When speaking at the White House, he was addressing some of the controversies surrounding his birth -- they included was he born in Hawaii, who was his father, is dual citizenship the same as "natural born" and more (and, no, they weren't all addressed). If he were worried about the rumor -- now over three years old though he calimed Wednesday that it was only two-to-two-and-a-half years old, he could have addressed it sooner. What he was worried about was how it was effecting him.
With Barack, it is forever about Barack. Which is why in the same speech Wednesday he called for civility and an end to villification before apparently referring to Donald Trump as a carnival barker (video here at White House website) following up on Saturday with an elaborately staged 'comic' attack on Donald Trump and his abilities and work demonstrating yet again that, with Barack, it's always call for civility and then lash out.
And the media will applaud it like good little lap dogs. They'll pretend that the president of the United States attacking an American citizen with prepared remarks and an audio-visual presentation is just the sort of thing the Founding Fathers had in mind.
The media's always been eager to reach inside Barack's panties and stroke away but the percentage of the public still cheering the media's efforts at whoring continues to dwindle.
And that's also in part why Barack gave his little Wednesday here-is-my-documentation presentation. It's also, in full, why his move was idiotic.
Barack should have released additional documents some time ago. By waiting to respond until the issue was raised by Donald Trump, Barack embarrassed himself and further cemented a growing public image of weakness.
The story (reduced solely to whether or not Barack was born in Hawaii by the press) refused to die. It gathered steam every week. And Barack decided he was above it all and could ignore it.
We disagreed with that strategy (and over a year ago, Dona called for the document to be released to end the issue); however, it was the strategy the White House thought best.
What changed?
Judging by Barack's bitchy reaction over the last days: Donald Trump.
What Barack ignored in 2008, in 2009, in 2010 and in the early months of 2011 suddenly had to be addressed?
Barack gave away his power and fed into an image of weakness.
The economy just gets worse. Neil Irwin (Washington Post) reported, "The 1.8 percent pace of increase in gross domestic product in the first quarter, according to a Commerce Department report Thursday, is down from a 3.1 percent gain in the final months of 2010." In other words, there is no steady climb for the economy. Unemployment is far worse than most want to admit and people are hurting -- a fact Barack insisted upon making in his Wednesday speech . . . before jetting off to not one but three million dollar fund raisers.
The economy just gets worse but Barack doesn't break a sweat. Exccept on the golf course where he's now logged more time than George W. Bush did in his first term.
The economy just gets worse and he's whining that he can't "go through Central Park and watch folks passing by ... spend the day watching people -- I miss that."
That's what he's whining about.
He has no idea how weak he sounds every day of the week.
And independents began bailing when he began bowing to foreign leaders. Happens once and the White House lies that Barack wasn't bowing? Some independents will give him the benefit of the doubt. Then Barack goes to Japan . . .
And bows again.
The president of the United States is supposed to work for the American people and they bow and scrape before no one. (Unlike the American media.)
Repeatedly, Barack Obama is caught making mistakes that no president should -- mistakes that if made by others would be big news. And the media coddles him and babies him and the American people see that as well.
Along comes Donald Trump who people see as rich and successful and he and Barack knock heads. Barack does what Donald demands and the White House couldn't see that it would make Barack -- a lousy attorney who couldn't even make junior partner at a piddly, little law firm -- look weak?
The talk about the birth certificate and where was Barack born?
It never benefited Barack.
There are people who do not believe he was born here.
There are people who believe that 9-11 was an inside job and George W.Bush helped carry it out.
Those 9-11 rumors? They didn't help Bush. They did help erode confidence in him. They did create a murky layer of distrust around him.
It's the same thing with Barack's birth. All those rushing to defend Barack? They just kept the issue alive and ensured that everyone would hear about it, that everyone would know it. They helped ensure that the distrust would breed.
His defenders did more harm than good. Not only did they keep it alive, but they were repeatedly wrong which made them appear to be liars.
Take Bob Somerby who can't stop cursing at his site these days.
Friday, Somerby was calling the media out for "gross incompentence" and had a long list of culprits. But somehow, he forgot to add his own name to the list.
"As things turned out," Somerby insisted, "Smith and Tau were right--Obama had to get a special legal ruling to let him release the 'long form' document. But as late as Monday night, CNN still didn't seem to understand this, even as the channel launched a special two-night attempt to clarify this general topic."
You know who else didn't understand it? Bob Somerby.
A legal ruling comes from a judicial body -- and only from a judicial body. A legal ruling cannot be issued by an executive body. That's not how our government works. Strange that Bob Somerby couldn't grasp that.
Here's Lynne Sweet (Chicago Sun Times) reporting the issue:
Last Friday, Obama signed a short letter to Hawaii Director of Health Loretta Fuddy, asking for two certified copies of "my original certificate of live birth."
Obama's private attorney, Judith Corley, that day sent her letter to Fuddy asking, on Obama's behalf, for the health department to waive its long-standing policy not to release the "long-form" certificate.
On Monday, Fuddy said in a letter to Obama she would "make an exception" to policy in part to stop the "numerous inquiries" that had flooded her department, enough to be "disruptive" to her operation and "strain" state resources.
According to Sweet's account, the official made a decision that was within her job duties to make. This is not a legal ruling. Members of the executive branch do not make legal rulings. Even attorneys for the executive branch do not make rulings, they offer legal opinions. It's not a minor point.
It's also not a minor point that the account Sweet (and a few others) repeat is being questioned by reporters in Hawaii. Someone might want to verify what exactly took place because copies of the long form certificate only require the letters Barack wrote (the additional letter was required only because Barack was not picking it up in person himself or having it mailed to him).
But Somerby inflates it to a legal ruling.He also accepts a false report that Barack was prevented "by law" from releasing the certificate. If that were true, the Director of Health would not have the power to waive it. If it was prevented "by law" the legislative branch would have to repeal the law or vote an exception. If a judge decided that, it would destroy the alleged law for all because you can't have a judge make a one-person only ruling. (And, if it didn't, that would invite a class-action lawsuit -- and class-action law suits against governmental bodies were not effected by last week's Supreme Court decision.)
We're not telling Bob Somerby to stop pursuing the topic. We're not supporting Barack in 2012 (nor did we in 2008). We're thrilled that all of his helpers are so eager to ensure that doubts float in the public's mind about Barack.
If you're thinking fact checking is the answer, you don't know what you're doing. But we're okay with that because things like this Tell Me More (NPR) roundtable are no help to Barack. So keep bringing up those issues and ensuring the the public unease grows.
You've spent months denying the claims that Barack was born outside the US and that worked out so very well, right?
Nope. As Stephanie Condon (CBS News) reported April 11th, "A quarter of all Americans incorrectly think President Obama was not born in the United States, according to a new CBS News/ New York Times poll."
The problem with a cypher will always be that people fill in what they see with their own eyes. And once they do, you can't alter the image, it's frozen in time.