Former New Hampshire Governor John Sununu does a fine job schooling CNN’s Soledad O’Brien over Donald Trump and the so-called birther issue. In saying this, I should point out that I would go further than the Romney campaign in repudiating Trump, who is a noxious figure in American politics. What Trump is doing in calling into question Obama’s citizenship is attempting to delegitimize the president, to argue that his presidency is unconstitutional and that he is alien. Crossing that line damages our political discourse and American politics more broadly.
There’s of course no rulebook one can consult when it comes to the matter of repudiating supporters. It’s a judgment call that has to be done on a case-by-case basis. In the case of Trump, who is a prominent Romney supporter, his attraction to conspiracy theories deserves a strong rebuke. When a political party gives a home to those who peddle in paranoia – a home to self-promotional cranks — it leads to an erosion of credibility. Romney ought to say so.
With that said, CNN is complicit in this political circus as well. My point isn’t that the issue shouldn’t be covered at all; it is that, as Governor Sununu points out, the network is fixated on Trump and the birther issue. It’s drawn to it like a moth to a flame in a pitch-dark night. Here’s the problem. Bill Maher donated a million dollars to a super PAC supporting President Obama, and to my knowledge Obama hasn’t distanced himself from Maher’s crude attacks on women. Yet CNN seems remarkably indifferent to this story. I wonder why.
Beyond that, it’s worth pointing out the media’s tendency to bemoan what it promotes. There are dozens of significant and complicated topics that CNN could explore with care. But it has decided to hyper-focus on Donald Trump and the birther issue. That’s bad enough. But what makes it worse is when some in the media then saddle up on their high horses and lament that lack of seriousness in American politics. They pretend what they most want is a sophisticated and elevated conversation about the weightiest issues facing our nation and the world. They deride politicians for focusing on trivialities, even as they are the ones putting the spotlight on the trivialities and demanding politicians address them.
“We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise,” C.S. Lewis wrote. “We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful.” In our time, Professor Lewis could have added that the press gives a platform to stupid distractions championed by buffoonish figures — and then complains about the low state and childish nature of American politics.
The MSM , print and air , is dying and yet has not a clue as to why that is so .The market value of the NYT is 15% of what it was five years ago and they still publish the same mishagosh direected to a readership concentrated in a 30 square block of the Upper West Side . I live in a town , Birmingham Al , where the local paper will now publish only 3 print copies a week . We have a superabundance of scandal to fill two daily papers , yet the reporting is this limp as a dishrag so called objective reporting . It lacks punch ; it lacks meat . It is pablum for the masses . Bring back the broadside , the partisan press ,that made the republic great , before the' news' became the filler around girdle ads . Recall the Hollywood stock figure , the crusty , yet courageous editor and compare to a political hack like Bill Keller . Those were papers worth reading .
However………it should be noted that the Prophet Obama started all this by being so secretive about his past. Yet the MSM & the Beltway Commentariat persists in blaming it on RACIST, WHITE AMERICAN REDNECKS. Yeah, sure.
I strongly disagree with Mr Wehner's post . Regardless of what you think of Mr Trump, Obama has never been properly vetted, and any exposure of his true character and actions are waranted.
The President has helped America in driving the states towards vetting all candidate qualifications for office. I for one would love to see proof of birth and age verification as a state requirement in all 50 states before you get on the ballot. n
Obama is lucky to have Trump attacking him. To the great majority of the electorate, Trump is a self-promoting buffoon taken seriously by no one. n nWhat short memories we have: in April of 2011, Trump announced with great fanfare that he was sending his "investigators" to Hawaii "to get to the bottom of this". Then, he announced their "findings" were "explosive", and that "you're not gonna believe it!" He promised to release their "findings" immediately upon return from Hawaii. That was over a year ago. n nSince then? Nothing. Zero. Zip. Nada. Have you forgotten? n nGiven that The Donald is not known for modesty and restraint, we can draw the reasonable conclusion that he actually found — nothing. To this day, he has released no facts, no documents, no findings. An unusual silence prevails about his "investigation". n nA final word to the likes of Rashirey1 and Bob Singer: consider this. If there were one word of truth to the Birther claims, Hillary Clinton would have known it. She would have used it. She desperately wanted her party's nomination. She would have done Obama no favors. n nMrs Clinton did nothing with this phony issue because there wasn't a single fact to support it. Then, as now, only lunatics have pursued it. n nBTW, Rashirey1, the CIA vetted Mr Obama a long time ago. If you don't know that about our system, you don't know anything. n
Mr. Fiddaboll please name the self-described document forensic expert who has come forward and vouched for that crude forgery put forward by the Obama, or whoever he is, White House as being an authentic copy of his long form birth certificate. We who ask for evidence are lunatics. Name please.
In the American system, those who lay the charge must provide the evidence. The burden of proof is ALWAYS on the accuser. Always. This is central to our system. You seem unaware of this great principle. n nOne could assert that Birthers are delusional racists, but evidence would be required before any court would believe it. n nMr Obama's birth certificate has been verified as valid by successive Republican and Democratic governors of Hawaii, and by senior civil servants in that government. Each has declared — repeatedly — that the document is valid, unremarkable, and ordinary — and has always been so. n nYou overlook the fact that the Birther Donald Trump sent his 'investigators' to Hawaii, and came back empty-handed. You overlook the fact that Hillary Clinton would have used such an issue were there anything to it. She did not. n nAnd you overlook entirely the absurdity at the heart of your dim enterprise. n nAccording to you, Mr Obama's mother, who was living in Hawaii at the time of his birth, flew to Kenya in order to bear a child in an unsanitary third world hospital, and then secretly flew back to Hawaii in order to acquire false documentation for her future President of a son. n nThe evidence is in the public records of Hawaii, and always has been. Were it not, both Hillary Clinton and John McCain would have jumped all over it. They did not. They could not. n nI believe the 'forensic expert' you seek is currently busy chasing Bigfoot, greeting UFOs, and visiting the Lost Continent of Mu. After he gets back I'll ask him to give you a call. n nAre you still in Ward Three? n
Nothing puts the needle to democrats like birth certificate talk. They get apoplectic when it's mentioned. But Romney should stay away from it. His campaign is a contrast to the Obama status quo. n nWe know that Obama told people for years that he was born in Kenya. Why was he so ashamed of the United States that he denied being born here? That's an issue the president is very vulnerable on. n nYou know this issue isn't going away, and contrary to what I read here, it hurts the president far more than his political opponents. It hurts the president because he doesn't deal with it in a decisive way.
He also doesn't deal with it the Natural Way that an American Citizen born in Hawaii would deal with it. n nHe deals with it by raising more suspicions, than he lays.
I have a problem with the fact I know so little of Obama, for instance, College transcripts, real name, why Bill Ayers and Rev. Wright, Muslim or Christian?
Peter Wehner would let a man refuse to show his documents when they are mandated. nThen he would watch the man stir controversy about the documents by his own weird actions and varied accounts and strange stories only to meet suspicions about his documents by spending $MILLIONS to keep his documents or lack thereof all hidden from view, from vetting, from forensic examination – only after questions were raised due to his own proffer of blatantly fake imitations. n nYou know what that makes Peter's commentary worth?
Hi Rose. Peter's comments are a great deal more valuable than yours. Why? Because you assert typical Birther nonsense. According to you, Mr Obama spent "$MILLIONS" to conceal his records. n nProve it. n nProvide the budget and line items. Tell us who the lawyers were. Give us the names and addresses of their firms. Provide their hourly billing rates, the actual hours billed, and the invoiced Statements of Account. Tell us in which courtrooms all these lawyers appeared, and where, and when, and in front of what judges. Give us the court logs that verify your claims. n nWhen you do this, Rose, please provide certified copies of these documents, and otherwise provide credible sources for them. n nAfter you have provided these facts, please direct us to the audited accounts in the public record that confirm your allegations. Only after you have provided this proof, this evidence, this documentation, will we believe a word you say. n nUntil that time, Rose, you are simply peddling more unfounded Birther nonsense — like the faked 'Kenyan' birth certificate, the faked passports, and the faked travel records. n n$ Millions, you say? MILLIONS?? Prove it. Don't assert it without evidence. Prove it. This is the American way. Perhaps no one ever told you.
Personally, O's behavior, his ideology, his associations, and his second-term plans to gut, first, the American conventional defense capability, and, second, its nuclear capability, would seem to compel conspiracy theories.
I don't believe that O was born abroad and don't really care if he was. If there was fraud about it it was by others and he could not have any personal remembrance of where he was born any more than you have about where you were born. You know only what others told you. nAt the same time, his secrecy about all his records is peculiar and, while not in itself an important campaign issue, it is rational to ask why he is so secretive about himself. nIt is very possible that he is hiding something that embarrasses him. The alternative appears to be that there is no rational basis for his behavior and his silence means he has some sort of mental difficulty about letting his history come out . nI am ashamed to say that I find it fun to ask, what could that embarrassing thing be, if there is one? nHe could be hiding his grades for a prosaic reason: they might be lousy. But there are other possibilities. He might, for example, have pulled an Elizabeth Warren at some point, and pretended to be born in Kenya to apply for some fellowship open only to native Africans. nThere is an easy way he can avoid encouraging such questions: he could open his educational records. n n