AFTERBIRTHER…. It’s tempting to think the “birther” conspiracy theory is now officially dead, but it’s important to realize that crazy people don’t stop believing crazy things just because they’ve been shown evidence of their craziness.
Texas state legislator Leo Berman, a Republican, has introduced a bill that would require proof of citizenship from presidential candidates. It’s one of many such bills in the states. And according to Sharon Guthrie, Berman’s legislative director, it is still on the table, because the long-form birth certificate released by the White House today does not satisfy its requirements.
“What I’ve seen online, what they produced today, still says certificate of live birth across the top,” she told me. And she’s right.
But why isn’t that just a nomenclature issue? Why does it matter?
“We want to see a ‘birth certificate,’” Guthrie explained. “The one that we have that says ‘birth certificate’ is from Mombassa, Kenya, with his footprint on it. He has still not produced an American birth certificate.”
The document that Guthrie is referencing is a forgery, but in keeping with the larger trend, that doesn’t seem to matter.
Tea Partiers aren’t satisfied and neither is WND. Donald Trump is now demanding college records; congressional Republicans are criticizing the president for setting the record straight; Fox News isn’t sure if the birth certificate is legit; Sarah Palin has moved on to the conspiracy theory about Bill Ayers; and National Review is just a parody of itself.
Major media outlets, meanwhile, are questioning the quality of the president’s media analysis, after Obama complained about excessive coverage of this nonsense last week.
“We do not have time for this kind of silliness“? That’s true, but silliness is surprisingly hard to kill.
Postscript: I can’t claim credit for the “Afterbirther” in the headline; it came from a friend of a friend.
Update: The Onion may have actually coined “Afterbirther” in 2009.
