You might have figured that the immediate reaction from the birthers to today's announcement would have been a challenge to the document being released. After all, couldn't this just be another forgery? But interestingly, they seem to have taken it at face value. That's not to say they think it settles the question of Barack Obama's legitimacy. As far as they're concerned, he may have been born here, but he's still no American:
Phil Berg, who filed one of the original birther lawsuits, now believes that Obama was adopted by his Indonesian father and lost his U.S. citizenship:"I think the issue is that he's not any more natural born. I don't care if he releases his birth certificate or whatever," said Berg. "Let's see his records coming back through immigration"Orly Taitz, once called 'Queen of the birthers' and who was responsible for a number of lawsuits, is verifying the document's authenticity and now believes that the President is using a false social security number.
As Mr. Serwer says, birtherism "was and is about the inability to accept the legitimacy of a black man in the White House." There are plenty of Republicans who think ACORN stole the election for Obama, but birtherism isn't about what he did, it's about who he is: at bottom, just not "one of us."
These people are crazy, of course, but we've always had crazy people, and we always will. What's so scandalous about this whole affair is the way they were legitimized and accommodated by Republican leaders who have become so terrified of their base that there is almost no right-wing idea or belief, no matter how vile or inane, they'll stand up to.
And wouldn't you hate to be this guy right now:
It comes out on May 17 -- reserve your copy now!
