Already it begins to look as if Obama's decision to release his birth certificate has all the earmarks of the subtle political astuteness he's known for -- only a day later, the birthers are rushing to prove they're nothing more than nut cases. and a liability for the political party that embraces them.
As we all supposed, those who sought to create suspicions about Obama's birthplace haven't missed a beat. After demanding it be released, of course they now discount its authenticity and relevance. In doing so, however, they paint themselves into a corner - the same corner where people toss all those Christmas fruitcakes that no one wants. Their objections are based on claims about citizenship that are just plain wrong, but as they used to say in Pogo, "my mind is made up, don't confuse me with facts."
Let's look at a sampling of today's reactions:
Joseph Farah, editor of something called the WorldNet Daily, contends that it doesn't matter where Obama was born; his father was African so he may not be a citizen. WRONG. U.S. citizenship law is simple: Born in the USA? You're a citizen. Ask Bruce Springsteen.
Another birther, Sharon Guthrie, from her exalted position as a gopher for a Texas state assemblyman, sniffs that what has been released is only a "certificate of live birth," not a "birth certificate." WRONG. That's standard terminology for the official document issued in most U.S. states when someone is born. My own birth certificate, the only document obtainable from my state to prove I exist, is also called a "certificate of live birth." Possibly in Texas they call it something else? ( leave to readers to imagine what they might call it in Texas.)
Guthrie also says that it's easy to falsify a certificate. But her boss is sponsoring a bill in Texas that would require anyone running for President in Texas to produce a birth certificate "proving" their citizenship. Such bills (also pending elsewhere) must certainly be unconstitutional (it is not for the states to specify eligibility requirements for U.S. Presidential candidates), but they do illustrate the final twist in the contorted mental processes of the birther group: If a certificate can be so easily falsified, what can possibly be accomplished by a bill requiring candidates to produce one? It could lead only to endless arguments over the authenticity of certificates.
All told, the objections of the birthers are nothing more than paranoid conspiracy theories. They're a matter of faith, and they don't die. Fringe concepts like this used to make the rounds in fringe media; now the Washington Post reports on them as if they were worthy of serious note.