Another Republican Candidate Falls For the Birther Myth
Despite the fact that it’s been wholly discredited on many occasions, there seem to be far too many Republican politicians treating the myths about the President’s citizenship as if they are a serious issue. The latest being former Congressman, and current candidate, Steve Pearce:
WOMAN: What is your position on Barack Obama, if he is in fact a Kenyan-born Indonesian Muslim?
PEARCE: Sure, you bet. Let’s take it backwards first. My position is that Barack Obama raised the most significant questions himself. He said, after he came to the U.S., that he traveled to Pakistan. Now at the point that he traveled to Pakistan it was not legal to go there with a U.S. passport. And so he, himself, raises the greatest questions. I think that those questions need to be asked. Now, then, my question would be to you all at what importance, what importance? You can typically fight two or three major battles in a year, major, and for me, if we don’t get our economy going, nothing else works.
As David Weigel points out, the truth is that there never was a travel ban in place against Pakistan during the time that Barack Obama traveled there as a young 20-something. So, the suggestion that he “must have” traveled there on a foreign passport is a blatant falsehood.
The fact that it’s being raised by a former Congressman is probably what’s most troublesome about this.
The Birthers aren’t even subtle about their Islamophobia. It’s one thing if they are afraid he’s foreign born, but they are mostly afraid that he’s a foreign born secret Muslim, and they speak as if being a Muslim would be his biggest crime.
Ah those pesky lost Birth Certificates, and the lengths you have to go to obscure your whole past……the bother of it all! Besides, if you ARE the ONE all the masses have been waiting for, why do the rules and the Constitutions of the peasants matter? See, it is now settled! We can now move on to November and begin weeding.