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DAVE WEIGEL ON THE BIRTHERS.
Dave Weigel was on Rachel Maddow last night, discussing the rise of Birtherism among Republicans. Maddow's shot at Lou Dobbs and CNN is pretty hilarious.
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I think the operative point here, which Weigel makes, is that for conspiracy theorists, evidence disproving the conspiracy is actually evidence proving the conspiracy. At the Windy, Weigel writes that “ironically, the ‘birther’ movement began in response to Obama’s own efforts to debunk rumors." Well maybe. I'd hypothesize that it began as a response to some people's inability to accept a black man as president of the United States.
-- A. Serwer
COMMENTS (5)
I think the operative point here, which Weigel makes, is that for conspiracy theorists, evidence disproving the conspiracy is actually evidence proving the conspiracy.
Another point not to be overlooked is that this particular conspiracy is not restricted to the fringes of the Republican Party and the right wing. This is a mainstream, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Lou Dobbs issue. That's what the Republican Party is a this moment, and that point really ought not be overlooked.
Posted by: ed | July 22, 2009 4:40 PM
I think that it has less to do with Obama being black and more to do with Obama being a Democrat. The "Birther" movement is little different than Gary Aldrich writing a book that said that the Clinton's used condoms and crack pipes as ornaments on the White House Christmas tree. Aldrich got to plug his book on MTP with Tim Russert. I'm not trying to make the case that the GOP isn't racist, it is. But its more important to realize that the GOP base is racist and crazy. If you deal with Republicans this is the sort of thing that you will encounter.
Posted by: rk | July 22, 2009 5:30 PM
It gets better. McCain also had birth problems. The constitution says you have to be a "Natural Born Citizen" to be President. John McCain was born in the Canal Zone when that was not included legally in the US. Since then they passed a law changing the status of the Canal Zone to fix that, because they knew they needed to.
There's more to it, but that's it in a nutshell (pun intended).
Posted by: Fred2 | July 22, 2009 7:46 PM
I'd hypothesize that it began as a response to some people's inability to accept a black man as president of the United States.
Based on the evidence of...?
Or is this just another line of the race-baiting begun in late 07. Yawn.
Member? The riots if Obama lost? LOL
Posted by: Anonymous | July 23, 2009 9:54 AM
McCain also had birth problems.
o.k. but, um, he's not president
Posted by: Paul B | July 23, 2009 9:57 AM