IT WAS ONLY A MATTER OF TIME…. I’m not surprised Sarah Palin would lend credence to the “birther” nonsense; I’m surprised it took her this long.
Alex Koppelman posted this transcript of Palin’s on-air chat yesterday with far-right talk-show host Rusty Humphries.
HUMPHRIES: Would you make the birth certificate an issue if you ran?
PALIN: Um, I think the public, rightfully, is still making it an issue. I don’t have a problem with that. I don’t know if I would have to bother to make it an issue, because I think enough members of the electorate still want answers.
HUMPHRIES: Do you think it’s a fair question to be looking at?
PALIN: I think it’s a fair question, just like I think past associations, past voting records, all of that is fair game. You know, I gotta tell you, too, I think our campaign, the McCain-Palin campaign, didn’t do a good enough job in that area. We didn’t call out Obama and some of his associates on their records and what their beliefs were, and perhaps what their future plans were, and I don’t think that was fair to voters, to not have done our jobs as candidates and as a campaign to bring to light a lot of things that now we’re seeing made manifest in the administration.
HUMPHRIES: I mean, truly, if your past is fair game and your kids are fair game, certainly Obama’s past should be. I mean, we want to treat men and women equally, right?
PALIN: Hey, you know, that’s a great point. That weird conspiracy theory freaky thing that people talk about, that Trig isn’t my real son, a lot of people say, “Well, you need to produce his birth certificate, you need to prove that he’s your kid,” which we have done, but yeah, so maybe we should reverse that and use the same type of thinking on the other one. [emphasis added]
That last point about the bizarre notion that Palin’s son is not her son was especially odd. The former half-term governor seems to think questions about Trig’s birth certificate are a “weird conspiracy theory freaky thing” — she does have a way with words — but instead of arguing that all of the nonsense be taken off the table for everyone, Palin wants to see “the same type of thinking” applied to the president.
Ideally, this is the kind of inanity that would lead polite company to realize Sarah Palin isn’t the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree, and her credibility as a national figure would be permanently ruined. But this relates back to what we talked about earlier this week: among conservative Republicans, the nonsensical fringe has been mainstreamed. The line between GOP adults and GOP nutjobs has been blurred, if not erased altogether. (It’s more than likely the Republican base will be even more impressed with Palin now.)
Both sides of the aisle have their crazies, but only one side thinks their crazies are sane.
Update: On Facebook, Palin walks back the birther remarks, at least a little. She’s tough to understand sometimes.
