Covering Up The Cover-Up
The recent NY Times poll and the recent legislation in Arizona have kicked the 'birther' question back into the news, so let's watch how the heirs of Woodward and Bernstein at the Times tackle this:
President Obama was born in Hawaii on Aug. 4, 1961. A scanned image of his birth certificate released during the 2008 presidential campaign says he was, and Hawaii’s health director and its registrar of vital statistics have confirmed it.
Despite all that, a substantial number of Americans are not convinced.
And away we go, with twenty-one paragraphs that never mention or attempt to illuminate the central issue vexing so many - there is a much more complete record of the circumstances of Obama's birth maintained in at the Hawaii Dept. of Health; they will not release that file to the general public, but will happily release it to a citizen with a "direct and tangible interest in the record", such as President Obama himself.
So why won't Obama just release the darn file? Is is possible that the most transparent Administration in history is fanning this particular partisan fire for their own ends? Why don't they end it, or at least make a good-faith attempt to do so?
And since I am asking silly questions, is it possible that the NY Times reporters are unaware that a more complete record exists and is being kept under wraps by Obama? Why don't they even want to see those records for themselves? [An example of the old-style Hawaiian birth certificate is here].
I have this old-fashioned notion that reporters like to ask the tough questions and probe for the truth behind the facade. As if! Now the earnest Timesman are probably worried about access for their next White House interview and are afraid of what Gibbs might Tweet about them.
Oh, well - our watchdog press did a great job on Joe the Plumber. They showed no fear their, and boldly spoke truth to the powerless.
MY QUESTION FOR BEN SMITH OF THE POLITICO:
Ben Smith writes this:
I've been avoiding an immigration critic's unsupported claim about Senator Lindsey Graham's sexuality for the usual reason that reporters shouldn't go around repeating such things for fear of abetting a smear campaign. That was the reason many were slow to cover rumors that Barack Obama was a Muslim.
The Muslim smear (and its birth-certificate heir), however, grew so widespread that the another principle, that sunlight is the best disinfectant, kicked in. In the contemporary media age, whispers spread fast.
Hmm. Would it be a smear to say that there is a more complete record of Obama's birth which Obama could make public if he so chose? Would Mr. Smith like to bring a bit of sunlight to the question of why the White House has not requested and disseminated those records? Or should we all just blithely accept the assurances of some Hawaiian state official - is that how the big time journos roll these days?
WELL SAID: The AllahPundit offered this incomplete taxonomy of birthers and their fellow travelers:
What I will say in the Birthers’ semi-defense is that I think there are actually two camps inside the movement. One is the group that simply wants Obama out of office as soon as possible and has latched onto this thin, exceedingly lame reed as a way of making it happen. The other is a group that’s grown curious about the fact that … no official enforcement mechanism for the Constitution’s natural-born requirement seems to exist, even though it’s a baseline requisite for the presidency.
A commenter provides this supplement:
I would also posit that there are THREE “camps” of thought that get lumped into the “birther” category.
The first two are as [AllahPundit] stated.
The third is where I would put myself – a person:
1) who wonders why it is so difficult for Obama to provide an actual Birth Certificate; and
2) who sees a connection between the lack of details and secrecy regarding Obama’s birth and the lack of details and secrecy about so much else of Obama’s life – his connections to Ayers, his grades in college, the papers he published, the lectures he taught, etc.
I don’t think Obama was born in Kenya or any other place other than Hawaii.
But I find it outrageous and ridiculous that we know more about Sarah Palin and Joe the Plumber than we know about Obama.
Just so. But our Don't Ask, Don't Tell media would rather demonstrate their high-mindedness by ridiculing anyone who asks about Obama's birth. And please don't get me started on their shifting stories on Bill Ayers and the whiz-bang media job there. (David Remnick described Obama's characterization of his relationship with Ayers as "disingenuous" in "The Bridge", his new entrant in the Obama hagiography sweepstakes; he also took the opposite side of Team Obama and the Times in yet another aspect of the Obama/Ayers cover-up. Out watchdog press is acquiver!).
I can stop anytime. Really!
