JONATHAN CHAIT APRIL 27, 2011
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David Frum goes after Republicans who evade Birtherism without repudiating it:
Not only did Trump surge ahead in Republican polls by flaming racial fires – not only did conservative media outlets from Fox to Drudge to the Breitbart sites indulge the birthers – but so also did every Republican candidate who said, “I take the president at his word.” Birthers did not doubt the president’s “word.” They were doubting the official records of the state of Hawaii. It’s like answering a 9/11 conspiracist by saying, “I take the 9/11 families at their word that they lost their loved ones.”
The interesting question to me is whether Republican leaders start responding to questions about Obama's birth as a question of settled fact rather than a murky controversy upon which the only evidence to go on is Obama's claims.
6 comments
This will be telling. The long form is out now; only the diehards will continue to dispute the evidence. So do the Republican Party leaders bow to the empirical or will they still obfuscate because the base is hot after Birthereism?
- liberalref
April 27, 2011 at 1:46pm
I take the President at his word that he was born.
- Tristan
April 27, 2011 at 2:55pm
I think the President has not provided evidence to dispel doubts that he is the Antichrist, whelped by the power of Satan. It's fairly simple for him to demonstrate that the Mark of the Beast does not appear anywhere on his body; that he has not done so clearly shows that he has something to hide.
- frippo
April 27, 2011 at 3:11pm
This whole thing was started by a supporter of Hillary during the primaries. At least, that was what was emailed to me at the time. There is something transformative about campaigning Republican. I used to admire McCain for taking principled positions on things until he became campaign McCain, mutated into a freak and became unstable until he bonded with Sarah Palin.
- Nusholtz
April 27, 2011 at 3:55pm
The After-Birthers are already out in full force: The document, of course, was tampered with. Check out http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=185094 and http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=185101
- Kzhessel
April 27, 2011 at 3:56pm
Of course, it's easy to forge photocopies. But even in the unlikely event that this takes Obama's natural citizenship off the table, he's still a Secret Muslim Socialist Kenyan Anti-Colonialist out to Destroy our Freedom and Take America Away from Us. You can't disprove that with a mere piece of paper...
- ramcat
April 27, 2011 at 4:14pm