Obama's Birth Certificate

If there's anything more of a national embarrassment than the "birther" controversy, I don't know what it is. It would seem to be the reaction of the stupid and/or insane to having a black man occupy the White House, and that it has lingered so long makes Americans as a whole seem like a bunch of lunatics.

Now that President Obama has released the official, "long-form" birth certificate, naively thinking that it put this "silliness" to rest, it only reinforces how stupid birthers are. A new poll indicates 50% of Republicans still have doubts about the whereabouts of his birth, which should embarrass the other 50% of Republicans. The Democrats may be the party of spending and high-taxes, but now it can be known: the Republicans are the party of the stupid and crazy.

Any cursory examination of the facts would have told the reasonable person long ago that Obama was born in Hawaii. The shorter version of his birth certificate, plus birth notices in the newspaper, should have been enough proof. Also, lack of evidence that Obama's mother ever traveled to Kenya at the time of his birth should have been more than enough. The big honking clue that ignited this mess was a tape recording of a translation of Obama's step-grandmother, seeming to indicate that she witnessed his birth. During the entire recording, though, she states plainly that Obama was born in Hawaii.

The question that lingers is: why did Obama take so long to do this? He had to pay a fee to Hawaii to get the form, and had an assistant fly over there and bring it back (at his own expense). The crazed believe this is part of the conspiracy, suggesting that it's forged or that he's trying to create a distraction to distract from the distraction. I wonder, too, but given Obama's general savviness I think he was enjoying the blather, and perhaps was going to do this right at the height of the 2012 election. Perhaps he finally couldn't stand Donald Trump of all people mouthing off on the issue, and decided to shut him up (which has only allowed Trump to take credit for it).

But there's also the argument that Obama didn't have to do this at all. I liked the comparison one writer made--it's like asking a man to whip out his dick to prove he's a man. The basic requirements of Obama's citizenship are already there, why should he need to kowtow to the babble of morons? But now that he has done so, it will continue to make this wing of the lunatic fringe seem even more racist.

Trump, presumably the "carnival barker" that Obama referred to (what a great turn of phrase to describe this horrible man) is now questioning Obama's academic career. This, of course, is coded racism, suggesting that he wouldn't have gotten into Columbia or Harvard Law if he were white. That Obama graduated magna cum laude and was president of the Harvard Law Review seems lost on Trump, who is a braying publicity whore. It won't happen, but wouldn't you love to see Obama challenge Trump to a game of Jeopardy?