wouldn't be deterred by something as trivial as evidence.

Sure these were the same goons who ceaselessly assured us that GW Bush could read!

[Tyrones own]

He shouldn't have bothered. The only reason someone could think that Obama was not born in Hawaii even before today is that they didn't want a black person in the White House, unless they were there to shine whitey's shoes, and this isn't going to change that state of affairs

Agh true to form...when the back is against the wall for any multitude of
reasons, bring on the race card.
Ignorance in spectacular form 

[hsthompson]

TO - do you genuinely think Obama wasn't born in the US? Do you think Trump would be a better man for the job?

[Tyrones own]

Had he shown it from the get go like he was supposed to instead of spending
an astronomical amount of money to conceal his secretive past,
The birthers would never have gotten of the ground 

You underestimate the birthers. They wouldn't be deterred by something as trivial as evidence.

Sure these were the same goons who ceaselessly assured us that GW Bush could read!

No, you're confusing him with Obama...Bush didn't read from a teleprompter 

[Tyrones own]

TO - do you genuinely think Obama wasn't born in the US? Do you think Trump would be a better man for the job?

No and no..but fair play to Trump making him come out and show it
in two weeks what we the people couldn't do in 2 1/2 years!

[heganboy]

No, you're confusing him with Obama...Bush didn't read from a teleprompter 

Fixed that for you...

[Tyrones own]

No, you're confusing him with Obama...Bush didn't read from a teleprompter 

Fixed that for you...

Sure throw up Obama's school records and I'll post Bush's and we'll go from there
...oops, that's right, Obama's can't be found, wonder why?

[heganboy]

Editorial
A Certificate of Embarrassment

from: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/28/opinion/28thu1.html

With sardonic resignation, President Obama, an eminently rational man, stared directly into political irrationality on Wednesday and released his birth certificate to history. More than halfway through his term, the president felt obliged to prove that he was a legitimate occupant of the Oval Office. It was a profoundly low and debasing moment in American political life.

The disbelief fairly dripped from Mr. Obama as he stood at the West Wing lectern. People are out of work, American soldiers are dying overseas and here were cameras to record him stating that he was born in a Hawaii hospital. It was particularly galling to us that it was in answer to a baseless attack with heavy racial undertones.

Mr. Obama practically begged the public to set aside these distractions, expressing hope that his gesture would end the "silliness" and allow a national debate about budget priorities. It won't, of course.

If there was ever any doubt about Mr. Obama's citizenship, which there was not, the issue was settled years ago when Hawaii released his birth certificate. The fuller document that Mr. Obama had to request contains some extra information, including his parents' signatures and the name of the hospital where he was born, but it was unnecessary to show his legitimacy.

So it will not quiet the most avid attackers. Several quickly questioned its authenticity. That's because 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. It was originally promulgated by fringe figures of the radical right, but mainstream Republican leaders allowed it to simmer to satisfy those who are inflamed by Mr. Obama's presence in the White House.

Sarah Palin said the birth certificate issue was "fair game," and the public was "rightfully" making it an issue. The House speaker, John Boehner, grudgingly said in February that he would take Mr. Obama "at his word" that he was a citizen, a suggestion that the proof was insufficient. He said, however, that it was not his job to end the nonsensical attacks. "The American people have the right to think what they want to think," he said at the time. 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.

There was a price to the party for keeping the issue alive; inevitably, it was picked up by a cartoon candidate, Donald Trump, who rode birtherism directly to the prime-time promontories of cable TV. The Republican establishment began to wince as it became increasingly tied to Mr. Trump's flirtations with racial provocation, and Karl Rove told him to knock it off. Naturally, he did not.

Finally, his taunting and the questions of television correspondents obliging Mr. Trump got on the president's nerves. Mr. Obama was tactically smart to release the certificate and marginalize those who continue to keep the matter alive. It is tragic that American politics is fueled by such poisonous fire. Mr. Trump quickly moved on to a new fixation, questioning Mr. Obama's academic credentials. Mr. Boehner, and other party leaders, have a new reason to call a halt to the politics of paranoia and intolerance.