President Obama Releases Long Form Birth Cert. - Page 9

On April 28 2011 03:37 Omnipresent wrote:
Can we talk about the politics of this release?

First, I want to say I never doubted his citizenship.

That being said, a lot of people do, including several mainstream republican candidates for president (Trump and Huckabee have claimed it outright, and others have hinted at it). This issue was shaping up to be a pretty significant part of the republican primary process. Candidates looking to get the republican nomination would likely have at least flirted with birther ideas, if not embraced them fully. This means the eventual nominee will be pretty far right, and would look pretty foolish if he campaigned in part on birtherism, which most Americans thought was a little crazy to begin with.

Wouldn't it have been smarter (politically) to release this during either A) the republican primary season or B) during the general election? I just don't see any reason to do it now.

If he would have waited, there were real political gains to be made. Releasing it during the primaries could seriously hinder any birther candidates among mainstream voters. If there's a candidate during the primaries that looks too strong in the general, but is also a birther, Obama could have released his long-form birth certificate in order to prevent that candidate from reaching the general election to begin with.

The same holds true with the general election. If a birther gets the republican nomination, Obama could have released his long-form birth certificate then in order to damage that candidate among moderate voters.


The far-right gave Obama a huge political weapon here, and he squandered it. I think this was poorly planned timing.

On April 28 2011 03:42 emythrel wrote:


I think you've missed the clever thing, Obama can't be accused of political games. He has come out and put it to rest, before anything is on the line, like he should do.... he is saying "this isn't politics, I have real work to do". He just picked up a whole bunch of independent voters right there, they don't like partisan politics and games.

And in reality, its not politics.... its school yard games. Not allowing it to become part of the debate is the best thing he could do.

On April 28 2011 01:37 synapse wrote:

I think it's a little different when one of the main proponents of the birther argument is one of the highest-polling republican presidential candidates....


Senators don't need to be born within the US, but Presidents do.

On April 28 2011 03:44 Bibdy wrote:


Alternatively, you can join club 'He's printed it now to distract us from the FED discussions!!!!'

On April 28 2011 03:47 Archerofaiur wrote:
Can we please get back to the important things like coming up with Blizzard-related conspiracy theories?

On April 28 2011 03:45 ket- wrote:


I'd refer you to yesterday's Daily Show showing the past "highest polling presidential candidates" 18 months before the elections. These polls are steaming piles of horse shit that have absolutely no meaning whatsoever.

On April 28 2011 03:51 Omnipresent wrote:


Huckabee was a serious candidate in 2008 (maybe again in 2012), and he's a birther. A significant portion of the most recent class of republican congressmen are birthers. The leadership is afraid to clear the air. Their responses are cryptic at best. "I have to take his word for it."

Conversely, 9/11 truth was always a fringe movement. Democratic senators and congressmen avoided it like the plague, and it would have been the kiss of death for any presidential hopeful.


You're creating a false equivalency here. There are massive differences that should be apparent.

On April 28 2011 03:42 emythrel wrote:


I think you've missed the clever thing, Obama can't be accused of political games. He has come out and put it to rest, before anything is on the line, like he should do.... he is saying "this isn't politics, I have real work to do". He just picked up a whole bunch of independent voters right there, they don't like partisan politics and games.

And in reality, its not politics.... its school yard games. Not allowing it to become part of the debate is the best thing he could do.

On April 28 2011 03:34 Zorkmid wrote:
What a country.

The funny thing is that this is not going to appease the "birthers" at all. Nothing will.

POTUS:
I can't get the networks to break in on all kinds of other discussions. I was just back there listening to Chuck, he was saying "it's amazing that he's not going to be talking about national security." I would not have the networks breaking in if I was talking about that, Chuck, and you know it.

On April 28 2011 03:53 mcht wrote:
option 5 is missing
[x] who the f cares :D

On April 28 2011 03:51 AtTheFuneral wrote:
I really don't understand though why Obama didn't clear this up way earlier. I mean perhaps you could say he's doing this for his prospective reelection, but it would have so much more sense to just clarify everything as soon as he's in office. I personally believe it's hard to trust a president who doesn't want people looking at his birth certificate or where he went to college.