Obama birth certificate finally released

[BoringSupreez]

About time. Nothing interesting on it though. Nice to see that dumb birther movement is going to have to end now. I mean, I don't like Obama, but there's no real reason to believe he's foreign born. Anyway, here's the link: http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default ... g-form.pdf
I have no idea why he didn't just end the whole debate years ago by releasing it, if there's nothing embarrassing on it.

[YoshiEgg25]

I didn't know is dad was named Barack, too.

Guess I'll have to call both him and Bush the younger "Junior".

[Flake]

I think maybe it was an issue of having the President do something simply to please a fringe element. That would have set a bad precedent.

If that was the President's reasoning, I totally agree with his choice. Let's be honest - the prestige of the office has been in a steady decline ever since the sex scandal during the Clinton administration. The last thing we need is the impression that the President of the United States should give a flying fuck about what the lunatic fringe (right or left) wants.

[jfrost]

Good. Give me your college records now.

[J T]

Let the cries of "forgery" commence!

[AmishSamurai]

The whole "he was born in Kenya" thing was just people trying to legitimize the fact they dislike a black man being President. This won't settle anything- they'll just say it was forged, or demand a blood sample to prove he's human or something.

[RyaNtheSlayA]

The whole "he was born in Kenya" thing was just people trying to legitimize the fact they dislike a black man being President. This won't settle anything- they'll just say it was forged, or demand a blood sample to prove he's human or something.

I think they wont be happy until they throw him in a lake with a large rock tied to his foot. If he sinks and dies, he's human. If he is able to free himself and swims up, he's a witch.

[Limewater]

I have no idea why he didn't just end the whole debate years ago by releasing it, if there's nothing embarrassing on it.

As others have said, releasing it would legitimize the issue raised by the birthers.

Also, what hasn't been mentioned on this thread yet is that it was politically probably in his interest to not release the birth certificate and let the birther thing keep going. That way, those who criticize him would be associated with birthers in the minds of the public, and the general public has thought that the birthers were a bunch of lunatics since the beginning. There's something to be said for being under attack from a fringe group most people think are idiots.

[Flake]

The whole "he was born in Kenya" thing was just people trying to legitimize the fact they dislike a black man being President.

I'm not saying that there aren't some people out there for whom this isn't true, but I think it had more to do with the opportunistic nature of people in general. The NeoCon movement controlled the country lock-stock-and barrel for 8 years solid. A lot of people preferred the Good 'ol boy, war on the Muslims, spread Christianity, and let the businesses get 'er done way of life.

President Obama is almost the polar opposite of President Bush and rarely have we seen the country get pulled so far in one direction just to get snapped back in the exact opposite. The cognitive dissonance is difficult to deal with for that group of deeply socially conservative who came to think of the country as THEIRS, that pesky electorate be damned.

So yeah, maybe racism is a big deal for a few but for most, I think they just seized on a convenient angle to criticize the man who oh-so represents the end of the golden age of Neo-conservatism.

I would postulate that, had he won, John McCain would be facing a similar problem from the same faction. He was often criticized by the same groups for not being conservative enough. Sarah Palin, in this hypothetical situation where she DID become Vice President, would probably have helped him avoid some of the slings and arrows.

[dsheinem]

President Obama is almost the polar opposite of President Bush.

As a candidate, yes. As president, unfortunately no.