President to address birther non issue at 9:45 EST

[era veteran]

Source: CNN

Long form to be released.

Read more: http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2011/04/27/white-house-releases-obama-birth-certificate/?hpt=T1&iref=BN1

---

Going to release birth certificate. It came to this.

[ck4829]

1. Any other ways Obama can make Republicans winning easier?

Next up: Obama to hand deliver all campaign strategies to Republican Party headquarters.

Should have milked this.

[Bicoastal]

5. I suspect something else might happen--

--like perhaps he's going to try to use this to his advantage to paint Republicans as not really interested in improving public discourse, and only dividing the country further.

So he's publicly taking the high road, and he's gonna rub their faces in it. If he gives a good enough speech, he might be able to do it.

[Historic NY]

36. +1 the can't claim its false it appears to be a bound book edition....

He releases a certificate that the state no longer uses or considers legal. From the copy it appears its a long ago bound book addition that the Registrar of Vital Statistics must have buried in the archives. Locally we have many of our old unused records bound up into book form.

[FourScore]

18. Actually, it's brilliant. These wackos will not accept this as proof...

don't you get it? They will find all kinds of things wrong with the birth certificate, which will make the tea partiers seem even more extremist.

[GoCubsGo]

19. They way John Kerry "milked" the swift boating thing?

Look how well that turned out.

[cliffordu]

29. False equivalence. Thanks for playing.

[politicasista]

60. Weird. Obama gets lauded for taking the high road, but Kerry gets berated for it.

:shrug:

[karynnj]

32. Kerry "milked" the SBVT thing? Are you crazy?

Kerry's first response was to point them to the official Navy record, that he had copies of on his web site. In addition, he put out a 30 something page report of provable lies the SBVT had in their book. That should have ended it - especially as the Kerry team showed the ties into the B/C campaign.

The SBVT claimed that Kerry did not put out ALL his records. In 2005, Kerry proved that they were all of his records by having all of his records sent directly from the Navy to three newspapers. What they got was what Kerry showed the media in 2004. (All except medical files were on the web for anyone to see.) Yet, you STILL have loonies on the right claiming that Kerry has not released all his records - after all there was NOTHING bad in anything released.

Obama did the same thing in 2008 - put out the official record. He now has pulpit of the Presidency and has publicly released the long form. Yet, I would bet that just as there are some on the right still arguing that the most famous anti-war vet of the 1970s was given a dishonorable discharge. The fact is that if it happened, which it did not, it would have made the newspapers. Not to mention, certainly John Warner, a former Republican Senator, who was Secretary of the Navy then certainly would have known - and he defended Kerry's service in 2004.

[AtheistCrusader]

35. I would say he badly mis-managed the message

as he released those records. He should have been able to discredit the SBVT assholes left right and center, but he bumbled it.

Let's see how Obama does. I am willing to bet he's going to knock this one out of the park.

[MessiahRp]

43. Buying into the media narrative here much?

He released everything, the media kept on lying... what the fuck else was he supposed to do?

[AtheistCrusader]

46. Get in front of a camera and deal with it, patiently, calmly, take the issue apart.

I never saw him do it. His response to the band-aid assholes was tepid.

It was all very dissapointing.

[karynnj]

57. He did that - in front of the Firefighters' union - and the media was TOLD it was his response to

the SBVT, who they had given hours of coverage to.

He was - as he always is - patient and calm. The comments were only about 2 and a half minutes long. Yet the media IGNORED them.

What he said was essentially that the NAVY gave him those medals - 3 purple hearts, a bronze star with valour, and a silver star. He spoke of how he was injured and that he still has shrapnel in his leg. He said that was the story 30 years ago and it still was.

The fact is that the SBVT wrote an entire book that was like a cluster bomb of lies. There were thousands of charges - that even contradicted each other. I seriously do not thing that Kerry could have gone page by page and disproved all of them. It is far easier to make something up than to prove it was not true. In addition, the goal of the SBVT was to create doubt about his personality and his actions. The problem was that the person Kerry really is was threatening to them - so they had to prevent people from seeing him as he is.

In the Iowa primary, the reunion with Rassman, which because they rushed to do it was not scripted, was as powerful as ANY political event I have seen in my life. It almost seemed like it could have been a clip from a Frank Kapra movie that I never saw. You have the tall, reserved, tall New Englander, obviously moved by the the words of the man whose life he saved in Vietnam - saying something like anyone would have done it. (With a lot of kids in the background because the event where this happened was to showcase Youthbuild, a program for underprivileged youths that Kerry sponsored for decades.) It was unbelievably powerful. I remember looking up to watch it as a recycled on CNN that day.

The one thing I do think Kerry should have done - was to make a commercial of that UNCUT footage and play it as a commercial in teh last weeks of the election. First off it would be saying to the SBVT that they could not steal his real accomplishment. He DID risk his life as a 25 year old even though he was born to a golden future.

Here was a Daily Kos response I wrote a long time ago that listed many of the things he did.

Actually , the SBVT was condoned and given huge lift by the media. The SBVT challenged the OFFICIAL NAYY record - there was no "Kerry" version. The media never asked them for one scintilla of proof - and ignored that they were proven to have lied on one thing after another.

Kerry did fight back:

The campaign's immediate reaction to the August attack was to put out 36 pages listing lies and discrepancies in the book. That was done within ONE DAY of the book's emergence in August.(In 2008, the first reaction of the Obama team was to put out 41 pages on lies in Corsi's book.)

This should have been sufficient to spike their attack. How many lies are people usually allowed when they are disputing the official record, offering nothing - not one Telex, photo, or record sent upward discussing Kerry as the problem portrayed in the book - as proof. They also later proved the links to Bush - in funding, lawyers, and in one case the B/C people were caught passing it out. In addition, Kerry surrogates including some of his crew, Rassman and Cleland countered it. (Like Kerry, Obama used surrogates against Corsi rather than respond himself)

That was far more proof countering the liars than the Clinton machine ever put out on anything in 1992. The problem was that it went to the media and they refused to play the role of evaluating who was telling the truth - the Washington Post's editor even saying they wouldn't. The broadcast media was worse. Would Obama have done as well if the networks and cable TV failed to give coverage to his speech on race in the furor over Reverend Wright?

Many Democrats, including Edwards who was asked to, did little. It wasn't that they had no ammunition to use. There was an abundance of proof - far more than would be typically available as they hit against a well documented official record. Even before the August re-emergence, the Kerry campaign had already provided the media with more than enough backup for them to reject the August attack out of hand.

Backing the NAVY account against that of the SBVT, Kerry had the following:

he had 120 pages of naval records - spanning the entire interval with glowing fitness reports - all given to the media and on his web site from April on. That alone should have been enough.

He had every man on his boat for every medal earned 100% behind him. That alone should have been enough.

He had the Nixon administration on tape (that they thought would never be public) saying he was both a genuine war hero and clean, but for political reasons should be destroyed. (SBVT O'Neil was one of those tasked to destroy Kerry in 1971.) That alone should have been enough.

He also was given a plum assignment in Brooklyn as an aide to a rear admiral. From the naval records, this required a higher security clearance - clearly his "employers" of the last 3 years (many SBVT) had to attest to his good character. That's just standard. That alone should have been enough.

The then secretary of the Navy (Republican Senator John Warner) said in 2004 that he personally had reviewed the Silver Star Award. That alone should have been enough.

Compare this list of proof to Carville & Co response on Clinton's Flowers or draft problems - this is far more comprehensive and completely refutes the charges. The Clinton responses in these two instances did not completely refute the charges - in fact, after changing his story a few times in each case - conceding that earlier statements were not completely true - parts of the charges were conceded. The difference was that in 1992 - even in the primary - Clinton was given breaks by a media that wanted him to win. The fact is that we KNEW in those two cases that he was willing to dissemble and scapegoat others when he was called on his actions - two things that later hurt his Presidency.

In any previous election, calmly and professionally countering lies by disproving them would have been the obvious preferred first step. It is only when there is no open and shut case (as there is here) that the candidate would try anything different.

When this didn't work, Kerry did speak to the issue - and he did so before the Firefighters as soon as it was appear that the attack was beginning to hurt him. Many here - all political junkies didn't here this. Why? The media that gave a huge amount of free time to people they had to know were lying didn't think that it was important to give the Democratic nominees response air time. Now, it was - I think less than 2 minutes long - so there is no excuse.

[politicasista]

61. Facts never get in the way of Kerry bashing n/t

[politicasista]

62. delete n/e

[karynnj]

54. The records were already released 4 months before

The SIMILARITY is that both Kerry and Obama released the record(s) that should have in a sane world ended the charge. One thing to consider is that with Obama on this there is ONE charge - that he was not born in the USA. The SBVT book was a cluster bomb of lies.


Kerry DID discredit dozens of madeup accounts. The first thing his team did was to release a 36 page report that detailed inaccuracies and lies. But, the media simply went to the next set of charges in the book and demanded answers on them - which they got. In all cases in the past if someone is caught in dozens of lies, they lose credibility and the media would condemn them. Here, they kept giving them air time.

To compare this to Obama ignores that the Obama charge is still out there and has actually GAINED believers from 2008. It also ignores that Obama has a HUGE advantage of being President.

If anything, the fact that President Obama is out there STILL answering this question shows what both he and Kerry were up against. It is NOT that people like Jerome Corsi are that convincing or brilliant. They aren't. What they have though is an echo chamber that allows their lies to be validated - in their bubble where fact has nothing to do with anything. A person will hear several RW radio hosts say "there might be something to what Trump says here" and "Corsi researches things meticulously". They here the same things on Fox News. Not to mention MSNBC and CNN have both been obsessed with Trump - so they hear the nonsense there. At one point, if you hear the same thing from multiple INDEPENDENT sources, you gave it credibility. That these sources are NOT independent is not obvious.

In 2004, that was compounded by some of the biggest print media taking a "tell both sides" approach - ignoring that the NAVY record was very clear. Though those articles did pretty much back Kerry, they were pretty generous to the liars - in that they did not call them what they were.

[MessiahRp]

42. The SBVT thing was one of the most horrific cases of slander ever

and the media showed it's bias by continually airing their ads, pushing their memes and aiding and abetting the crime.

I have never been disheartened the way I was when Kerry lost the election. I have never worked harder for any political campaign and may never again. John Kerry would have made a damn fine President, potentially the best we have ever seen. Instead we got Bush and Hurricane Katrina. Fuck the media and Fuck the Right Wing Lie Machine.

Rp

[karynnj]

49. I am so with you on what you say here

It was exactly that feeling after the election that brought me here - and why there is still no politician I respect more as a person. In retrospect, it is incredibly impressive that he and Teresa did not decide to simply give up fighting for this country. Kerry absolutely was mistreated by the media - that will likely never acknowledge what they did. (Many might even be in self denial)

The media condoned and abetted a character assassination of John Kerry. Less realized is that they condoned a character assassination of Teresa Heinz Kerry. For years as the wife of John Heinz, she was routinely described as brilliant, beautiful and charming, which she is. After John Heinz died, she was respected enough for the work that she funded on green building that GHWB appointed her as a non-governmental delegate for the US at the Rio environmental conference. Shortly after that conference, she and Kerry joined with others to create Second Nature, which worked to get colleges to include sustainability as something to consider in many fields, including architecture.

When the G202 meeting was held in Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh was chosen because it was a very green city with a green convention center. Many articles then spoke of things I knew from This Moment on Earth, about how Teresa led by example and through her funding to start the movement that made Pittsburgh green. Almost nothing of this was said in 2004. But, in the midst of the G20 conference stories, I learned that she had done something far more impressive.

In the 1990s, Pittsburgh was a pretty depressed city, but a city that was home to several philanthropists. The philanthropies got to together to coordinate projects that ended up reviving the town, while cleaning it up. The person who made the first call - Teresa.

In 2004, the media created a caricature that was nothing like the softspoken, funny, warm person who some of us in the JK group were lucky enough to meet. The sad thing is that many of the Republicans who joined in on that were likely people who knew her very well for decades.

[era veteran]

51. I concur, I was worn out and bitter about that election,

now just bitter.
Fight the Big Lie and don't let up. they don't.

[No Elephants]

48. Unfortunately, what people hear first sticks with them, especially if it arouses their

emotions.

If I am not mistaken, a study showed a later correction serves only to reinforce the original, erroneous info.

I don't know if it aired on national TV or only in Mass/New England. However, when the 2004 convention was over, the sane members of Kerry's Swiftboat crew assembled to see him off as he embarked on his Presidential campaign. They hugged him very tightly. I found it very moving.

[karynnj]

52. I didn't see that - and I was watching the coverage near constantly

I am not surprised to hear that though.

Last December, I went with a group of JK DU people to Kerry's fundraiser. The former crew surprised Kerry and one of them spoke for the group. (I can't remember the name, but he was from Kankakee, Illinois.) We were sitting in a balcony and could see Kerry when they and Cleeland came in. He was clearly as emotional as they were that they were there. (It seemed like Teresa might have had something to do with them being there - the speaker spoke of her.) What was clear is that their is a very strong bond between them and Kerry.

One thing clear from their comments, was that it was not just Kerry, who the liars smeared, it was these 10 or so good men, whose own accounts were also called into question. It still stuns me that the media ignored the official Navy record, ignored the 10 guys actually on Kerry's boat when he got those medals, ignored that Nixon's people found that Kerry really was a war hero and a clean cut guy - and instead kept giving coverage to the SBVT even after they were caught in lie after lie - and shared a lawyer with B/C.

It is almost like the media rejecting a college transcript for unproven, 30 year old comments by people who said they were in classes with you - and knew that you did not deserve the grades on the transcript. Then having the media not even check to see if they even went to teh same school at the same time. That in essence is what happened - it was never Kerry's "story" vs theirs, but the official Navy story vs theirs.

[NYC Liberal]

53. You assume this will make the Republicans stop though. They won't.

And when they keep going on about it, this will make them look even crazier.

[Hestia]

2. Of course, capitulate to ignorami - he doesn't have to answer this at all.

[Poboy]

3. Of course it did. They made Sherrod pull over and quit, now Obama jumps to the right wing tune

as he so invariably has done as well.

[nonperson]

4. Unbelievable

If the tables were turned the Republicans wouldn't even address such bullshit as the birthers. Hell, Republicans don't address REAL issues like torture, domestic spying, unprovoked attacks on non-threatening sovereign nations, PROSTITUTES PLANTED IN THE WHITE HOUSE NEWS CORPS, among many other issues.

Republicans don't even address record deficits when they're in office. Deficits only count when the guy in the White House has a "D" following his name.

[clixtox]

8. Great, provocative post! Welcome to DU, please post often. N/T

[nonperson]

33. Thanks for the welcome.

Glad to be here.

[Shadowflash]

13. yup.

+100

[creeksneakers2]

45. I strongly agree

We are returning to the Bill Clinton strategy that allowed Republicans to make up any accusation, no matter how ridiculous, with no evidence at all, and required the president to endlessly try to prove his innocence to the GOP's unobtainable satisfaction. The media becomes obsessed with witch hunts. There are already demands for school records, baptismal certificates, and about 20 other things.

Obama has done some stupid things but this tops them all.

[freshwest]

55. Thank You! Welcome to DU! Don't let anyone forget any of that!

[slackmaster]

6. Good.

I love a good anticlimax that leaves hand-wringing conspiracy theorists with egg on their faces.

:kick:

[mwb970]

7. They won't buy it.

It's missing a signature.
It's the wrong size.
It's the wrong thickness.
"Hawaii" is misspelled.
It was created on an Apple II.
The time is wrong.
It's the wrong color.
The seal is at an angle.
There is a smudge over a crucial word.
The paper is of the wrong kind.
There are variations in the ink color across the document.

(Did I miss anything?)

So this is what he paid that mysterious $5 million for - a not-so-clever forgery!

[mwb970]

11. For example, here's a comment from a Freep.

To: null and void

Guess he finally paid off someone at health dept. and got the records fixed. The ink is dry and it looks good enough to pass. He’s nothing but a lying jerk. Always has been and always will be. Whatever he says or shows will be more lies. Nothing will save him from the NBC clause except a different name for the father but then he’d have to admit all the lies he’s told and he’s, uh, Ayers has written about the Kenyan legacy.

28 posted on 4/27/2011 9:23:04 AM by bgill (Kenyan Parliament - how could a man born in Kenya who is not even a native American become the POTUS)

Is there some one who believes that this guy's mind is going to be changed by today's release?

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2711164/posts if you have the stomach for it.

[COLGATE4]

15. Yeah - the doctor crossed out the box where he was supposed

to show what medical degree he had? Suspicious? I dare so!!!! :sarcasm:

[sweetloukillbot]

27. I was thinking they'll say...

That because Hawaii won't release the long-form this one must be a fake...

[mwb970]

39. Late Addition: His race is stated incorrectly.

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/04/orly_taitz_obamas_long-form_birth_certificate_should_say_negro_not_african.php?ref=fpblg

[freshwest]

56. How about 'human' race?

[Lone_Star_Dem]

9. What good will this do? It's a written document, correct?

Which means a person will have to be able to read for it to do any good. Everyone knows birthers cannot read. Duh!

This does explain the exodus from the meme by so many Republicans though. They were informed this was coming and they ran like the cowards they are.

[stlsaxman]

10. They just caved- again! this issue was NOT Obama's to prove!

did he feel sorry for the birthers looking stupid????

:eyes:

[former9thward]

12. I don't get it.

We have been told all this time that it was not available to anyone. That Hawaii would not release it even to the president. Was that false?

[Duval]

20. He has released it.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/barackobama/8477589/Barack-Obama-hits-back-at-birthers-and-releases-birth-certificate.html

Here is another copy/paste:The long-form document issued by the White House on Wednesday requires a special waiver to be granted by authorities in order to be released.

Now let's sit back and watch the Republicans find fault with this!
:eyes: :crazy:

[jakeXT]

50. Enough people complained and he had to react, now maybe someone could complain about war, empire

or the military budget...

[Shadowflash]

14. like someone else said...

....in another thread -

It won't matter because the dumbass people demanding to see it won't be able to read it anyway.

[Bragi]

16. This is absolutely the right thing to do

Sure, crazies won't be satisfied, but anyone who was suspicious about why Obama was refusing to release the original document will be satisfied.

I think there is nothing to lose by releasing this document, other than facing criticism that he should have done this long ago.

But with this release, the wind will now be totally gone from the birthers' sails.

[City Lights]

17. If he thinks it's a "non issue," he shouldn't be addressing it.

By addressing it, he's legitimizing it.

At least IMHO.

[LuckyLib]

38. Yep. Don't dignify this shit with actual proof. They don't care. It will always be an issue

to people too stupid or too calculating.

[FarLeftFist]

21. LETS ALL HAVE A GIANT NATION UNIFYING LAUGH AT THEIR EXPENSE!

[Broderick]

23. Yep

Dopes

[Bragi]

22. Obama was (pointlessly) losing this debate in public opinion

But a New York Times/CBS News poll, conducted April 15-20, says that while a majority of Americans (57 percent) believe that Obama was born in the U.S., 25 percent do not and another 18 percent said they didn’t know. (Story; Poll data).

http://www.pollwatchdaily.com/2011/04/21/a-plurality-of-republicans-and-a-quarter-of-all-americans-dont-believe-obama-was-born-in-the-u-s/#more-196

[florida08]

24. Breaking News

POTUS was acutally born in the US. He just gave Trump an edge..

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/donald-trump-claims-credit-obamas-releasing-birth-certificate/story?id=13465438">Donald Trump Claims Credit for Obama's Releasing Birth Certificate


Donald Trump claiming victory..and very proud of himself :argh:





http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/donald-trump-claims-credit-obamas-releasing-birth-certificate/story?id=13465438

[Duval]

25. Oh, good grief! "The Donald".

[nc4bo]

26. According to one...still not real as it lacks a "state seal"

OMFG in heaven.

[onpatrol98]

30. Yeah..."The Donald" will definitely milk this...

See, I'm a man that can deliver...
-------------------------------
I do wonder why a man that rich can't do something about his hair. With as much money as he has...well, I would have a new "do".
-------------------------------

Personally, I could care less if he runs...I think he'd be easy to beat. But, I'm glad he's continuing the conversation of...

1) Our jobs have moved overseas.
2) China, Mexico and everyone else makes our products

so...

3) How can we ever expect a robust economy with no manufacturing market?

...everything else that comes out of his mouth appears to be useless...and he was one of those tycoons making money overseas at the expense of the American people...but at some point, both democrats and republicans will stop licking the boots of rich politicians and start demanding answers instead of being lap dogs willing to rip apart any one on the "other" team while still being shafted by our own team...so sad

[Ian David]

28. ...

[Turborama]

44. Hahahaha!

Good one! :rofl:

[RoccoR5955]

31. Now let's see Panama John McCain reveal HIS birth certificate!

You all know that he wasn't born in the US, he was born in PANAMA!

Wait, in 2012, I will ask for Mitt's birth certificate... Even if it is from another planet!

[era veteran]

34. So was I

He was from the bad side of the canal though.
Canal Zone at the time.

[Warren Stupidity]

37. Caving into idiocy. What else is new?

[nolabear]

40. Though the very idea of a black man showing his papers is anathema, I'm glad he did.

I'd have been just as glad he didn't, but I think this will shove the crazies further onto the fringes and the MSM will back off. I think there may be a trend of the somewhat more reasonable among the Tea Party and GOP beginning to wake up and see what dogs they've been lying down with. Some of those Republican Town Halls are getting pretty nasty.

[Citizen Worker]

41. Obviously this document is a forgery, right? That's the next bogus argument. I can hear Joe and

Suzie Sixpack mouthing it from here.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

47. Actually, there's a good post at FR about this.

Open the Birth Certificate in Photoshop and See the Forgery

OMG! I see it! If you look closely, you can seethe watermark that says, “YOU PEOPLE ARE INSANE!”

[mwb970]

58. It's funny to read their tortured attempts to find something wrong with it.

They know it's fake - THAT much is obvious - but um, what's fake about it? They have no idea. How pathetic!

:eyes:

[mwb970]

59. The Freeps are hopeless.

Here's a sample:

To: AnonymousConservative

They are so arrogant that they didn’t think that they needed to bring in a someone who actually knows how to forge documents in to help them create this document. LOL. If they would have saved it to a jpg... illustrator or photoshop the programs would have forced them to flatten the image before saving.

Someone from the the Hawaian DOH should now be compelled to confirm that this document was copied by them and that it matches what they have on record. It is possible however that Obama has people in Hawaii, including the governor and the DOH who are willing to cover for him regardless of the consequences. Now that the document has been released I don’t know why Obama would not allow others to be given “certified” copies directly from the state of Hawaii.

60 posted on 4/27/2011 3:44:37 PM by fireman15 (Check your facts before making ignorant statements.)

That's right, "Check your facts before making ignorant statements," says the Freep who has just speculated that Obama "has people" in Hawaii (like Trump, apparently) who will "cover for him". Does that not qualify as an "ignorant statement"? Has he "checked his facts"? What a fool.

:eyes: