The Birth Certificate — A Teaching Moment

People like me who think most conspiracy theories are for paranoids with too much time on their hands can take thirty seconds (max) to gloat.

Now that’s that’s over — let’s try to learn a thing or two from the Birther fiasco, things that we may have forgotten since it became evident to everyone with his head screwed on that Lee Harvey Oswald shot JFK all by himself.

Lesson 1. If it looks too good to be true, it almost always is. (Besides the obvious facts that were always there – birth announcements in the newspaper, etc.- the number of important people with terrific lives who would have had them ruined had Obama been revealed to be a foreign national is legion. Why would those people risk that? Idiotic… unless you’re a paranoid.)

Lesson 2. Criticizing your opponent for the wrong — in this case almost foolish — thing drastically undermines your legitimate criticisms.

This doesn’t mean I don’t think the press haven’t hidden or deliberately been uninterested in plenty of important details about Barack Obama (his education, political relationships, etc.) that we should know about, but stick to those that have true policy implications. Here’s one we have all known about for a few years – the unreleased Khalidi tapes, currently in the hands of the LA Times. With the Middle East in turmoil, that would be particularly interesting now.

Last thing, Republicans are lucky the birth certificate was released now, not a year from now with the election bearing down on them.

QUERY: Are the gullible folks who pre-ordered this book going to get their money back? (It’s still #28 on Amazon.)

Also read: “Donald Trump is proud of himself”