To an objective observer, the never ending debate swirling around President Obama's persona and credibility has to be incomprehensible. The invective against him and the belief, for example, that he is a closet non American born Muslim, if not agent, whirls around the internet and in e-mails in a non stop staggering fashion. The public manifestation of this debate, until recently, manifested in the "birther" movement. This group, (20 - 25% of most surveys), believed that Obama was born in Kenya. The proof that they were right was that Obama's long birth certificate had not been produced. Donald Trump launched his Presidential bid as an aggressive "birther. (See Blogs, The Tea Party - The New GOP and Donald Trumps Palin). From no where Trump became a leading candidate in the Republican race on the basis of his forcefully arguing that Obama had not proved that he was an American and therefore Constitutionally entitled to be President.
BIRTHERS' THINKING?
If one analyzes the "birther' conspiracy theory it would appear that way the "birthers" have to be thinking is as follows:
On or about, August 4, 1961, the day of Obama's birth, Obama's daddy, having married and impregnated a white American lady, and Obama's granny, got together and decided that they would hatch a plot that would get a non American Muslim president of America. Instead of allowing the American lady to have her baby where she was they would schlep her to Kenya to have the baby. The purpose was then to get the most powerful nation in the world to get a non American born Muslim to sell out to the Muslim fundamentalists about 47 years later. At that time there were not too many openly militant Muslim Fundamentalists but it was well known that Obama's daddy, by Obama's own admission - he wrote a book about it - was an exceptionally bright chap. (To this day it is uncertain as to why Barack had to be non American born but these Africans are pretty devious). Now the American mommy lady, obviously, was pretty influential and bought into this whole conspiracy so she got the Hawaii Authorities to say she delivered the baby in Hawaii and even got them to put a fake announcement in the newspaper. From then on it gets a bit murky but who cares, Obama, who has a bad memory of his birth, couldn't prove otherwise.
THE BIRTHERS' PROOF
The birthers, rather stupidly I think, maintained that the key proof of their argument was the failure of Obama to produce his long birth certificate. (I would have hung in with the granny and resurrected her and brought her onto every TV channel, but we all make mistakes). Obama then produced his long birth certificate and of course Trump declared victory, maintaining that all his investigators, who could prove that Obama was hiding the truth, had forced Obama to show that he, Obama, in fact, was telling the truth. This of course resulted in confusion among the birthers. Trump rallied and said he would now move on to the question of how the subsequent editor of The Harvard Law Journal could have had the qualifications to go to an Ivy League College in the first place.
So the attack was on Obama not really being American and or that he is a fraud.
DEATHERS TAKE OVER FROM BIRTHERS
But the birthers were not to be thwarted because of the following event:
Obama, seemingly out of the blue, acted, courageously, boldly and decisively - not on taxes or on jobs or the socialization of America - but on national security. After a successful effort to locate Osama Bin Laden, he ordered the elite Navy Seals to raid America's enemy number one's lair. They killed Osama, photographed him, collected DNA, buried him according, as we might expect, according to Muslim law. In the process of this daring raid a mass of intelligence was obtained. Objectively, this was a massive coupe - 9/11 had finally been avenged. Osama's wives said he was dead, El Qaeda threatened to avenge Osama's death and the Seals said they killed him. But the problem was that Obama decided not to release the photos of the dead Osama so as not to turn him into a martyr. ( If he had we all know it would have been a photo shop job anyway). So with no photographs who could believe this President?
So the birthers became the deathers.
A facebook page "Osama Bin Laden Not Dead" has been created. Fox news analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano wanted to see a photograph. Alex Jones, a Texas based radio host, boasted 24 million hits on his You Tube Channel, claimed that Bin Laden's death was a hoax. Kevin Lane, a well known blogger, denied that Obama was dead and maintained that this was a distraction from Obama's birth certificate bollux and on and on and on.
The Republican contenders in the first Presidential debate maintained that Obama "got lucky" in this instance and that generally he had screwed up American foreign policy. They wanted, as so many others did, to see photographs to "prove" it was Osama. Many gave the credit to President Bush. Some said that the best they could say for Obama was that he had carried on President Bush's policies. No-one was prepared to give him unconditional credit for a collection of gutsy decisions that had got rid of public enemy number one.
WHY?
At the end of the day why has this President's been so hammered? His credibility to be the American President was always being attacked, by this group, in one way or another rather than his policies. ( In fairness this is not the line of the Republican establishment but their control over the party is in doubt - see Blog - The tea Party the New GOP.) This has to be code for you are not accepted as being American. Apparently it sticks in the crawl to acknowledge him as the personification of America, as American Presidents are, and the Commander in Chief to boot. It is almost as if he is considered an alien that somehow by a strange set of circumstances put him, a non Anglo - Saxon, in the White House. The fact that he represents the American melting pot and everything America purports to represent, appears not to resonate with a sizable but very influential minority of the electorate.
OBAMA'S PEDIGREE
His early upbringing was non American - in fact Asian. He like many others today is of mixed parentage but was in effect brought up by the white half. His white mother was way ahead of her time and obviously gave his white conventional grandparents, who were the major influence in his upbringing, grey hairs. He hankered for Africa and "The Dreams of His Father". He is regarded as African American but is more racially blind than most. His is a classical story of the American dream - from log cabin to President. He also, like so many other presidents attended an Ivy League College. His cabinet is representative of all groups. He is a strong advocate of feminism, already having appointed half the number of the women that have ever served on the Supreme Court. He has pushed for Latinos and has their support. So in it's face what could be more American?
Well the plain truth is that he just is different. And the difference is more than color. He has experience of many many cultures. As all these "Birthers" and "Deathers" have maintained, in Code, he just isn't American and should not be President. For example, even if he was born in Hawaii, is Hawaii really America? And it doesn't take a Freud to work out why they believe this.
DEFINING MOMENT
However this may all pan out, the Osama raid will turn out to be the defining moment In Obama's Presidency. Maybe he "got lucky". Maybe El Quada were already passe in Muslim countries as all the revolutions were not for Osama but rather for freedom. The bottom line is that he destroyed the American nemesis and the myth of Osama's invincibility and allowed Americans to hold their heads up high. So whatever the Birthers or Deathers may say - not too bad an achievement for someone they do not regard as American!
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