Aren’t you glad that President Obama finally made available his long form birth certificate? I know I am. It’s about time that we all move on to more important issues, like whether Obama’s grades were good enough for him to get into Harvard Law. Still, birtherism dies hard, as evidenced by various conservatives who refuse to accept this documentation. Some, like Newt Gingrich, are taking the “what took him so long?” tack. Others, like Arizona State Senator Steve Smith, say “there’s still a good 10 percent to 20 percent chance” that Obama was not born in this country. One would suppose this ratio applies equally to Smith.
Tea Party Nation founder Judson Phillips was on “Hardball with Chris Matthews” yesterday to defend an outrageous blog post in which he claimed that Obama’s birth certificate could be a fake. Chris utterly crushed him:
You like it if people come up and said you weren’t an American, do you think that’s funny? You think it’s funny to say a person is not an American, you think that’s a joke?
Suppose it is true and you’re just somebody having some fun with somebody, they walk up to you and say, ‘Hey, Judson Phillps, that’s kind of a funny name where I come from. Are you really an American? I think you might not be, in fact its possible your birth certain was a fake. It’s possible, people that have the skills to create fake birth certificates, there is such a thing as Photoshop.’ Do you like the sound of that when it’s directed at you? You like that? I wouldn’t.
It is truly a glorious thing to watch. Bonus: Senator Smith is also in the clip:
Later the same day, MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell kicked Orly Taitz, aka the “Queen of the Birthers,” off his program for refusing to acknowledge the release of the president’s long-form birth certificate — the very document for which she’s been screaming bloody murder. O’Donnell is a pretty cool customer, but Taitz pissed him off royally. After giving her the boot, he felt compelled to apologize to his viewers:
I invited a crazy person on the show to see if a crazy person faced with the thing that the crazy person was trying to get for two and a half years could say something responsive, something human, to the document that was released today, that she’s never seen before in her life and she wants to play with all of her of other kids’ toys and all of her other crazy documents. I did not expect this to go this way. I thought she was going to address the birth certificate. We were told she was going to address the birth certificate. She’s afraid to address the birth certificate obviously.
Watch the full clip here:
I’m fine with these folks not wanting to let go of their pet conspiracy. Maybe we should come up with a few of our own. Contrarian contributor Neil Cleary posted a good one on Facebook earlier today:
Jesus: was he *really* born in Nazareth? Sure, his supporters will tell you he was, but WHERE IS THE DOCUMENTATION? #christmasbirthers
I also enjoyed this piece at The Onion, “Afterbirthers Demand to See Obama’s Placenta.”
Extra credit: The birther’s guide to staying relevant in a post-”long form” world. As you were.
