Are you disgusted by his willingness to throw our military men and their consciences and honor under the rug by playing “chicken” with their honor and lives rather than simply show a document that has nothing embarrassing on it at all?
Lakin was willing to give his life’s savings, his career, and his good name when he thought his country needed him to do so. I am disgusted that Obama is willing to give NOTHING - zero, absolutely zippo - for this country or for the men who defend her. Not even show a routine paper that poses no threat or inconvenience to himself whatsoever. He was willing to give -1 million and gladly took it right out of the hands of those who love and serve this country.
That you would consider Lakin to be the sad part of this story reflects very, very, very, very, very badly on you, TF.
First, he may have understood that "politics is the art of the possible" and he realized that it would never be possible to meet impossible standards of proof.
Second, he might very well have believed that the birthers were helping him politically by making it appear to many that some of his opposition had stepped off the deep end of the pier without a raft or the ability to swim.
Again, it is probably impossible to find anything to be 100% certain about in this world. However, I am about 99.5% certain that history is going to record that Obama was born in Hawaii to an American mother (Dunham) and a Kenyan father (Obama, Sr.). History may be wrong in that regard, but after five years of intensive investigation and discussion, the birthers still have "no idea" who his father was, who his mother was or where he was born. Well, history books just aren't going to leave issues like that open forever so if y'all want to warrant even a footnote, y'all better come up with some ideas very soon.
You say that "Lakin was willing to give his life's savings, his career, and his good name when he thought his country needed him to do so." Didn't he also have a wife and family? What he did was foolish, thoughtless, selfish and arrogant. There hasn't been a day in our history when some soldier could not have decided that he hadn't seen enough documents to be absolutely certain that the president was eligible. On the night before D-Day, a soldier could have explained, "Well, you know, I want to get on that boat with the rest of you tonight, but I haven't yet seen FDR"s birth certificate so I really can't join you. Maybe I can catch up with you guys later."