The Administration

The president brought forth his birth certificate not because he was more “adult” than Donald Trump but because the press took Trump’s cue and for two days straight followed up. Where is the long form? Why don’t you deliver? Why didn’t you deliver two years ago when you were required? It was an uh-oh moment. They, the administrators, sensed a sea change in the press. No longer would Nobel Prizes be given out after eight days in office. No longer would the most fawning and accommodating journalists get the Pulitzers. There is even the complaint by a Washington Post columnist that the “journalist prom” on Saturday night — hosted by Hollywood celebs and lobbyists and influence-seekers — got out of control.

My mother carried a copy of my birth certificate in her wallet from the time I was about 4 years old until I was almost 21, prompted by an incident with an emergency-room nurse who was shocked and confused to discover that the blond-haired, green-eyed, white woman in front of her was not a camp counselor, as she’d initially assumed, but the actual birth mother to the brown-haired, brown-eyed, brown-skinned child whose bleeding foot she’d just attended to. While my mom was a combination of shocked and confused herself, in that moment she focused on a larger issue: the safety of her child. She was afraid of what would or could happen some other time in some other emergency if she were challenged, and I was somehow denied or delayed needed care. For me, it was the first time I remember thinking how weird it was that anyone would think she wasn't my mom. At 4 years old, the conclusion is easily “Grown-ups are dumb.”

Good for Bob Schieffer. He said what all of us know to be true, but dared not say ourselves.

First, ignoring all the evidence that’s been out there for three years, Donald Trump resurrected the old lie about President Obama not being born in the United States — and demanded that the president release the “long form” of his birth certificate.

Then, when Obama surprised everybody by doing just that, what does Trump do next? Accept the evidence and apologize? No! Instead, he moves on to a new conspiracy theory, accusing Obama of being a “bad college student” and demanding that the president release the transcript of his grades.

The birther episode, culminating with the president of the United States releasing his birth certificate as Donald Trump claimed credit in a split-screen on television, was as shameful as it can get.
 
I hope.
 
The birthers themselves, who never had any evidence Obama was lying about the origin of his birth certificate, will thrive on a new green piece of paper and the conspiracy will live on and on. But fortunately the 2012 presidential field can now focus on the real issues. Trump's megaphone will no longer have the influence it would have. For that, likely presidential contenders like former Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R-Minn.), former Gov. Mitt Romney (R-Mass.), former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) should thank Obama.

President Obama's administration and his political team are becoming increasingly tone-deaf. Everyday Americans aren’t visiting town halls of Republicans to complain about draconian cuts. They’re coming to gripe the majority party isn’t cutting enough. We've had many tax cuts over the past 20 years but no spending decreases. The lack of discipline created by a broken political system now has us on the verge of bankruptcy.

President Obama will nominate CIA Director Leon Panetta this week as secretary of Defense, replacing Robert Gates as the top defense official in the country. The selection ends a cycle of self-doubt among leading Democrats who over the years have bowed to the GOP and media hype that the party is soft on defense.

Good for President Obama. By appointing Panetta, an eminently qualified and experienced leader, he’s demonstrating that Democrats are well-suited to lead the DOD. I love Bill Clinton, but I didn’t appreciate his willingness to reinforce the negative narrative about Democrats and defense by appointing Republicans to the post. Bill Cohen was surely qualified to be secretary of Defense — and he should have served in a Republican administration.

Mark my words, the sudden exit of Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour from the Republican presidential nomination race will be followed by many more. The prospects will either bow out before they ever catch any fire (Rick Santorum) or never enter the race at all because of the writing on the wall (Michele Bachmann).

Put simply, these candidates lack the fire to stir men’s souls. They can’t mobilize the voter base across the wide swath they know they’ll need to win the White House. It’s more than just the entire Republican “base,” and more than even some disgruntled, out-of-work independent voters. And it’s certainly more than the Tea Party faction.

As I recently wrote, President Obama is as American as apple pie and as Christian as the nearest Protestant church. There was no need for the president to release the original birth certificate, which is not the legally official Hawaii birth document, and the evidence before today made Obama's American birth 100 percent certain.
 
With the release today by the president, it is now time for the birthers and their enablers to publicly apologize to President Obama.

Karl Rove is right. The fanaticism of the birther faction of the Republican Party is a curse that could sink the GOP. When polls show that barely 30 percent of all Republicans are convinced that President Obama is a natural born American, this is a level of sickness and weirdness in a major political party that could bring them electoral disaster.

I have not been shy about occasionally criticizing President Obama when I believe it is called for, but:

President Obama is as American as apple pie. He is as American as the nearest red, white and blue flag. He is as Christian as the nearest Protestant church.

President Obama, despite his ineptitude as a leader, has shown himself an excellent politician.

He realizes people have such short memories that he can rail against demagoguery one week and the next week fully engage in it himself without being called on the carpet by a majority of the media.

President Obama has fully engaged in demagoguery with his call for class warfare. He recognizes that there are far more people of moderate incomes than there are wealthy people; he also understands human nature and knows how easy it is to fan the flames of envy. Read more...