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?
Look, the Sanity Squad has undertaken a “superhuman” task. Its us against millions of birthers. A few of us doing our best to reclaim conservatives lost to the birther collective. The enemy will try to beat us to death with the same old disproven facts, try to break our bones us upon the rack of tortured logic and reasoning. Wear us out with new revelations from Eric, the hod carrier, in 1543 England, who said only Natural Born Citizens could use the village privy.
But we shall endeavor to persevere. And for that, we are heroes!
Captain Quest, who says “Kid’s be sure to wash your hands often!”
Look, the Sanity Squad has undertaken a “superhuman” task.
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This is the very definition of “delusions of grandeur”!
Hm?...Now what where **you** saying about **SANITY**???
"Posterity, you will never know how much it cost the present generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it. If you do not, I shall repent in heaven that ever I took half the pains to preserve it." John Adams
Last post for the night.
The subject you raised was a statement from a founder on dual citizenship as a concern. I have posted James Madison’s opinion that place was a more certain criterion of allegiance than parentage. You can accept or reject it, but I have answered your request on a founder’s opinion.
Rocky Mountain News runs a correction
Editor's note: One of the items on this list has been removed because it mistakenly repeated a report that Barack Obama holds dual United States-Kenyan citizenship. This erroneous information was never reported in the Rocky Mountain News print edition.
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/aug/06/things-you-might-not-know-about-barack-obama/?partner=yahoo_headlines
From the Constitution of Kenya, 97. Dual citizenship
A person who, upon the attainment of the age of twenty-one years, is a citizen of Kenya and also a citizen of some country other than Kenya shall, subject to subsection (7), cease to be a citizen of Kenya upon the specified date unless he has renounced his citizenship of that other country, taken the oath of allegiance and, in the case of a person who was born outside Kenya. made and registered such declaration of his intentions concerning residence as may be prescribed by or under an Act of Parliament.
http://kenya.rcbowen.com/constitution/chap6.html#97
but I have answered your request on a founder’s opinion.
No. You haven't. You addressed the qualification to be a state Rep in the South Carolina House.
You can forget the Birth Certificate - OBAMA ADMITS BRITISH CITIZEN AT BIRTH
OBAMA ADMITS HE WAS BRITISH CITIZEN AT BIRTH - AS SUCH OBAMA IS NOT A NATURAL BORN CITIZEN OF US
British Nationality Act of 1948 (Part II, Section 5): Subject to the provisions of this section, a person born after the commencement of this Act shall be a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies by descent if his father is a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies at the time of the birth.
21? Fact Check says 23? They can't get their stories straight?! LOLOL!!!!!
Does Barack Obama have Kenyan citizenship?
He held both U.S. and Kenyan citizenship as a child, but lost his Kenyan citizenship automatically on his 23rd birthday.
Oh and, Goodnight.
Obama does look like his “grandfather” however. Could Obama be the child of Stanley Dunham and a black or Arab woman?
I happen to believe the media had more to do with this than anybody.
How about if this was PLANNED from the start ..??
I think Obama hid all his college stuff and all those other documents because they would prove he gained a college education under false pretenses .. claiming to be foreign born so he could get free loans and grants to attend college.
Surely he would not want that exposed ..??
Then, the plan would be that it was something else Obama wanted to hide .. how about .. he was not a US citizen .. when in reality he was .. but all his documents said he was a foreign student.
I think the media knows .. and they’re trying to use the secrecy to spook us into looking like crazies.
That’s okay .. we’ll have the last laugh!
“I’ve “talked” to him before. I believe him to be a retread troll as he keeps saying things like, “You said that 2 years ago”.”
I don’t think he is just a run of the mill troll. Today he posted 50 times and generated more than 25 pages. He has done this much or more on many on other days in the month since he registered. He may just be looking through your past posts, but to me that raises even more questions. Who has the time to do all that? He is extremely sophisticated to a very suspicious degree. I suspect that his profile is made up and he is some sort of paid PR operative.
Sorry for that delay. There was an orphanage on fire and I had to fly over there and use my super breath and put it out. Pictures and autographs afterwards. You know how it is.
Now let’s discuss ‘sanity.” Delusions of grandeur are kinda what you Birther Units have. You guys think you are God. You speak a word and it becomes real. I have given you examples before. You are untouchable in legal theory. Your theory becomes reality based on the words of some random individual here and there.
Tonite I gave a birther a link to pages and pages of info on “natural born citizens.” He is scairt to go there. Its a liberal site. It cites court cases and “dicta” just likeyou guys do, and more of it, buts he’s scairt to go there. That’s denial, dude.
Your suspicions become reality. Your false assumptions become reality. Your errors even become reality. Only a god, or perhaps the Queen of Hearts in Alice, can do that.
Sure, I may put on a silly costume and mask and go flying around doing random acts of bravery. Like all the Sanity Squad. But what none of us has ever done is think we can create a separate reality out of whole cloth. To do so is madness. To do so is to be a fully plugged in birther.
Captain Quest, who says “Kids, always do your homework before you play!”
My previous post was referring to EnderWiggins.
Thats a pretty entertaining post, but the majority of us “birthers” no nothing more than the simple fact that the man occupying the most powerful post in the world is hiding documents about his past that other presidents have been willing to release. If you are unable to come to the same conclusion then you must have led a very sheltered life. Either that or you are not quite as Sane as you think you are.
Who has the temerity to talk about **SANITY**? ( eyeroll!)
I’m glad its entertaining. I try to be fun. And, FWIW, I do think there are many birthers who not fully plugged into the collective. They have suspicions. That’s pretty much where they leave it. I think those people will be satisfied when they see the long form, which I predict will be before 2012. I’m the same way of UFO’s. I like watching UFO Hunter on TV, and I have my doubts. But I don’t wear tin foil to bed at night and I certainly don’t “know” they are among us.....
OTOH, there are those birthers who have just plain lost it. They have left “suspicion” in the dust, and they “know” what happened. The fact that many of their facts are flatly wrong don’t matter. They have already had the trial in their mind, and know the legal answer to NBC. They KNOW he isn’t eligible and KNOW the legal defintion of “natural born citizen.” Obama is the Kenyan usurper. They have their own universe.
The problem is, that it gives a real easy target to the other side. And its not like conservatives are saying much worthwhile anyway on some things anyway, like the economy, but on other things the conservative voice needs to be heard. Like defense. I read Obama wants to slice our nukes a bunch. Like “Crap & Played”. Like Obamcare and its unspoken little silly premises.
In short, those birthers, are way out there.
parsy, who is about to burn up in this dang costume!
What? You have a problem with people who live in their own universe and make up stuff? Last time I looked, we hadn’t filed any frivolous suits in federal court. We don’t have half the civilized world laughing at us and calling us names. Our leader hasn’t run to the U N for protection.
Captain Quest, who says “Kids, be sure you get all that dead skin out from between your toes!”
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