This whole “birther” movement is really taking off. (Somewhat like “tweets,” I really hate the word “birther.” For those who don’t follow lunatic conspiracy theories, “birthers” are the people who content that Obama is not a US citizen.)
I used to try to reason with these people, but I’ve given up on even listening to them talk. The head of Hawaii’s Board of Health has certified that he’s inspected the birth certificate. So has the Republican governor. So has an independent council. His “abstract of birth” has been released more than a year ago. The state just doesn’t give out copies of someone’s actual birth certificate. Additionally, Obama’s birth was listed in the newspaper when he was born. It wouldn’t have made any sense to try to do that fraudulently if you were a Kenyan. It’s not like his parents thought he was going to come to run for President some day.
There’s an audio clip of Obama’s step-grandmother saying he was born in Kenya. Ignoring the fact that an audio clip on the Internet of one’s step-grandmother isn’t necessarily a reliable source, it’s really misleading. Speaking through an interpreter “on the phone in a crowded hut during a celebration, over a speaker phone that dropped the call three times,” she realized that what she had said was misunderstood, and clarified that Barack was born in Hawaii, not in Kenya. That bit was conveniently omitted from the “birther” claims.
None of the people that have sued have had standing to do so, so none of the cases have moved forwards, but “birthers” tend to assume all of the facts in them are true.
The McCain campaign, which I thought was playing really dirty tricks and trying anything to discredit Obama, looked into his citizenship and found that the claims that he was here illegally were bogus.
All in all, those involved tend to either not understand the facts, or they completely disregard them. The Huffington Post has a copy of an MSNBC interview in which Chris Matthews lays out the preponderance of evidence in favor of Obama’s citizenship, while Gordon Liddy, who served several years in prison for his role in the Watergate break-in, and who “once made plans… to kill journalist Jack Anderson, based on a literal interpretation of a Nixon White House statement ‘we need to get rid of this Anderson guy,'” argues that Obama is engaged in a conspiracy.
It’s to the point where it’s not possible to try to use logic in this argument. The President is a citizen of the United States, despite what the far-right would like to believe.
A better case can be made that McCain was not a natural board citizen since he was born in the Canal Zone. Legal scholars say he is ok though and that should be enough. Likewise there is enough proof that Obama was born in Hawaii. But someone people believe what they want and don’t let facts get in the way.
I had a discussion with a far right militia type who was trying to tell me that the Constitution used the county as the basic political unit not the states. I asked him for a reference in the Constitution where the word “county” was used and he said he would get back to me. He didn’t. Of course that word does not appear even once and yet you will hear/read people claim that it does.