Eugene Robinson, a columnist with the Washington Post really should lay off the Kool Aid.
Writing about "birthers" - those people who have convinced themselves that Barack Obama is ineligible by reason of birth to be President of the United States, Robinson opines: "If there's been a more clinically insane political phenomenon in my lifetime than the "birthers," I've missed it."
Uh, Eugene, how did you miss Dan Rather (remember him?} on former President Bush's National Guard service? It was in your own newspaper. Or Andrew Sullivan writing about Trig Palin? Or the Post's own treatment (also see comments) of Palin mockery?
And this: "Is this what our national discourse has come to? Sheer paranoid fantasy?"
Only if it's from the right; liberals can't be paranoid.
[Update and bumped] Jonah Goldberg comments. I had completely forgotten the 9/11 "truthers."
It's annoying because I've read some interesting points on it (interesting in the fact on what Obama's family is really like and how Hawaii records have changed through the decades) and there is the fairly legitimate point of how honest this administration is (though they've been dishonest about a lot more interesting things), but it's so unlikely, impossible to prove, and just bizzare to people "outside the fold" that there really doesn't seem to be any merit at all to persuing it at all.
ReplyDeleteWell, recall that the Left claimed that McCain was ineligible because he was born in Panama (I should have pointed that out in the post).
ReplyDeleteAnd I should mention that my father used to claim I couldn't be President either, since I was also born outside the U.S. during WWII.
That said, both claims are nonsense - U.S. law is clear in both instances.
Another excellent point.
ReplyDeleteOy, this country sometimes.