Birther-Babies Bounced Out With Their Dirty Bathwater (Updated)

Donald Trump’s continued assertion that President Barack Obama was not born in the United States is serving to fire-up the conservative fringe radicals such as the Tea Party, but it is also beginning to leave an indelible and ugly stain on the Republican Party as a whole. The conspiracy theorists who claim that Obama was born in a foreign nation despite confirmed legal documentation which proves otherwise and despite birth notices published in two Hawaii newspapers in 1961, are collectively known as “Birthers”. These Birthers are the persona non grata of the mainstream GOP because they reflect a certain “tabloid craziness” on the party as a whole. Consequently, most serious Republican candidates try their best to ignore or marginalize the Birthers. Problem is, one very loud and popular reality television host and potential GOP candidate for President has unabashedly joined the Birther movement and dragged into the national spotlight.

The Donald has made the Birther issue his cause celebre. He claims to have personally sent a team of investigators to Hawaii to get to the bottom of things. The bankrupt-billionaire would like nothing more than to to tell the President, “You’re fired!”. He has now proclaimed that the President’s original long form birth certificate is missing. In a recent interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper, Trump said,

“Well I’ve been told very recently, Anderson, that the birth certificate is missing. I’ve been told that it’s not there or it doesn’t exist. And if that’s the case it’s a big problem. I’d love for him to produce his birth certificate so that you can fight one-on-one. If you look at what he’s doing to fuel prices, you can do a great fight one-on-one, you don’t need this issue.”

Trump refuses to name the source from whom he allegedly learned that the birth certificate is missing and said that he feels bad about the situation, but it is without doubt that he has “gone all in” on the Birther issue. There is no longer an option of backtracking. As he has done so many times in his past, Trump has opened his mouth and said too much already. He now owns the Birther conspiracy and by continuing to portray himself as a serious front-runner for the Republican nomination for President, he has made it a GOP Party issue. If Trump runs, every other Republican candidate will be forced to address the issue.

That is not a happy scenario for the Grand Old Party candidates. By being forced to address the issue, they will be deemed to be wasting time on a fringe topic that has nothing to do with their stated goal of creating jobs and cutting the deficit. If they attempt to marginalize the issue, they face the possibility of a Tea Party backlash at the polls. If they cave-in (as so many of them have in the recent past) to Tea Bagger pressure, they will in turn alienate the more mainstream Republicans and Independents which they need to win the election in 2012. Donald Trump has created a “lose/lose” situation for his party.

You see, the problem with conspiracy theories is that they are usually false or cannot be proven. That is precisely the problem with the Birther theory. First of all, in 2008, the Obama campaign released the official document known as a “certification of live birth” which stated that he was born in Hawaii. That document which has been authenticated as being official is the document which the State of Hawaii issues to persons requesting their birth records. The certificate of live birth also satisfies proof-of-birth requirements for virtually all federal matters. Additionally, several news organizations and fact checking organizations have deemed Obama’s certificate of live birth to be authentic. Finally, CNN has reported that the former director of the Hawaii Department of Health said she has seen the archived original birth certificate in the vault at the department of health.

The Chicago Tribune‘s Clarence Page put it best when describing how the Democrats should deal with the Birther conspiracy. He said,  they shoud “Say nothing at all. Why get in the way of the opposition party when they’re coddling their own kooks?”

UPDATE:

The Obama administration released the President’s long-form birth certificate this morning. The Birthers have now been aborted.

Please take at a look at my WRKO Boston talk radio-based blog also, too. It can be found here: Kevin’s Blog-A Liberal Dose of Reality.

Remember to click on the song link below to familiarize yourselves with the tune and to have more fun singing along with today’s topical song parody.

Birthday song link:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_Nz9B1XFio

BIRTHERS

(sung to the Beatles song “Birthday”)

They deny his birthplace
Hawaii says “screw ye!”
Racists in the first place
“Stop wasting all of our time”
“We’ve confirmed his birthplace”
Birthers don’t have a clue

Birthers are a part of the Tea Party
They are dumber than Laurel and Hardy
Birthers are a part of the Tea Party

They have all had a chance – Birthers
At a certificate glance – Birthers
Too dumb to zip up their pants – Birthers
Rants!!!

(musical interlude)

Less grey matter than plants – Birthers
Repeating racist rants – Birthers
Too dumb to zip up their pants – Birthers
Rants!!!

They deny his birthplace
Hawaii says “screw ye!”
Racists in the first place
“Stop wasting all of our time”
“We’ve confirmed his birthplace”
Birthers don’t have a clue