You left out that he had a father who was not a citizen of the U.S., but Kenya. You left out that he spend part of his childhood in Indonesia. And yes, his skin color and name did add to his exoticness. After all, he was the first Black President, and the first one to have a name that we associate with the Middle East and Islam.
He released all the information he had in 2008, which was more than enough for anyone to accept his birthplace. There was not a shred of reason to believe he was born anywhere else after the 2008 information release.
You don’t see a problem with trying to undercut a democratically-elected President’s authority by creating doubt about his legitimacy to hold the office? Or about creating doubt about his election itself, since a black man with a funny name can’t really be an American?
He has still not said why he kept up the lie for so long. You don’t see a problem there?
“Childhood”, no. Color and name, yes. The issue isn’t why the question was asked, since, as you note, the facts were cleared up immediately. The issue is why one party’s adherents have kept up their delegitimization campaign anyway. You might try to address that one more squarely.
Having a father born in another country is not disqualifying and not even suspicious. The media had vetted him by the time started tossing this issue around, and did so even after he did – this was all a publicity stunt by Trump. We can debate the motives behind it, but given his campaign in 2016, it seems rather obvious that he was testing the waters to see just what percentage of the media would turn this into a headline-grabbing story – a lot apparently. And he also did it to see what kind of following he could get – a large one as it turns out.
In the same vein, being “exotic” is not disqualifying or suspicious, particularly given the fact that millions of people voted to make him the leader of this country with eyes wide open. Thus, the only real conclusion we can draw from this is that Trump was motivated to make racialism a political issue – he did it as a non-candidate in 2011-12, and he has done this repeatedly as a candidate in 2015-2016. Moreover, he had four years in between his first real foray into presidential politics and his candidacy to walk back the issue and tell everyone he was satisfied with Obama’s birth certificate. He didn’t. For once the media actually did their job and called him out on it. Unfortunately, the timing kinda sucks for Donald, but that’s on him for putting this off and assuming it would go away.
I don’t think this issue will be the end of Trump’s chances, but it absolutely does blunt his momentum at a time when he was about to pull ahead and claim a lead in the race. Yet once again, here we are debating whether or not he has the character and temperamental fitness to be president. Moreover, given his history of binge meltdowns, there might be more quotable face-palms yet to come.
What do you mean by “exotic”, magellan01? Is that a synonym for something deplorable?
Among the people I know, we do not associate either his skin color with the word “exotic” or his name with the religion of Islam.
Is my group of “we” that much different from the norm?
It’s amazing the hoops that people are willing to jump through to justify their vote for such an obviously racist xenophobic clown. Exotic? Wow…
Orange-haired millionaire reality show host? Now, that’s exotic.
Yes - you’re not *real *Americans.
I said earlier that the issue was about why Trump kept up the lie, but I’ll withdraw that - it’s obvious why; he’s been pandering to the deplorable half of his base and keeping his face on TV, as is his typical behavior. It’s of marginal interest why he decided to stop it now, or if that was an actual decision and not just another disorganization snafu he’s trying to bluster through.
No, on further thought, I think the immediate issue is why so many people have chosen to believe such a foolish lie for so long. A broader issue might be why so many people who should, or do, know better have continued to allow it to be raised as a subject about which it is valid to “just ask questions”. magellan01, as an example of the latter, perhaps you could enlighten us?
Meaning black. Racist.
Meaning Muslim. Racist.
Exotic. Meaning Racist.
Racist.
Racist. Racist. Racist.
Why are you continuing this? Are you admitting that the entire Republican Party/conservative movement/presidential candidates/talk show hosts are, have been, and always will be racists? Once you admit that what moral standing do you have remaining to attack anyone for anything?
The desperate media is really grasping at straws now. Have they never heard of a rhetorical question?
Oh my goodness, Trump said this.
The press is actually playing this like a threat to Clinton. As if there’s any chance the Secret Service will ever disarm.
Even BBC News has run with this bullshit story. Portraying Trump’s statement as a call for action. WTH? It’s a rhetorical question dammit.
It’s a rhetorical statement. Gun hater Hillary is protected by people with guns. Trump is protected by similar Secret Service agents. Everybody in the US depends on armed police to keep us safe.
There’s no threat here.
WTF is with that ridiculously long list of headlines?
You want exotic? I was born in Alaska! The horror!
This stinking phone selected too much text.
I frantically deleted as much as I could in the 5 min edit window. I could have cleaned it up in seconds on a pc. These phones suck.
I couldn’t select a big block to delete on this stinking phone. I could only delete a few lines at a time.
I have no idea how this phone grabbed so much text off CNN. I had six lines of text highlighted to copy.
Sorry for that.
Hmm - not really American? Maybe Canadian or Russian - both can be seen from there 
Even worse, when I was born it was still a territory! It may have even still been connected to the Russian mainland. Nobody knows. Sad.
My god. If your parents walked over the land bridge from Siberia you are an anchor baby!
What if he was born in Anchorage!!!
No, Kenyan. Meaning from Kenya. Really, you could look it up.
No, Muslim. Meaning someone how practices Islam. Really, you could look it up.
No, exotic. Meaning something perceived as out of the ordinary, unusual, foreign. Really, you could look it up. And if you don’t think that a U.S. President with the name Barack Hussein Obama is unusual and sounds foreign to the American ear, you need to get out more.
Seems like one of us is fixated on racism, even when it’s not there. Guess which of us that would be?
Can you translate this into normal?
Sure. Exotic is a code word for nigger.
That’s not my normal, to be sure. But it is the normal of anyone with the birther mentality.