Feb 09 2010
Conservatives Deserve Serious Leaders
In a follow up to my post on how the fringe right is trying to co-opt the Tea Party movement I want to applaud this piece on Birther nonsense:
The “we’re just asking questions†rationale seems to be the explanation du jour for the tiresome and self-destructive continuing “Birther†fixation of some journalists who purport to be on the Right. As depicted in a fairly straightforwardWashington Independent article, WorldNetDaily Editor-in-Chief Joseph Farah used his Friday night dinner speech at the Tea Party convention to “raise questions†about the President Obama’s citizenship, much to the disgust of other attendees, including Andrew Breitbart. “It’s self-indulgent, it’s narcissistic, it’s a losing issue,†Breitbart told one of Farah’s minions, his frustration evident.
Let me add a few more adjectives. It’s “stupid,†“irrational†and “destructive†of everything we are fighting for. The movement might as well take out its figurative .45, aim directly at its foot, and pull the trigger.
Read the whole thing and realize the centrists are fed up with the fringe and will reject anyone stained with fringe thinking. We need people with good heads on their shoulders who are not distracted by conspiracies and paranoia. We need to lead this nation forward by finding solutions to complex problems. No one wants to waste their time with this silly nonsense. If people are interested in moving this country forward, get past this stuff and onto the real issues of national security and personal financial security. Those are tough enough.
The worst thing about this issue to me is that it’s backward looking, when what the entire country wants and needs right now is a focus on the kind of future we want and how we are going to get there. There are *plenty* of things happening right now to campaign against Obama on – and these are the things that are going to change our future, not some argument about what may or may not have happened 50 years ago.
It’s a lot easier to pick some past grievance and stay stuck on it – but that buys into the myth of Leader as Hero, and the magical belief that if you can take the Hero down you can take down everything he stands for. Yeah, that’s a great myth – the Left used that template with GWB in the 2008 election. But look how hollow a victory of that kind is when it’s not backed by any realistic plans – look how fast the left’s dreams have fallen to ashes.
It’s not worth winning unless you’re ready to govern, and getting ready to govern takes a hell of a lot of hard thought and hard work. We’re not there yet, but we can get there – as long as we stay focused on the future and don’t waste time and effort trying to refight the past.
meanwhile, with respect to the recent past – on my local radio station (not political, just a morning classic rock station) I’m listening to an interview with Andrew Young of the Edwards sex tape fame – heh heh, has this thing jumped right over the MSM and gone to the people! Young is on the radio and pumping up the sex aspect just to sell books – but I suppose that’s exactly what Edwards deserves. What’s really funny is that this is what’s left of the Edwards Team, and they’re doing all this to themselves. Couldn’t have happened to a more deserving crowd.
AJ, with all due respect, who cares what Farah says? Or any other bringing up the issue. We all “know” what is going on with this- it’s NOT about his citizenship. Apparently, there is something on the certificate that the democrat operatives do not want seen. And, imho, they have framed the issue around the citizenship as a red herring. Fine. So what.
Let the “birthers” be birthers. They are making a big mistake, imho, but who cares? Is anyone really paying attention to them? Free speech. Let it reign. They report. WE DECIDE…and we are not interested.
I like many of the principles for which the Tea Party stands: limited government, low taxes, individual freedom to name a few. And I am glad they are speaking up about them. Birther issue, not so much. Fine.
I just read this via Lucianne.com:
from:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-02-08/the-secret-history-of-the-birthers/full/
“The Birthers Began on the Left by John Avlon
Investigating the roots of the Obama birthplace conspiracy theory, John Avlon—author of Wingnuts: How the Lunatic Fringe Is Hijacking America, available now on Beast Books—uncovers the first Birther and finds she’s a Hillary Clinton supporter also implicated in Dan Rather’s exit from CBS. “
I have no problem with people speaking out on the COB but it is important for others to respond as Breitbart did. You disassociate with those that push this to the top of any agenda.
I think the Democratic party enunciated its strategy very clearly on the COB issue and the MSM is following the script. They told their candidates and supporters to egg on those for whom COB is an issue, capture it on tape/video and paint anyone against BO’s policies as subscribing to the same “irrational hatred” against poor BO. Make it the only message coming from the TP crowd. Tom Tancredo’s largely incoherent rants on immigration policy are also used to define the TP on an issue that has many potential policy solutions none of which will ultimately be TT’s.
I disagree about the view that “centrists” drive much. I am not sure what a “centrist” is but you may make a mistake in conflating “centrists” and self identified independents. Self identified independents are often those who you refer to as “the fringe.” Many polls end up dumping the fringe and the center into one pot and then marveling at the inconsistencies of voters.
Activists drive most of the process and agenda not “centrists.” They work, they attend to the details of GOTV, they man the phones. Most big battles are won by the group making the best argument, working the hardest and listening to the center as part of building a winning coalition. They pull their “fringe” back in and pull in the “centrists. ” They get the recovered fringe to work positively. They get money from the center.
Dropping members of the coalition cavalierly leads to a dissolution of the majority as does discovery that rhetoric (hope, change) is empty. The Democratic activists (2007-2010) have destroyed their coalition much more quickly than the Republicans (1994-2006)
Perhaps Farah’s appearance was a blessing in disguise. His rather high-profile (blogosphere-wise anyway) slap down by Breitbart and others may have gotten other birther’s attention and made them realize the damage they’re doing to any effort to stop/reverse Obama’s madness.
Not surprised to learn this crap originated on the left. Their adherence to conspiracies and unsupported notions is far deeper than anything on the right. Thanks to the media, they get away with it, and the opposite is portrayed as reality.
http://tinyurl.com/y966pnj
No one wants to waste their time with this silly nonsense.
Article II, section 3
No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President
Silly nonsense?
Redteam,
Just because you can read it doesn’t mean you grasp it.
You go to war with the leaders you got,
not with the leaders you wish you might have.
Sarah Palin is the GOP frontrunner and she says she will run for the Presidency.
Orly Taitz is going to run for California Secretary of State.
Good luck to both of them.
I fully understand what a ‘natural born citizen’ is. and Obama ain’t one.
Oh please, redteam. At best you can say that you have a suspicion that should be addressed, and that’s putting your case in the best possible light.
But unless you have some proof that no one else in the world has seen, you have nothing factual to base your claim on. The birth certificate that Obama has produced (which annoys people because it is a recent printing from the State of Hawaii) fulfills all the necessary legal requirements and establishes him as a natural born citizen. Once that was provided, something like the NFL replay rule is in effect – unless you can come up with convincing hard evidence to refute it, that certificate stands and is valid for all legal requirements.
If you want to rebut that, you have to come up with hard proof, not gossip and rumours. We’re talking real documentation for what you claim. I sure haven’t seen or heard of any.
I’ll say this and then leave it alone.
If Barack Obama Sr is Obama Jr’s father. Then by definition, BHO Jr is not a natural born citizen because BHO Sr is not a citizen of the USA. Natural born requires born on US soil as the result of two citizens. That does not take a genealogist to figure out.
I care not where he was born, but if the facts are as listed on that fake certificate, then he is not eligible to be the President of the USA.
To ignore this requirement of the constitution is no different than ignoring any other part of the constitution. Either you believe that Americans should uphold the constitution or you do not. I believe it should be upheld, I believed that when I was sworn into the US Navy and I believe it today. Some people do not, that is one of the beauties of the constitution, you can believe it or not, that’s what Americans died for, your right to disregard the constitution.
As I said, I will say no more because no one is going to change my mind and I certainly am not trying to change anyone else’s mind.
Ig
Redteam:
Obama was born in Hawaii to an American woman. If he is not a citizen then what about all those army brats out there who have been born in foreign countries? This whole debate is ridiculous.
As a parent of a child born while we were living abroad, I know that “natural born” has been adjudicated and reviewed many times by many courts. My daughter is definitively eligible to run for President based on the law at the time of her birth. Laws may be changed and courts may revise their views but “so what?” It won’t effect her and it won’t effect BO.
All BO needed was to have a single US citizen parent and he passed the test for eligibility to run as president. This would be regardless of where he was born on the planet. If he was born in HAwaii, it doesn’t matter where his parents originated, he is a natural born citizen under current law. WE have millions of new citizens whose parents are foreign nationals. You may not like it but that is the state of play under our law today.
You can make a stronger case (and it would still be ridiculously weak) against McCain being eligible than you can against BO on this matter. McCain was definitely born outside the US and is definitely eligible.
This is sort of Punch and Judy
For a more original discussion, try this:
http://lamecherry.blogspot.com/2010/02/of-mice-and-men.html
Here’s the money paragraph:
Mr. Breitbart or Mr. Farah both do not comprehend as this blog has pointed out that the Birther issue is the escape clause not for the right, but the escape clause for the left. This issue they keep bringing up like saying they “don’t rape children” inflaming the issue, is the emergency valve they will pull when it comes to a time to dump Barack Hussein Obama.
The Birther issue is like an NFL football kicker. He starts the game off which Birthers did after taking up the cause of Lawrence Sinclair in the pregame warm up which was the first thing that stopped Barack Obama.
The kicker then is no that noticeable in the rest of the game, until it comes down to the last drive and the winning field goal is necessary. That is what the Birther issue will do. It will win it for both the right and the left as they just want to be rid of Obama as fast as possible.
SNIP
enjoy the whole thing, if ya like….
Terrye
If he is not a citizen
I’d say he’s a citizen, but the constitution requires ‘natural born citizen’ much different.
fiatlux
you clearly don’t understand the issues.
And AJ needs to do some serious rethinking:
1. There is no Birther Movement.
2. There is no such thing as Birtherism.
3. These attacks on conservatives regarding the birth certificate were pre-planned more than a year before Politico hack, Ben Smith, came up with the deriviative “Birther” label in March 1, 2009.
4. There is no 2007 Certification of Live Birth that was issued to Obama.
5. Hawaii confirmed that they did not issue the online COLB.
6. Hawaii refused to authenticate the information contained in it.
7. Hawaii has never said – AT ANY TIME – that Obama’s original birth certificate on record has Honolulu, Hawaii listed as the place of birth and August 4, 1961 listed as the date of birth. Period.
8. The Obama Campaign never confirmed sending out any COLB copies to anyone.
9. The Obama Campaign only acknowledges the COLB copy posted on Fight The Smears – this is the Official COLB copy.
10. The COLB image is a fabrication: a composite image created in Photoshop from three main layers – background layer, text layer, border layer. These three main layers are comprised of dozens of individual text and image layers. It was intentionally made to look one-off.
11. The COLB document photographed by Factcheck is a physical fabrication using a revised version of the original Photoshop composite printed on clear film.
And, now to round out the Dirty Dozen:
12. There is overwhelming evidence of birth certificate fraud committed by Factcheck.org, Politifact.com, Obama Campaign/Administration, and Hawaii’s Department of Health.
If you would be so kind as to watch my videos, there is still hope of rescuing you from your Summer of 2008 time-warp, and get you up-to-speed with the facts in Summer 2010.
You’ve come so far, AJ, in realizing the truth about Obama, the Man, but you are not yet unwilling to take that extra step and confront the truth about his birth narrative. The “Four Horsemen of the Apocrypha” I listed in #12 did not get together to sing, “Kumbaya.”
FRAUD IN THE USA: the greatest birth certificate fraud in history:
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=C2281523DF8C0230
Polarik,
Your still barking up the wrong tree dude. And you still don’t know squat about computers, images or the constitution.
Rethink? Methinks not.