Posted on 02/22/2010 12:37:24 PM PST by Kaslin
As President Obama's approval numbers continue to spiral downward, the left has purposefully tried to tie the increasingly popular small government conservative movement to the largely fringe "birthers". In the spirit of full disclosure, I am not a birther. I happen to believe that President Obama was born in Hawaii and was therefore eligible to be sworn in as President of the United States on inauguration day. That being said, I can't help but feel a little bit of sympathy for the birthers. Ultimately, the rise of the birther movement is the fault of a deficit of curiosity about Barack Obama on the part of the media.
As a result of his lack of experience in both the private and public sectors, coupled with his relative youth, President Obama's personal records are extremely thin. There are huge gaps in what we know about Barack Obama, whereas previous presidents have been open books. The media normally seems to revel in uncovering the seedy and controversial side of every political figure, but they have never exhibited the same interest in President Obama. Every president has had embarrassing issues arise from their past, but President Obama's level of secrecy, meant to maintain his squeaky clean veneer, only serves to fuel speculation.
Since day one Barack Obama has maintained an extreme amount of control over his image. One of the most important elements of that image has been the narrative of his past. To this end Mr. Obama has written two book that serve as the primary basis for this narrative. The media, whose very purpose is to be inquisitive, seems all too willing to accept it without question. Both Dreams from My Father and The Audacity of hope received scant scrutiny or fact checking. For comparison, the Associated Press devoted 11 reporters to pore over every word of Sarah Palin's Going Rogue.
Another example of the difference in inquisitiveness that the media has shown for this president as opposed to previous ones can be seen by the 2004 investigation of President George W. Bush's military records. The search for dirt on President Bush was so fevered that some seemed willing to throw journalistic standards to the wind in pursuit of something that would stick. Distinguished careers were destroyed in the attempt to uncover details about President Bush’s past.
At the time Bush began his stint in the Air National Guard, he was 22 years old. When Obama was 22, he was still a student at Columbia University. An investigation along the same lines as the Bush Air National Guard investigation would be impossible because Obama has not allowed the release of his college records. Unfortunately, the media seems to be perfectly content with this lack of access to key events in our presidents past and for all intents and purposes considers the matter to be a non-issue.
The birthers are naturally being drawn to and are fueled by the alternative media because nearly all of the negative press Barack Obama has received, including his controversial associations from his past, has originated with these sources. While most of the media treated us to puff pieces during the 2008 election, investigations into Obama associates like Reverend Wright and Bill Ayers percolated and exploded almost exclusively out of traditionally conservative outlets and the blogosphere. Mainstream sources on the other hand fiercely fought to discredit these stories, even when these controversies deserved scrutiny and provided a rare insight into candidate Obama.
President Obama's secrecy about his past and the media's apparent lack of interest in it does not assume that they are colluding to cover something up, but it does leave plenty of room for people who are conspiratorially inclined to fill in the blanks. Seeing as the left increasingly sees the birther movement as an albatross to tie around the neck of their enemies on the right, we can most likely chalk up the media’s lack of curiosity to good old-fashioned left wing bias. But even if bias is to blame, it's only natural that some would confuse their lack of investigation to be evidence of malfeasance.
Presuming the media’s love affair with President Obama continues, we can assume that their lack of curiosity will as well. For those who profess such admiration for the President but don’t seem to care much about whom he was prior to his emergence on the public stage though the question remains: Are you scared of what you'll find?
“...I happen to believe that President Obama was born in Hawaii ...”
Why do you believe it? Basis what evidence?
Since no one has seen, held, and examined the long form, then how's that British and Kenyan citizenship working for ya?
Not mutually inclusive statements. The use of "therefore" in this sentence is a rhetorical fallacy.
Even if he was born in Hawaii, he is not a “natural born citizen” as required by the Constitution. If his father is who Obama claims, he was British, thus making Obama ineligible to hold the office of President of the USA.
If his father was a US citizen, then it’s a whole different story.
With the LMSM in his pocket, the main beneficiary of the “birther” issue is Øbama himself. He’s laughing at you.
The Birthers are this administration’s incarnation of the “Impeach Bush” crowd. And they will have the same results. For as long as Barky is President you will have the Birthers just as the “Impeach Bush” crowd was there until the end. In the end, Obama will out last the birthers like Bush outlasted the “Impeach Bush” clowns.
I am not commenting on whether the Birthers are legitimate or not or whether they have a case or not. They may, I just doubt that anything will come of it.
1 Certified copy of original birth certificate
2 Columbia University transcripts
3 Columbia thesis paper
4 Campaign donor analysis requested by 7 major watchdog groups
5 Harvard University transcripts
6 Illinois State Senate records
7 Illinois State Senate schedule
8 Law practice client list and billing records/summary
9 Locations and names of all half-siblings and step-mother
10 Medical records (only the one page summary released so far)
11 Occidental College Transcripts
12 Parent’s marriage Certificate
13 Record of baptism
14 Selective Service registration records
(Did Obama Actually Register for Selective Service?
This supposed revelation of 0's SS records has been debunked here and here.)
15 Schedules for trips outside of the United States before 2007
16 Passport records for all passports
17 Scholarly articles
18 SAT and LSAT test scores
19 Access to his grandmother in Kenya
20 List of all campaign workers that are lobbyists
21 Punahou grade school records
22 Noelani Kindergarten records are oddly missing from the the State of Hawaii Department of Education.
23 Page 11 of Stanley Ann Dunham's divorce decree.
24 Why did Barack Obama resign from the Illinois bar and where are all of the relevant documents?
25 Why did Michelle Obama resign from the Illinois bar after only about four years of practice and where are all of the relevant documents?
Anyone who cares about their country would be very concerned that a POTUS had hidden every scrap of information of his life that he possibly could.
Didn’t the media make Sarah provide a birth certificate to prove that Trig was really her baby?????????
This silence speaks volumes. There is definitely something there. It is almost like Obama is "The Man Who Wasn't There".
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
BELIEVE! BELIEVE! BELIEVE! BELIEVE! BELIEVE!
The author can't say **KNOW** because he can NOT KNOW!!!! There isn't the evidence for him to use the word **KNOW**!!!!
So?...If I am a proud questioner, does that make him proud “believer”?
These guys are like the little kids at a Peter Pan play, when Tinker Bell asks “Clap if you BELIEVE!” These guys clap!
“As a result of his lack of experience in both the private and public sectors, coupled with his relative youth, President Obama’s personal records are extremely thin. There are huge gaps in what we know about Barack Obama, whereas previous presidents have been open books. The media normally seems to revel in uncovering the seedy and controversial side of every political figure, but they have never exhibited the same interest in President Obama. Every president has had embarrassing issues arise from their past, but President Obama’s level of secrecy, meant to maintain his squeaky clean veneer, only serves to fuel speculation.”
We have never had reason to be suspicious of any other president because their entire life has been an open book with verifiable, eye witness accounts and open records.
Obama has created this mess because of his arrogance.
The people DO HAVE A RIGHT TO KNOW EVERYTHING ABOUT OUR PRESIDENT.
Lawyering up to block release of records creates doubt, and a general mistrust of Obama. Coupled with his Marxist Progressive associations, America has the RIGHT to know what the MSM has chosen to ignore. The people can find out and will never tire in the quest for the truth the MSM is incapable of reporting.
None.
Media cover up. I'll bet by the time they are released, they are vacuumed.
“I happen to believe that President Obama was born in Hawaii and was therefore eligible to be sworn in as President of the United States on inauguration day.”
Proof? His whole life has been hidden. Why?
Exactly.
The sad part is this nonsense is used to attack websites like this one.
I happen to be a birther and damned proid of the fact that I believe in the Constitution, and I also believe anyone who hides something as simple to produce as his birth certificate has a reason for hiding it.
Dopnt feel sorry for me Hoss, it is I who feel sorry for you for accepting a pig in a poke.
I had a friedn in the Navy, his ship landd in a foreign country and he was approached ny a man selling a gun.
He bought the gun and when he took it back to his ship half the sailors there had also bought the gun. When they opened the box it contained a brick. You have bought a brick my friend.
Almost like a red list from the 1950s or a subversives list in East Germany before the wall fell.
As Obama could end the controversy in 30 seconds if he gave permission to look at his birth certificate, the only one anyone can rationally blame is Obama.
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