by Andrew Walden
I want to thank Jack Cashill for admitting that birtherism is being promoted by Obama supporters.
In his February 11 American Thinker article “The Real ‘Birther’ Conspiracy Theory”, Cashill admits: “The more (Hawaii Governor Neil Abercrombie and the liberal media) talk about Obama's origins the more attention they focus on that story.” Cashill's admission comes in his response to my February 6 article, “Hawaii's Governor Manipulates Birthers.”
Cashill is the author of a newly released birther book "Deconstructing Obama."
Yes, Cashill is right. Birthers are very conscious of their role in disrupting, discrediting, and disorienting conservatives. Most conservative leaders know this and haven’t been shy about saying it. Likewise, many liberal commentators have been eager to play up every hint of birtherism. This is because birtherism benefits Obama by separating his opponents from the real concerns of American voters.
But the agreement does not last long. True to birther form, Cashill quickly begins lying to American Thinker readers:
“…Abercrombie went public with his desire to silence dissenters by proving Obama's citizenship. When the governor failed to find it, the cynics insisted that he too had been enlisted in Obama's conspiracy to discredit the birthers.”
Abercrombie has not “failed to find” Obama’s original birth certificate. In a January 18 Star-Advertiser interview, Abercrombie said: "It was actually written, I am told. This is what our investigation is showing, it actually exists in the archives, written down."
The Republican administration of Hawaii’s former Governor Linda Lingle, also said Obama’s original birth certificate is in on file at the State Department of Health. And we all know that only Obama himself can have it shown publicly thanks to Hawaii’s strict privacy laws.
Is Obama trying to “discredit the birthers” as Cashill suggests? Ridiculous. Nobody does a better job of “discrediting than the birthers” than the birthers themselves. A blogger made up a fake Kenyan Birth Certificate, got birther lawyer/dentist Orly Taitz to introduce it in court, and then revealed his hoax. Today, anyone with a computer printer can get his very own Kenyan Birth Certificate online. With a click of the mouse, you too can "prove" you were born in Coast General Hospital, Mombasa, Kenya. Even Cashill's friends at World Net Daily have debunked this and other forged "Kenyan Birth Certificates" which still float around the internet.
Birther after birther goes to court -- even deceiving military officers to throw away their careers -- trying to unseat Obama. They call themselves “Constitutionalists” but any 8th grade civics student knows that the Constitution says no court has any authority -- only the US House and US Senate can remove a sitting President.
Cashill says, “most birthers simply want to know where and when their president was born.”
Nonsense. Birthers want to re-orient Obama’s opponents towards a dead-end conspiracy theory which guarantees conservatism’s defeat.
Cashill says, “Despite my ample research, I do not know (where Obama was born).”
Maybe Cashill’s ample research should have led him to the next cubicle over at World Net Daily where he could find Jerome R. Corsi. Corsi wrote September 9, 2009: “Stanley Ann Dunham Obama, abandoned his father, Barack Obama Sr., when she moved from Hawaii to Seattle where she was enrolled in extension courses beginning Aug. 19, 1961, only 15 days after Barack Obama Jr. was born, according to Dunham's grade transcript WND obtained from the University of Washington.”
Perhaps Corsi, Cashill and the rest of the birthers can get together and explain how Stanley Ann Dunham Obama managed to give birth in Kenya, fly to Honolulu (At least five stops with a newborn baby: Mombasa-London-NY-SF-Honolulu), forge two birth announcements in time to make them appear in the August 13 edition of the Honolulu papers, somehow get Obama’s birth illegally registered as happening in Honolulu, (No dear birthers, Hawaii law does not allow you to do that.) and then hop on yet another flight to go back to Seattle, get settled in a new apartment and show up for class August 19.
As Cashill so kindly points out, William of Occam said: “The simplest explanation is usually the best.”
Here’s the simplest explanation. Obama was born in Honolulu August 4, 1961. His official State of Hawaii birth certificate is posted online and his birth announcements can be found on microfilm at any Hawaii public library.
I am not alone. The Clinton and McCain campaigns know that Obama is a natural born US citizen legally eligible to be President. The election officials and Democratic Party officials of the 50 states plus territories also established to their satisfaction that Obama was eligible. Democratic primary voters and general election voters established Obama’s eligibility by electing him. The Electoral College established Obama’s eligibility to its satisfaction as did the US Congress when it voted unanimously to accept the results of the Electoral College vote.
Two years after Obama was elected, birther requests to the Hawaii Department of Health had dropped to 10-15 per month, but as soon as Abercrombie took office, he and Obama’s other supporters began bringing birtherism back to life. But in spite of making the same point himself, Cashill calls this the “real birther conspiracy theory.”
Nonsense. Disorienting and distracting one’s opponents is a strategy as old as Sun Tzu. What part of Sun Tzu’s advice: “if they are angry, disturb them” does Cashill not understand? Pursuing their goal of disturbing angry, defeated-in-2008 conservatives, the foremost promoters of birtherism today are liberal Democrats such as Chris Matthews, Neil Abercrombie, and the hordes of eager reporters who magnify, transform, or transmogrify the slightest birthy word from even the most obscure Republican.
There is really no difference between this effort and the effort directed at angry, defeated-in-2000 liberals who were led to first claim Bush was not President and later to claim Bush carried out or allowed the 9-11 attacks. Many of the very same people are involved in promoting both conspiracy theories. It is a very profitable business. There are books and videos to be sold and honoraria to collect.
Cashill argues: “it is the rare ‘birther’ who qualifies as a conspiracy theorist.” Really? Here are some points which Cashill did not even attempt to refute from my February 6 article, “Hawaii's Governor Manipulates Birthers”:
Birtherism originated with Hillary Clinton's PUMA supporters, and it has been carried forward by well-known 9-11 truthers.
Wingnuts author John Avalon rarely misses an opportunity to marginalize conservatives, but he was forced to admit last February that "the Birthers began on the left." Avalon traces the original August 21, 2008 Phil Berg birther lawsuit to the efforts of Texas Hillary Clinton supporter Linda Starr, described by Avalon as also being "a key source for CBS' discredited election year investigation into George W. Bush's National Guard records that led to Dan Rather's replacement after 24 years as the evening news anchor."
Berg is a prominent 9-11 truther who sued the Bush administration several times in an effort to prove that al-Qaeda was innocent. Another prominent Birther lawyer, Orly Taitz, is a $1,000 donor to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign committee. Her website has prominently featured the rants of 9-11 truther Devvy Kidd.
Cashilll informs readers that his birthological expertise is based on his: “inquiries into many of history's more recent controversies -- JFK, Waco, Vince Foster, Oklahoma City, Ron Brown, TWA Flight 800, 9/11, Obama's birth….”
That is not a list of “controversies” it is a list of conspiracy theories. So, by his own admission, Cashill is a “‘birther’ who qualifies as a conspiracy theorist.” Just like the rest.
Cashill straightfacedly implies birtherism won the 2010 elections, arguing “there is no political advantage in attacking birthers. After two years of ‘having a ball’ with them, the Democrats lost 63 seats in the House this past November.” ObamaCare? Debt? Taxes? Cap and Trade? No, the voters didn’t care about any of that, they were dazzled by the brilliance of Orly Taitz.
Cashill characterizes my argument as: “Obama and his operatives have purposefully dragged the birth certificate in front of the baying hounds of the excitable right like a red herring….”
Whose hounds? Baying hounds help you corner your prey. Birthers are helping Obama corner his prey. Obama, Cashill, Abercrombie, Taitz, Matthews, Berg, and Corsi have been “dragging the birth certificate in front of the baying hounds” -- of the media -- who then go bounding into the swamp to sniff out any whiff of birtherism. The goal is to whip up the excitable left by portraying all opposition to Obama as based on insanity and racism. Nobody becomes an opponent of Obama because of birtherism. Its appeal -- attractive or repulsive -- is aimed at the weak-minded among the already-convinced of both sides.
On Friday, February 11, Bill Maher joined the effort to resuscitate Obama conspiracy theories, proclaiming that he does not believe Obama is a Christian. Maher knows a thing or two about manipulating loons. In October, 2007 he dramatically tossed 9-11 truthers out of his studio audience. Bill Clinton, in a similar demonstration just days later, joined Maher in removing the truther albatross from the Democrats’ neck before the 2008 elections. It was quickly hung on Republicans via the Ron Paul campaign -- whose supporters form the locus of birtherism in the GOP today. Shortly after Clinton’s episode, Clinton Democrat Phil Berg shut down his 9-11 truther website.
Over the last few days, a single birthy question launched at House Speaker John Boehner by David Gregory on Meet the Press has produced over 800 Boehner-birther articles. The liberal media is conducting a drive-by hit to help Obama as he introduces his 2012 budget.
Here are the bullets in firing order. Note their evolution:
As Cashill says: “The more (they) talk about Obama's origins the more attention they focus on that story.”
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