The Birthers

I've avoided this controversy largely because I don't really believe it is one. I put the conspiracy theorists in the same category as 9/11 truthers, grassy knoll lovers and George-Bush-didn't-earn-his-master's-degree crowd. There is some percentage of the birthers who are racists, but I think the vast majority of them just can't believe Obama was born in Hawaii because the other possibilities are so much more fascinating to believe.

I believe Barack Obama was born in Hawaii. But like Mark Joseph, I'm beginning to wonder why Obama just doesn't authorize the release of his birth certificate and get it over with.

I realize there are some faith-based Obama supporters who believe without seeing, but the rest of us in the reality-based world are starting to get that strange feeling we got when Mark Sanford tried to convince us that he was away from his family on Father's Day, hiking the Appalachian trail in order to clear his head and write a book.

There were questions about John McCain's birth certificate and he produced the real thing promptly. But for whatever reason, Obama has decided not to release a variety of records, including the birth certificate, transcripts, and law school writings. The best guess is that these records contain information that is embarrassing in some way to Obama. It would be ironic if he'd barely passed Con Law, wouldn't it?

Having said that, I don't think Obama's birth certificate would show he wasn't born in Hawaii, but it obviously shows a skeleton that Obama would rather keep in the closet.

Andrew McCarthy has more.

Liberal bloggers lie, trying to show Republican politicians embracing the birther movement. Liberals lying? Say it ain't so!