"Birther" claims force GOP leaders to take a stand

It's the conspiracy theory that won't go away. And it's forcing Republican officials and presidential contenders to pick sides: Do they think Barack Obama was born outside the United States and disqualified to be president?

As the Republican candidates tiptoe through the mine field, Democrats are watching. They hope the debate will fire up their liberal base and perhaps tie the eventual GOP nominee to fringe beliefs that swing voters will reject.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110422/ap_ ... birthplace

The Republican party is losing members over shenanigans like this. The more they play to the wacky wingnuts the more they move away from the fundametal principles the party used to stand for. It's past time for real conservatives to start shouting the crazies down.

I think they made a big mistake not distancing themselves from this nonsense long before the election.

chickaree wrote: The Republican party is losing members over shenanigans like this. The more they play to the wacky wingnuts the more they move away from the fundametal principles the party used to stand for. It's past time for real conservatives to start shouting the crazies down.

Good luck with that. They think the rest of the US is crazy.

Here's a good history of the "birther" movement...

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0411/53563.html

Just when it appeared that public interest was fading, celebrity developer Donald Trump has revived the theory that President Barack Obama was born overseas and helped expose the depth to which the notion has taken root—a New York Times poll Thursday found that a plurality of Republicans believe it.

If you haven’t been trolling the fever swamps of online conspiracy sites or opening those emails from Uncle Larry, you may well wonder: Where did this idea come from? Who started it? And is there a grain of truth there?

The answer lies in Democratic, not Republican politics, and in the bitter, exhausting spring of 2008. At the time, the Democratic presidential primary was slipping away from Hillary Clinton and some of her most passionate supporters grasped for something, anything that would deal a final reversal to Barack Obama.

kresspin wrote:

chickaree wrote: The Republican party is losing members over shenanigans like this. The more they play to the wacky wingnuts the more they move away from the fundametal principles the party used to stand for. It's past time for real conservatives to start shouting the crazies down.

Good luck with that. They think the rest of the US is crazy.

I think you nailed an important point here. I think most "Birthers" are living in an echo chamber and they don't even realize that their views, far from being seen as those of "regular Americans" are seen as bizarre and even pathological by the mainstream. They hang in their own little world, hearing only their own echo-chamber view of reality from Fox News, right-wing blogs, the churches they go to, the people they react with in everyday life who think just as they do.

I will leave you Liberals to talk yourselves into thinking you know what you are talking about. But, turnabout is fair play. I learned this from you Smart Progressives, to tell others what is best for them. Here is your new Avatar Kresspin, fits so much better:

I not only find it disturbing that such a high percentage of Republicans believe Obama wasn't born here, but it's also sad that over half of Democrats think the Bush administration had complicity in 9/11.

And as the link I gave states, this "birther" movement actually began among Democrats. I think it comes down to how much one hates the opponent. For some, that hate causes a huge loss of logical thinking.

As for the "birther" idea coming from Democrats originally, no I don't have any trouble believing that in the heat of a primary election a goofy idea to discredit the opponent can gain traction - but such goofy things usually have no more shelf life than the 24 hour news cycle. What's crazy is how long others have held onto such a notion.

And as for "over half" of Democrats supposedly believing Bush had complicity in 9/11? Sorry, I'd be very skeptical of that, I'd like to see some documentation of that assertion.

Let me also add that if a substantial proportion of Democrats really do believe that, it only makes me even more cynical than I already am about just how screwed up, misinformed, and paranoid Americans are these days.

AspenValley wrote: As for the "birther" idea coming from Democrats originally, no I don't have any trouble believing that in the heat of a primary election a goofy idea to discredit the opponent can gain traction - but such goofy things usually have no more shelf life than the 24 hour news cycle. What's crazy is how long others have held onto such a notion.

And as for "over half" of Democrats supposedly believing Bush had complicity in 9/11? Sorry, I'd be very skeptical of that, I'd like to see some documentation of that assertion.

I got that from the article I linked...

In 2006, an Ohio University/Scripps Howard poll found that slightly more than half of Democrats said they suspected the Bush Administration of complicity in the Sept. 11 attacks.

But I'll grant you that "polls is polls". The results can vary widely, especially depending on who takes them and how the question is phrased.

So maybe it's fairer to say a significant pecentage of Republican believe Obama wasn't born in this country and a significant percentage of Democrats believe Bush was complicent in 9/11? We'd have to sample a lot of different polls to see which percentage is greater.

I don't recall anyone on this board saying Bush was involved in 9/11 (could of missed it), but have seen it at PC.