Newt and friends blame Obama for inventing, popularizing birtherism

[jefferson_dem]

Newt and friends blame Obama for inventing, popularizing birtherism

Why did the president trick so many Republicans into believe lies about him for so many years?

By Alex Pareene

AP/Salon

The popular way for "respectable" conservatives to dismiss birtherism without insulting the birthers (who, remember, make up something like 400 percent of the Republican Party, according to various scientific polls) is to call it a "distraction," or darkly insinuate that Democrats might be behind the whole thing. This is traditionally known as "blaming the victim," and it is what right-wingers basically always do when they're not "playing the victim," which they tend to also do a great deal of, these days. (Sarah Palin has mastered doing both simultaneously.)

After the president, in a moment of profound humiliation for the nation as a whole, released a scanned copy of his original, "long-form" birth certificate in order to quiet a preposterous television clown whose ridiculous political ambitions are currently being indulged by a political press that knows exactly how ridiculous the entire game is, Newt Gingrich immediately had the perfect Republican response: "All I would say is, why did it take so long?" Gingrich told Talking Points Memo. "The whole thing is strange."

Yes, why did it take so long? I mean, sure, we already had all the proof we needed that the president was a natural-born citizen, and all that proof did was make birtherism even more prominent, and sure, "releasing" the original document publicly was an actual violation of Hawaiian law requiring a waiver, but what was the big holdup when it came to releasing this completely unnecessary and extraneous document that unhinged trolls have been demanding to see? How strange!

<SNIP>

http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2011/04/28/newt_blames_victim/index.html

[Peacetrain]

1. Good Lord jd.. you just cannot make this stuff up..

It just drips from their lips like blood.. they are vampires on all the rest of us..

[jefferson_dem]

3. I wish I could say i'm surprised at the depths to which this decrepit collection of slime will sink

but I can't. And they keep digging in deeper. I do think, however, that the "rational" public will increasingly start seeing their vileness for what they are.

[emulatorloo]

6. They will pretty much say anything to slam Obama. They don't give a damn about consistency.

Shameless

[Buzz Clik]

2. The right is busy trying to put a layer of polish on the cow pie.

It must suck to be them.

[GoCubsGo]

4. Here's another question:

Why did it take Alex Pareene, Salon, and the others so long to write these columns? Why did they not try to shut these assholes down, rather than giving them a forum to spew their conspiracy bullshit all this time? Had they done so, we wouldn't have had this "moment of profound humiliation for the nation as a whole." Give me a fucking break, Alex. You're just like the rest of them. You sit there and let the bullshit slide, and when the shit hits the fan, you sit there and analyze how the shit was allowed to hit the fan. It happens every time. I swear you assholes do it on purpose.

[emulatorloo]

5. I've seen a couple DU posts hinting the same.

Mysterious "It is all kabuki theater" type one liners.

[Ikonoklast]

7. Thinly veiled racism.

Mr. Obama is 'allowed' to be president.

When I see that posted here, it tells me all I need to know about the poster.

The Black Man doing as he is told.

They won't come right out and say what they really mean.

[emulatorloo]

8. Thanks for your perspective

it is pretty illuminating.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

9. The Republicans could've put down the birtherism sooner

had they not been speaking out both sides of their mouth and/or refusing to publicly comment on it. If they had just come out to the birthers and unequivocally told them to just knock it off and move on after the election, that might've helped keep this thing from festering to the degree that it has- or at least completely relegate it to the fringe of the fringe. Even though President Obama did release his birth certificate back when he was running for POTUS TWO-THREE YEARS AGO(!), it was never his responsibility to spend his- and the country's time- trying to disprove crackpot theories. The fact that the birth certificate he actually did release back when he was running wasn't apparently enough to satisfy the birthers isn't his fault either and it appears that there are still plenty of the birthers whom aren't going to be satisfied NO MATTER WHAT. The birthers have been and should always be the GOP's problem to manage, particularly since they apparently decided to be mealy mouthed about it and thus help keep the issue alive so that they can keep the anger and hatred at President Obama stoked for their ends (i.e. electoral gain). Actually, the GOP should probably be THANKING President Obama for going above and beyond what he should have HAD to do by releasing his long form BC because he chose the good of the country over helping continue to enable the political damage the GOP was sustaining over this issue (which probably would've only intensified during the GOP primaries). Of course, they'll probably never see it that way and seem to be trying to wring whatever political juice they can out of his decision to actually release his full BC but it's hard to expect anything else from the GOP nowadays. :shrug: :puke:
:puke:

[tanyev]

10. Ooooh, he's a wascally wabbit!!!