The fact that similar birth certificates and/or similar birth situations for white candidates are not held up to the same skepticism and scrutiny.
The fact that in spite of documented evidence to the contrary, the birthers go on and on not only about the birth certificate but about the fact that it shows that he was not only not born in America, he was born in an AFRICAN country.
The fact that I myself have heard racist statements from people I know when they discuss their skepticism regarding his citizenship.
You have to understand, these folks think “we” (aka whites) are “losing the country.” To blacks, latinos, Indians, corporations selling off their jobs…whatever. Why they want to keep a country of parking lots, bland food, and really crappy decor I haven’t a clue, but there it is.
There are two levels of review between the popular vote and the selection of the President – the electors who cast the votes that actually count and the Congress that certifies the result. It’s their job to throw out votes for a candidate who is legally unqualified to be President. They did not do so in this case, presumably because there is, in fact, no credible evidence that Barack Obama is legally unqualified.
Conspiracy theorists have certain motivations in common (most obviously, the desire to be among the elect who possess Sekrit Nolege).
There are also motivations that vary on a case-by-case basis. In the case of tax protesters; it’s preference for keeping money instead of handing it over to the gummint; for birthers, it’s objection to a “not-real-Amerikin” President (which I concede is only partially motivated by race, and also partially motivated by political ideology).
Regarding the certificate from PA: I did at one time have an original Birth Certificate document, complete with my baby footprints. It was in my possession. But I lost it years ago. It can’t be on file in Pennsylvania because I had it in my hand. But it no longer exists.
Regarding the certificate from CA for my son: The document that was signed by the doctor (I was there when he did it) looks identical to the one I have now called “Certificate of Live Birth”, except that the county added its official seal. The doctor’s signature is still on it. There is no certificate with baby footprints, California doesn’t do that anymore.
Intellectual laziness, willful ignorance, just plain stupid? Probably a combination of all three.
I used to listen to Rush on occasion, mainly for his political insight and sometimes out of shear boredom while driving out in corn country.
Is he really casting doubt on Obama’s birthplace or is that typical lefty exaggeration?
If he has/is then I’m done with him. Any cites available?
I don’t doubt you are telling the truth about the documents in your possession currently or in the past. However, the county most assuredly kept something on file to document the birth. It would most likely be an exact duplicate of the document(s) you have had in your possession. The one held by the county would be considered the “original” document for official purposes if you follow me.
“…or that they actually don’t believe a word of it, they’re just trolling IRL to get the libs worked up defending what everyone really knows to be true,…”
The fact that no other explanation makes sense, and the fact that quite a few of them don’t bother to even censor themselves, especially online. Read Free Republic sometime.
I’ll admit that I was mistaken in remembering the involvement in the campaign itself in the “birther” effort, but I’m not mistaken in remembering a lot of seriously disgruntled Hillary supporters, all women, who were mightily pissed off at Obama for spoiling their chances of getting a woman into the White House. I know this because some of my own family members were like that, although none were so incensed as to vote Republican. They were mad, but they weren’t crazy.
I don’t believe all the Birthers are doing it out of racism. Many are, no doubt. But there are some very stupid people out there, and I have no trouble believing a bunch of the clods I have personally known in the past would today truly buy into the whole “Certificate of Live Birth does not equal Birth Certificate” shtick. They’re just gullible and not very bright, and this would be no worse than some of their other beliefs I’ve heard.
So it’s as I said, and you dismissed: the argument is that no other explanation makes sense.
But I have already proved that there must be at least one other explanation that makes sense, becaue tax protesters are also divorced from reality and their motive isn’t racism.
And if vitriolic comments left on a website are evidence of a group’s motives, then liberals are just as if not more racist, judging from the hate-filled comments left on Michelle Malkin’s website.
But of course we know that’s not true – the race-baiting hate comments on Malkin’s site do NOT reflect all or even most liberals. And racist comments left at Free Repblic do NOT reflect all or even most birthers.
Birthers define themselves by their belief in an idiotic theory. That doesn’t make them racist.