Birth of the Birther Story

I was listening to the radio on Friday when the top of the hour news announced that Trump had accused Hillary Clinton of starting the Birther issue during the 2008 primary.  Intriguing though that was, the more interesting bit followed.  The newsreader then announced that there was no evidence for this claim.  I cannot recall the last time I heard fact-checking as part of the newsfeed.  Basically, the news is that Trump is lying about Hillary and now here's the weather.  Huh.

Later that day, evidence that the 2008 Clinton campaign had considered a strategy to paint Obama as less American because he spent a considerable chunk of his childhood in Indonesia.  Of course, Hillary says they never used that tact.  But then it comes out the Sid Blumenthal, a Hillary intimate who is coincidentally also involved in the interminable email scandal, is reported to have handed the Birther story to the McClatchy News Service.  McClatchy sent a reporter to Kenya to check it out.  Then there is the picture of Obama in Muslim garb that was released by the Clinton Campaign.

 

I am now annoyed that the newsreader offered that fact-check.  Whether you agree or not, there is evidence for the claim that questions of Obama's birth started in the Clinton campaign.  Well, in truth, the birther debate started with Obama himself.  Snopes confirms that in 1991, Obama was shown on the bio page of a booklet as "born in Kenya and raised in Indonesia."  In fact, some have claimed that Obama gamed the system to get into more prestigious schools than his grades would have allowed by claiming to be a foreign exchange student.  Thus, Obama has refused to release his college transcripts that would reveal such.  Maybe.  More likely, his grades are mediocre and that would not have helped his campaign.

Why is this in the news again?  Hillary has attacked Trump for his participation in the Birther debate in 2011.  Trump hammered the topic sufficiently that Obama finally released his long form birth certificate which ended - for most - the debate.  Thus Trump's claim that he "finished it."

Again with the Birth Certificate

Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Arizona has finished his investigation and declared that Obama's birth certificate is fraudulent.  Sigh.  At this point, it doesn't matter.  He ran for president already and was elected.  End of story.  For those unhappy with that state of affairs, there is another election soon.  Go vote.

For the sake of argument, let us suppose that Obama really was born in Kenya and he really did get a forged birth certificate.  What could be done?  The only route would be to impeach him for High Crimes and Misdemeanors.  That is not going to happen.  Even if the Republican House voted on articles of impeachment (as they did with Clinton), there is NO chance that a majority Democrat senate is going to convict a Democrat President.

This is a pissing contest between the Obama Administration and Sheriff Arpaio.  The administration has put Sheriff Joe's department under investigation.  Obama has also sued the state of Arizona for trying to enforce Federal immigration laws.  Arpaio's investigation is his way of fighting back in an unfair fight.  It is a wasted effort because no one cares about the birth certificate anymore, except maybe Donald Trump.  Those people who aren't going to vote for Obama on account of the Birther conspiracy don't need further convincing.

Hopefully, this is the last we'll hear of Obama's birth certificate.  If the election is a referendum on his birth certificate, he'll be reelected in a landslide.  But if it's a referendum on the economy...