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Down with the Birthers (Just open the kimono, Obama!)
Front Page Magazine ^ | July 29, 2009 | Jamie Weinstein

Posted on 07/29/2009 5:19:16 PM PDT by SirJohnBarleycorn

Republicans and conservatives opposed to a rapid increase in the size and scope of government should be heartened by the American public’s gradual turn away from Obamaism.

But when we need Republican and conservative leadership the most, when we need our leaders and thinkers to clearly differentiate their vision for the country from Barack Obama’s vision, many of our leaders have failed us. Instead of taking the opportunity presented to proclaim the conservative vision to the American people, some Republican leaders have opted to latch on to wild conspiracy theories promoted by the fringes of the Republican Party. Or, at the very least, some of our leaders have allowed such wild theories to fester by not proactively combating and denouncing them.

Just last month, for instance, Frank Gaffney, a former Reagan Administration Defense Department official and conservative intellectual, wrote in The Washington Times that Barack Obama might very well be a secret Muslim. “[T]here is mounting evidence that the president not only identifies with Muslims, but actually may still be one himself,” Gaffney wrote. Among Gaffney’s “mounting evidence” was the fact that President Obama referred to the Koran as the “holy Koran” during his June speech in Cairo, Egypt.

But of course this was merely pandering on Obama’s part. It no more helps prove that President Obama is a secret Muslim than President Bush speaking in Spanish to a Latino audience proves he is a “secret Hispanic,” or President Obama wearing a yarmulke at a gathering of American Jews (as he has) proves he is “secretly Jewish.”

How much resonance such conspiracy theories have within the Republican Party is unclear, but a YouTube video put up last week of a town hall meeting held by Republican Congressman Mike Castle is worrisome. A lady pressed the Delaware Republican about why Obama has not produced his birth certificate and then loudly declared that Obama was in fact a citizen of Kenya, not the United States. “I want my country back,” she shouted in her rant at the befuddled congressman, who could only respond, responsibly, that President Obama was in fact an American citizen. It’s impossible to tell how many people in the audience agreed with the woman, but there were certainly enough of them to make some noise.

These “birthers,” as they have come to be known, allege that Obama is ineligible to be president because he was not born in the United States. Despite overwhelming proof that Obama is in fact native born – including an official birth certificate from the state of Hawaii – the birthers movement persists in claiming otherwise.

Why stop there? With equal plausibility, one might suggest that 48 years ago, a group of Islamists conspired to take over America by making Barack Obama president. Having the incredible foresight in the 1960s too see that a black man would be the obvious choice for president of the United States in 2008, their strategy would be to hide his foreign and Muslim identity by having his parents name him Barack Hussein Obama. Somehow, they knew this child would be smart and talented enough to get into elite colleges and become the first black editor of the Harvard Law Review. The men behind this clever movement to take over America wisely encouraged a young Barack to take drugs in his youth and then to later write about his drug-taking days in a memoir because, presciently, they understood that writing about one’s drug-taking past is usually a successful presidential strategy.

That’s not all. Instead of having Obama be born in America, his mother’s native country, as most people trying to conduct a successful take over plot of America would do, they had Obama be born in Kenya. But in order to deceive the American people that Obama was an actual American citizen 47 years later, the men behind this plot made sure local Hawaiian newspapers published notices of Obama’s birth. The secret cabal behind Obama was also able to fool, evidently, the state of Hawaii.

One might go on and ask why someone who supposedly is a secret radical Islamist, determined to create a Sharia state in America, would add troops to Afghanistan to fight radical Islamists there; launch predator drone attacks against Islamist terrorists in Pakistan; and keep the Guantanamo Bay terrorist detention facilities open despite his campaign pledge to shut down the facility?

Yet another problem with the conspiracy theories is that they distract from more serious criticisms of the administration. I have written articles in opposition to Barack Obama’s policies and I will continue to do so as long as he pushes policies that I think are harmful. However, we have to have responsible leadership in the Republican Party that opposes Obama on the basis of principle and uses reasoned discourse, not idiotic falsities, to make its case.

Conservative commentators, leaders and thinkers have a responsibility to denounce idiocy put forward under the conservative banner. Republicans and conservatives have a real opportunity to take back the country in 2010 and 2012. But they aren’t going to do it by promoting outlandish conspiracies.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; News/Current Events; US: Hawaii
KEYWORDS: birthcertificate; birthers; certifigate; imom; mysteryman; obama; obroma
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To: buwaya
Show me in the constuitution wher it says the president can do that.

BTW #29 seems to put you out of business. So take your hypothesis and play with Star Traveler for the rest of the night.

81 posted on 07/29/2009 6:55:59 PM PDT by nufsed (Release the birth certificate, passport, and school records.)
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To: Know et al

I think the WH screaming about it is just a way to use it as a distraction to change the subject away from mounting opposition to his policies.


82 posted on 07/29/2009 6:55:59 PM PDT by buwaya
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To: IrishPennant

Pennant, just remember Claire McCaskill started this, along with Obama and Leahy over McCain’s NBC status, then McCaskill tried to get NBC status changed for Obama.

Ignore the anklebiters. They hang around, worrying when something is going to break hard, after all, they saw what happened to Rather.


83 posted on 07/29/2009 6:57:07 PM PDT by txhurl (Put the pressure on and keep it on until this administration snaps.)
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To: txhurl

Thanks tx...I just cringe when people think we have to rely on the law to help us...the only true law came in the Constitution. That same document gave us the right to seek answers, yet many, including those who think conservatives are getting a bad name, want to lay back and let LAWYERS decide our countries fate. Gives me the chills...that is the action of a welfare seeking democrat..not a true American...IMHO anyway :)


84 posted on 07/29/2009 7:02:32 PM PDT by IrishPennant (We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office. ~Aesop)
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To: Star Traveler
Obama’s sister says one hospital, Obama has said, during different interviews, two different hospitals. One hospital denies he was born there. This is not clear cut by any stretch!
85 posted on 07/29/2009 7:03:51 PM PDT by carcraft (Pray for our Country)
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To: SirJohnBarleycorn
Or, at the very least, some of our leaders have allowed such wild theories to fester by not proactively combating and denouncing them.

The idiot author believes that it is the GOP's job to defend the secrecy of Obama.

Herr Weinstein, KISS MY @$$. I don't care if it bothers you - the GOP leadership has NO BUSINESS "debunking" something that Obama cannot himself debunk in the ONLY meaningful way.

86 posted on 07/29/2009 7:08:04 PM PDT by MortMan (Stubbing one's toes is a valid (if painful) way of locating furniture in the dark.)
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To: Star Traveler
I don't understand why Hawaiian officials would so adamantly lie! They have stated Obama meets the requirements. They know a judge or the Supremes could force the issue at any point. I really don't think they would lie to cover his butt. The very terse statement does not cover all the facts of Obama’s birth but that is not the Hawaiian officials job!
87 posted on 07/29/2009 7:09:23 PM PDT by carcraft (Pray for our Country)
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To: nufsed

Can do what ?

as for #29, no it doesn’t. It just says what must happen if a President is deemed ineligible. Take a step back though.

It does not say how, by whom, what proof is required, or even who has the burden of proof, among a host of other things.

These are all the blanks that have been filled in by centuries of legislation and court decisions for most of the rest of the Constitution. But not this bit.


88 posted on 07/29/2009 7:09:49 PM PDT by buwaya
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To: gramho12
What is missing from the Big O's info? "Certificate of Live Birth" is a birth certificate.

...signatures of mother, physician and registrar.

Well, you see there, you've answered your own question.

89 posted on 07/29/2009 7:10:08 PM PDT by NurdlyPeon (Sarah Palin: Americas last, best hope for survival.)
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To: Star Traveler
Interestingly, the Oct 2008 statement read:

“Therefore, I as Director of Health for the State of Hawai‘i, along with the Registrar of Vital Statistics who has statutory authority to oversee and maintain these type of vital records, have personally seen and verified that the Hawai‘i State Department of Health has Sen. Obama’s original birth certificate on record in accordance with state policies and procedures.

which only says he has a birth certificate on file and conspicuously avoids the issue of place of birth.

90 posted on 07/29/2009 7:10:18 PM PDT by pjd
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To: carcraft

What are you hiding, Barry?


91 posted on 07/29/2009 7:10:27 PM PDT by Texas resident ( Boys and Girls, it's us against them.)
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To: Texas resident

That he is Frank Davis’s son maybe!


92 posted on 07/29/2009 7:12:43 PM PDT by carcraft (Pray for our Country)
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To: MortMan

The GOP leadership has an interest in making sure a bunch of their troops (or thats how they see them) don’t charge off a cliff to the amusement of their enemies.

And then there are the undecided voters who would take a poor view of the spectacle.


93 posted on 07/29/2009 7:12:57 PM PDT by buwaya
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To: buwaya
One has to prove that he is in fact defying the Constitution.

The fact he has a team of lawyers fighting not to produce his birth certificate in order to fulfill the Constitutional requirement is more than enough prove he is being defiant.

More importantly the burden of proof is not on Americans to determine if someone is or is not eligible as a natural born citizen per Article II Section I. The burden of proof is on the individual seeking the office to prove he or she is eligible.
94 posted on 07/29/2009 7:13:21 PM PDT by Man50D (Fair Tax, you earn it, you keep it! FairTaxNation.com)
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To: buwaya
I don’t think so. This will before long turn into something like the Kennedy assassination theories.

The only difference being that he Kennedy assassination could not be solved by simply producing a single document with a signature on it.

95 posted on 07/29/2009 7:13:31 PM PDT by NurdlyPeon (Sarah Palin: Americas last, best hope for survival.)
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To: pjd

“I, Dr. Chiyome Fukino, Director of the Hawai‘i State Department of Health, have seen the original vital records maintained on file by the Hawai‘i State Department of Health verifying Barack Hussein Obama was born in Hawai‘i and is a natural-born American citizen. I have nothing further to add to this statement or my original statement issued in October 2008 over eight months ago.”

That pretty well cover’s it doesn’t it?


96 posted on 07/29/2009 7:14:34 PM PDT by carcraft (Pray for our Country)
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To: carcraft

I was pointing out what was posted recently (re: the hospital), but I know that the hospital he was born in — isn’t going to bear on the Statement from the State of Hawaii — that Obama was born in Hawaii and that he is a natural-born American citizen.

Perhaps a lot of people might like to know the hospital, and I suppose that’s nice. You would know where to go to have your picture taken. But, for purposes of the three Constitutional requirement for office, I’m glad to know that he was born in Hawaii...

Perhaps they’ll have a plaque put on the hospital this year, since it’s the 50th anniversary year for Hawaii’s statehood.


97 posted on 07/29/2009 7:16:44 PM PDT by Star Traveler (The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is a Zionist and Jerusalem is the apple of His eye.)
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To: buwaya

Please don’t interupt I’m looking for that airplane thing in the constitution and federal law. Otherwise everyone will be swimming to Afghanistan.


98 posted on 07/29/2009 7:17:39 PM PDT by nufsed (Release the birth certificate, passport, and school records.)
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To: IrishPennant


I am the great and powerful Rino...errrr... collaborator, I mean Conservative Wizard.
Who are you and why do you wish to see the certificate?

No one gets to see the birth certificate
not no way, not no how!
99 posted on 07/29/2009 7:19:08 PM PDT by DaveTesla (You can fool some of the people some of the time......)
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To: buwaya

I’m sorry you seem to take your self-definition from the eyes of others. You have handed the power to define who you are and what you believe to those who wish nothing more than your political humiliation.


100 posted on 07/29/2009 7:21:26 PM PDT by MortMan (Stubbing one's toes is a valid (if painful) way of locating furniture in the dark.)
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