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 agree with you that every phony birth certificate that has been exposed as a fraud has distracted us from the real issue. The real issue is that Obama is hiding something and no matter what the legal and political arguments are that allow him to keep doing it... this is a potentially dangerous situation. He has the power to destroy our country and indeed the entire civilized world.
I think part of where Obama is, is that he is damned if he does and damned if he don’t. Anything he releases is going to be dis-believed. God help us if the doctors name is mis-spelled on the long form.
Some people want his kindergarten records. Access to his Kenyan grandmother. The list don’t stop. And all this for somebody who gave us a birth certificate.
parsy, who knows about the Fouke Monster
I think so too.
Captain Quest, who says “Kids, be sure you get all that dead skin out from between your toes!”
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
So? What were **you** saying about sanity? Really?
Certainly that would make "them" more effective planners than Detroit CEOs.
I think the media knows .. and they’re trying to use the secrecy to spook us into looking like crazies.
That's a pretty crazy idea.
I have seen no evidence that he has rejected his Kenyan citizenship.
Please provide your references.
To the contrary, his active campaigning for Prime Minister Odinga establishes his split-allegiances.
Cheers
And all become Obama's responsibility to disprove.
“Anything he releases is going to be dis-believed.”
I completely agree with you on that... but I would put it another way. Anything he releasees will be thoroughly verified. This is the most likely explanation as to why he has refused to release documents which other presidents traditionally have. The documents themselves may contain nothing that would be harmful to his reputation, but it is very likely that they will contain information that will contradict large portions of the fictional accounts in his autobiographies.
The Certification of Live Birth that has been released does not include enough detail to verify whether it is based on fraudulant information. There are many Little Leagues which would not accept it as proof of age. Your argument that he should not have to release any documentation because it will be scrutinized is circular. Of course it will... that is the whole point. People should be able to verify the background of the most powerful person in the world. He is not just a private citizen trying to mind his own business; the man has the power to destroy our country and the rest of the world. Don’t you think that it is our responsibility to look into who he actually is?
Please provide your references.
I did. Kenya's Constitution says that Obama would have had to take specific positive action to keep his Kenyan citizenship. That action includes formally renouncing his US citizenship. There is no evidence that he has done any of the things required.
To the contrary, his active campaigning for Prime Minister Odinga establishes his split-allegiances.
What evidence do you have from a credible source that Obama campaigned for Odinga?
You might find this interesting.
The media has ignored stories about the relationship between the two men because there's no real evidence that one exists. But the story suggests that Obama campaigned for Odinga and funneled money to his campaign and that they're close allies. The story also subjects Odinga to the same sort of rumor that afflicts Obama: that despite Odinga's professed Christian faith (the Kenyan prime minister is an Anglican), the two men are conspiring to institute Muslim law ... in Kenya.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/presidentialrace/2008337766_rumors010.html
You know what I find amazing? Obama has not told the truth about anything. He and his marxist horde lie. About everything. And here we have an important question. A Constitutional question. And on THIS some freepers choose to believe Obama. They choose to TRUST a LIAR. And they call the Constitutionalists nuts? LOLOL!!!
Or if the doctor's great aunt on his father's side once had a conversation with the socialist wife of her husband's co-worker at the annual office Christmas party.
“Don’t you think that it is our responsibility to look into who he actually is?”
I think the more appropriate time to have done that was BEFORE he was elected. He is now the President and neither he, nor any other President, should be hounded this way after an election. It wastes his time. If McCain had won, and the left had pulled this kind of stuff, we would be incensed.
He is our President. If he does stupid stuff as President, we should fight the stupid stuff not some nonsensical malarky that properly belongs to the pre-election arena. Particularly when the issues (Birtherism) are lame to the point of foolishness.
parsy, who says that’s his opinion
Yep. One can get commie cooties real easy. Lord knows how many of us have been infected merely from owning an AK 47.
parsy, who says Shades of the John Birchers!
Obama released, without demand, legal proof of his Hawaiian birth, his CoLB. Rather than quell rumors, it fueled them. As it turns out, the anonymous source of those rumors, was outed and exposed as a liar who had invented his resume and claim to expertise (that came as no surprise to those of us who have real experience with scanners, and photoshop).
Gee, you think this little make believe world of superheros is “out there”? Think this creation of our own reality is kinda disturbing? Good. Now you’re getting a dose of your own Birther medicine.
Captain Quest, who says “Kids, be sure to wash behind your ears!”
Good point! Someone else must “disprove” their fantasies. Like I have said before, Ed Wood-like bad B-movie madness passes for logic with the Birther Units:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_DEtfvv9MU
parsy, who says these folks have some major psychological malfunctions going on
Look Lady, Hawaii doesn’t even accept a COLB to prove birth place to claim Hawaiian lands. Go troll for Obama somewhere else.
I believe that they support him.
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