Birthers Comes Up At The White House?
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Barack, Obama, VideoI honestly never thought it would come to this, but here we have Robert Gibbs talking about the willful ignorance that is the birthers movement.
I think we all need to step back for a moment and realize just how amazing this is.
Because, to the best of my knowledge, nobody in the White House has ever been asked if 9/11 was an inside job. But here you have a reporter asking the spokesperson for the President if there’s any way that folks who don’t believe Obama was born in the US will wise up.
Folks, this started out as a CHAIN EMAIL. There is absolutely ZERO truth to any of this nonsense. But slowly it worked its way into conservative blogs …and then to right wing radio …and then Fox News …and then Republican politicians picked up the meme …and then mainstream political commentators like Lou Dobbs …and then to the White House.
Yes…amazing.
What I find even more amazing is that some regular readers here at Donklephant have actually bought into some of the weasely ways the more mainstream birthers keep this train rolling. How it’s “odd” that Obama hasn’t supplied a birth certificate, how they find it “interesting” why Hawaii refuses to release the certificate, etc.
Do know that all of these things are completely false, but they’re always couched in such a way as to lend credence to the notion that Obama is hiding something.
Well, here’s the deal…I literally have no more patience for it. So if you support these birth certificate conspiracy theories, you’re not welcome here. Moreover, if you comment and play that weasley “odd/interesting” game, you’re banned. No questions asked.
Moving on…
This entry was posted on Monday, July 27th, 2009 and is filed under Barack, Obama, Video. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
July 27th, 2009 at 3:59 pm
Justin last Friday on Bill Maher the daughter of President Dwight Eisenhawer left the GOP because they have embrace these paranoid right wingers into the GOP which is in danger of becoming either a Whig Party or one of the Euro-Far Right Wing Nationalist Parties. As I said in one of my brief post this birthers movement is simply because of the President’s skin color, if so why didn’t they raised this issue toward George W. Bush or Bill Clinton?
July 27th, 2009 at 4:07 pm
It’s not the first time. The WND’s White House correspondent gets called on from time to time and he often — if not always — asks about the birth certificate.
July 27th, 2009 at 4:23 pm
First, as the transparency president Obama could quickly turn the tables and welcome the idea. Shutting down discourse, reacting so energetically against the idea of requiring a state-supplied birth certificate for candidacy only puts more fuel on the fire. “They wouldn’t be fighting against it if they weren’t hiding something!”
July 27th, 2009 at 4:37 pm
Exiled,
You are a joke. A waste of bandwidth, and a waste of breathable oxygen, most likely.
Nobody is fighting anything. The birth certificate has been produced numerous times. Your stupidity is not anyone else’s problem–it’s only your own.
Let’s go on this. You have neither the brains nor the cojones to pull this off.
Agnostick
[email protected]
July 27th, 2009 at 4:47 pm
I think everyone who posts on Donklephant should provide a birth certificate….
July 27th, 2009 at 5:21 pm
I heard an excellent point on Hardball from Howard Friedman about this birther movement, the GOP may have a hard time arguing against Obama on health care which could make it easy for the administration to appeal to the American people why this needs to pass & why the GOP is out of touch with reality.
July 27th, 2009 at 5:58 pm
I’m waiting for one of the nut cases (especially the ones in Congress) to notice that, if Obama is not a natural born citizen, then he is not a citizen at all. Because the only two ways to become an American citizen are to be born one or to be naturalized. And nobody thinks Obama was ever naturalized.
But if he isn’t a citizen, then he not only has never been eligible to vote, he wasn’t eligible to be the Senator from Illinois, and the Republicans in the Senate (who were in control in 2004 when he arrived) seriously failed in their obligation to be sure that all Senators are properly elected.
July 27th, 2009 at 6:07 pm
The best thing about conspiracy theories… is that they make it easier to identify the real idiots. Makes it much easier to know what to expect from future debate on here from certain people.
Does anyone believe that 9/11 was an inside job?
Why do I ask?
No reason…
July 27th, 2009 at 6:41 pm
Classic
Rep.Neil Abercrombie (D-HI) is going to force the GOP hand with one of those never controversial resolutions that everyone always votes for…
Abercrombie introduced a bill commemorating the 50th anniversary of Hawaii’s statehood, including a line describing Hawaii as Barack Obama’s birthplace.
Now the GOP members are going to have to vote for or against a resolution because it states Obama was born there….priceless.
July 27th, 2009 at 7:20 pm
see above
July 27th, 2009 at 8:16 pm
gerryf Says:
BREAKING NEWS
ALL MEMBERS OF CONGRESS PASSED NEIL ABERCROMBIE BILL.
http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2009/07/27/hawaii_resolution/index.html
July 27th, 2009 at 8:59 pm
Exiled, you comment here a lot so I’ll give you a warning, but if you continue to spread lies I will ban you. Do not make me do this.
July 27th, 2009 at 9:34 pm
I spent several weeks arguing with morons who believe this, and there’s absolutely nothing you can say, argue, or even prove that will convince them. They remain bitter racist losers at heart. The best method is to ignore them.
July 28th, 2009 at 6:44 am
Read “The Paranoid Style in American Politics” by Richard Hofstadter. He wrote it in like 1962 but it still explains the birther movement.
Here’s a link:
http://karws.gso.uri.edu/jfk/conspiracy_theory/the_paranoid_mentality/the_paranoid_style.html
July 28th, 2009 at 9:29 am
Justin, my point in the post is that the the anger expressed by you and others about the “birther” folks is just encouraging them, giving credence to this idea that Obama (and by extension, his supporters) want to keep something from the public. Threatening to ban people with a disagreeable opinion from a site about discourse and disagreement? That’s supposed to make people who disagree with you (even people who may very well be 180 degrees off the mark) fall in line or change their minds?
July 28th, 2009 at 9:30 am
The part that really baffles me is that the birther movement just makes it easier for Independents to vote Democratic. Particularly when members of Congress take up the fight. It won’t impact any of those members of Congress since they are from very red districts, but nationally who wants to vote with a party that pushes this kind of crap?
July 28th, 2009 at 11:15 am
Here’s my take as a new guy around here:
First, as the transparency president Obama could quickly turn the tables and welcome the idea. Shutting down discourse, reacting so energetically against the idea of requiring a state-supplied birth certificate for candidacy only puts more fuel on the fire. “They wouldn’t be fighting against it if they weren’t hiding something!â€
While I think the above is total baloney, I don’t think it’s the same thing as supporting the conspiracy theory and I think it’s far enough off the “odd/interesting” weasel-wording not to qualify for the ban as presented.
Justin, my point in the post is that the the anger expressed by you and others about the “birther†folks is just encouraging them, giving credence to this idea that Obama (and by extension, his supporters) want to keep something from the public.
This is pretty much a restatement of the, in my opinion, not-ban-worthy baloney. The birthers need no encouragement and their own ideas have maximum credibility for them and only them. Nothing can be said either way to change their minds AFAICT.
Threatening to ban people with a disagreeable opinion from a site about discourse and disagreement?
Not a bad point. It depends on what the opinion is and if it’s at all reasonable. That’s a judgement call, and people can do what they want on their own blogs, regardless of whether or not others think it a good idea.
That’s supposed to make people who disagree with you (even people who may very well be 180 degrees off the mark) fall in line or change their minds?
No, it’s just supposed to shut them up and make them go away. That may not be a bad thing, subject to how reasonable or unreasonable they may be. See above.
July 28th, 2009 at 11:49 am
Exiled, that’s not the point and you know it. You’ve been on here indirectly claiming that Obama hasn’t produced his birth certificate and you’re doing it again, only in an indirect way. Maybe it’s unintentional, and I said I’d give you the benefit of the doubt, but your intentionally or unintentionally spreading falsehoods and it needs to stop immediately.
Also, on this issue, I don’t care about changing people’s minds and I’m definitely shutting down debate. I want it off my site period. They can go believe anything they want, but they won’t be commenting here.
July 28th, 2009 at 12:17 pm
IN the minds of the sane, this is for all intents and purposes a settled issue. Obama’s citizenship has in fact been established beyond a reasonable doubt in every relevant and actionable legal sense. Period.
The remaining doubts that keep being raised by these folks are unreasonable, plain and simple. These doubters are ether off their meds, or need to get on some. Because those transmitters in the head can really be a bitch.
Hey whq, nice to see you swing by. You may recall me as bk from centerfield.
July 28th, 2009 at 12:24 pm
I don’t think banning is the best approach. Better to let such folks vent and then meet their comments either with silence, or with a boilerplate version of my response above to the effect that
Maybe include a link to a comprehensive account of this, such as one that includes the info I know Tully recently recounted.
Why bother? Well, here’s the thing. This meme is best combatted with a countermeme that documents the truth. So if any readers here are unfamiliar and a birther decided to bring the issue up, a link to the verified truth prevents the spread of the conspiracy. Only among folks who are actually susceptible to reason, that is.
July 28th, 2009 at 2:04 pm
Exiled,
Here’s a good example of the logic you’re trying to use…
And that, ladies and gentlemen… is Birther Logic 101.
Exiled, what’s good for the goose is good for the gander:
If you think the president was born somewhere other than the USA, then produce the evidence: Show us a Kenyan birth certificate.
Show us an Indonesian birth certificate. Show us a Malaysian birth certificate. Show us a Belgian birth certificate.
There is absolutely nothing on a long-form birth certificate that causes it to carry any more legal, ethical, or moral “weight” than the short-form “certification of live birth.” The Constitution does not require presidential candidates to be of a certain birth weight… it does not require that presidential candidates be born in a hospital, rather than a private home. There is no Constitutional requirement that the birth of a presidential candidate be attended by a physician, rather than the local midwife (a common practice in the 18th and 19th centuries).
If Wikipedia is to be believed (and there’s no compelling reason that it shouldn’t), government birth records really didn’t become standardized until 1900, when the U.S. Census Bureau stepped in and assumed responsibility; previous to that, records of births and deaths were maintained by community churches. Should your local church run up against fire or a tornado, well, you were out of luck.
So what, then, of our first 34 presidents? Should we just nullify their presidencies because they most likely lacked a standard long-form birth certificate? John F. Kennedy, born in Brookline, Massachusetts, in 1917, most likely had the standard form; Dwight D. Eisenhower, born in Denison, Texas, in 1890, probably did not have the standard birth certificate. This would also most likely be the case for the 33 chief executives that preceded him!
1. The Constitution of the United States of America only requires that a presidential candidate be a natural born citizen, be at least 35 years of age, and have lived in the USA at least 14 years. No other requirements are listed.
2. Standard birth certificates were not commonplace until the early years of the 20th century; previous to that, community churches played a large part in keeping track of births, marriages, and deaths.
3. Of the 44 men who have held the office of President of the United States of America… at least 30 of them did not have a standardized birth certificate; yet, they were legitimate candidates, as well as legitimate office holders.
4. In the 21st century, most states offer both a long-form birth certificate, usually issued at birth… and a short-form certification of live birth. Both have equal legal standing.
I welcome any and all challenges to the points above.
Agnostick
[email protected]
July 28th, 2009 at 2:13 pm
Hey whq, nice to see you swing by. You may recall me as bk from centerfield.
Yes. We’ve corresponded briefly since your bk-kranky kritter conversion at CF and SF. Good to see you as well. You and Tully are pretty much the reasons I found this site.
July 30th, 2009 at 9:52 am
We moderates have only one reason to take the birthers seriously: their fanaticism. A half-cracked fringe cult based on a trivial non-issue can gain momentum if enough people start to believe fiercely enough.