Obama's
Birth
Certificate
Florida Republican Rep. Bill Posey introduced a bill last February to require presidential campaigns to provide "a copy of the candidate's birth certificate."
President Barack Obama is a citizen of the United States of America, except, naturally for the conspiracy theorists out there.
Numerous researchers, in government and out, historians and journalists have reviewed his birth certificate and there is agreement of the fact that Barack Obama is a born and bred American. This should close the books on this myth, but border-line racists and right wingers continue to spout the rumor at every turn. All in an attempt to make folks applaud their wacky scheme against the standing president.
Conspiracy theorists never die and they never fade away. There are those who still believe George Washington was not the first president of the United States. Conspirators are still going wild over the death of President John F. Kennedy in 1963. Elvis is still alive; man never landed on the moon; Vince Foster was not a suicide but was murdered by Clinton people (this one was a favorite of the late Jerry Falwell).
Conspiracy rumors will be with us, like the poor, forever. How far will these fanatics go in pushing this conspiracy? One of the richest conspiracy ideologues is Jerome Corsi. Remember him? He is an addict when it comes to conspiracies. He was behind the Swift boat vets propaganda against Sen. John Kerry during the 2000 campaign. It is so nutty when VP Cheney's own daughter, Liz Cheney, agrees with conspiracy.
As of last month, nine fellow Republicans members of Congress have backed Posey's bill. One of our Texas representatives, Randy Neugebauer, supports the bill because he didn't know if Obama really was a citizen. HOW ABOUT THE OTHER TEXAS REPS?
The Republicans claim the bill is for future presidents, not Obama. He will be running again in 2012. With all the country's problems of health care, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Wall Street mess, and high unemployment, these congressmen waste time with such a meaningless bill. Such a bill only encourages the conspiracy nuts that they are on the right track.
The web site FactCheck.org found Obama's birth certificate (pictured above) is not forged or altered. They say they have seen the certificate, touched it, and vouched that Obama "is an American as baseball, apple pie, burritos, pasta and kung pao chicken."
Michael Tomasky, columnist of Guardian.com.uk, writes: "What would I do without crazy conservatives? ... Obama can't prove he's not a space alien either."
Popular cultural myths refuse to die. Another one: rumor that President Obama is a Muslim. A recent Pew study found that many Americans still believe it to be true, and many more simply don't know the President's religion. Bottom line: Coming out from under the rocks are a lot of people who do not want a black president.
Political scientist Brendan Nyhan explains how misperceptions spread and says some of us can be incredibly stubborn in the face of facts.
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