AP Photo: Barack Obama
The Birthplace Issue has been percolating since before the 2008 election and in that time, it has bubbled just at the surface for many citizens. For just how many citizens has never been measured until recently when 60 Minutes teamed up with Vanity Fair to poll 1,000 Americans. What they found was astounding because 24% of the respondents said Barack Obama was either not born in the United States or they didn’t know where he was born. Additionally, the Pew Research Center recently published the results of a poll showing that 18% of Americans believe Obama is Muslim.
Brian Williams interviewed the President while in New Orleans to commemorate the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and the issue erupted at the highest level. An annoyed Obama lashed out at “a mechanism, a network of misinformation” churning out there in the “new media”. Clearly referring to the Internet, talk radio and FOX, Obama sought to downplay and discount the questions:
“It’s not surprising that someone like a Mr. Beck is able to stir up a certain portion of [the American people]. … That’s been true throughout our history,” he said.Obama doubled down on his support for a mosque and community center planned for a site two blocks north of ground zero in lower Manhattan – and denied reports that he tried to back away from backing the controversial project.
“I didn’t walk it back it all,” he said. “I was very specific with my team… The core value and principle that every American is treated the same doesn’t change… At [a White House Ramadan celebration], I had Muslim Americans who had been in uniform fighting in Iraq… How can you say to them that their religious faith is less worthy of respect?… That’s something that I feel very strongly about.”
He added, “I respect the feelings on the other side.”
So, why doesn’t a significant portion of American’s believe him?
Particularly a portion of Americans highly likely to vote? There have been plenty of bloggers and Internet news sources out there carrying water for The President and defending his birth and religion. Still the questions linger. Search Google for “is obama a citizen” and you’ll get about 22 Million results and for every site claiming Obama is not a citizen there is a site defending Obama’s birthplace.
While the idea of Obama being foreign born abounds on conspiracy theory websites, it is not isolated to the paranoid or disillusioned. In fact, the idea finds its way onto mainstream websites almost as much. The faith question is even more widely distributed. It seems that at least for a quarter of the population, there is a disconnect between Obama’s protestations and the American public’s opinions. Is the disconnect merely a question of mis-communication?
Try this test. Ask yourself if you believe Obama when he says, “I respect the feelings on the other side.”
If you are like me, perhaps you wondered why, after a long verbal defense of Muslims wishing to express their Religious Freedom, he reduced the families of the victims of 9-11 to “the other side”. Is it possible that Obama is simply tone-deaf? Is it possible that many Americans simply believe that this tone-deafness stems from the fact that Obama isn’t like the rest of us? Did he cry along with the rest of America on the day terrorism struck? Now ask yourself one more question, “Whether you liked George Bush or not, did you ever doubt whether George Bush cried on 9-11?”
Perhaps, part of the answer lies in Obama’s apparent inability to answer a straight question with a straight answer. After all, the question Brian Williams asked The President was “why so many people were uncertain about something so fundamental as his faith?” Obama’s response began with ““I can’t spend all of my time with my birth certificate plastered on my forehead,” and then he went on to blame Glenn Beck for stirring up a certain part of the population. It seems to me that Mr. Williams didn’t ask about his birth certificate, so why did Obama bring it up?
Could it be that in spite of all the denials to the contrary, the American people simply do not feel that Obama is being honest with them? Or could it be that answers he gives just do not balance with his actions?
It is my belief that the answer is even more fundamental. Since this issue has been festering for over 18 months, perhaps the American public is just fed up with the fact that Barack Obama hasn’t been willing to directly address the situation openly and honestly. He’s avoided the subject and actively called those who disbelieve his bona fides names such as “birthers” or “right-wing conspiracy theorists” when the solution is staring him right in the face.
Show the real documents.
Release the real birth certificate and college transcripts. Take the gag order off the Hawaii officials. Open up and let the truth come out. If all is as he says it is, then what’s the problem? He could make all of the confusion and conflict vanish overnight. What purpose does it serve to continue allowing this simmering pot continue to simmer? Senator McCain was called to the Hill to testify about his birth before the election and there were fewer questions about his birth than Obama’s.What’s up with that?
I believe that the increase in citizens who do not believe Obama’s answers may very well be a case of a population becoming increasingly tired of all the questions and the lack of forthcoming answers. A population who probably has wondered from time to time even if only for a moment, “What if those birther nuts are right?” A population who can’t understand why it’s such a big deal? A population beginning to ask other questions about the actions of their President which speak much louder than his words.
Perhaps we are reaching a tipping point where more and more Americans are becoming tired of being lectured and are thinking to themselves, “Why doesn’t he just show the documents?”
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