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Ellen Belcher is the Dayton Daily News opinion pages editor. She writes about state government, education, the environment, higher education and all things Dayton.
Martin Gottlieb is an editorial writer and columnist for the Dayton Daily News opinion pages. He focuses on the political process itself and does such national issues as war, the economy, taxes and Social Security, as well as a hodge-podge of local and state issues.Home > Blogs > A Matter of Opinion > Archives > 2011 > April > 28
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Editorial: Obama gives foes a chance to back off
President Barack Obama has done the Republican Party a favor by releasing a longer version of his birth certificate.
For years now, the “birthers” — the people who believe, despite indisputable, long-documented facts, that the president wasn’t born in this country — have said this: If he was born here, why not just release his birth certificate?
In truth, the short-form birth certificate that he released in 2008 is Hawaii’s legal birth certificate, the form the state gives residents for getting a passport, driver’s license and such.
Of course, some people called the short form a forgery. And they claimed erroneously that only the long form is valid. In truth, under normal circumstances, the long form isn’t even released to the individual it names.
Keep in mind, too, that Barack Obama’s birth was reported in Hawaii newspapers.
The repetitive, insistent denial of reality caused the White House to say there was no point in providing more documents, that some people were just determined to deny reality.
In truth, some Democrats liked having the issue simmer. A lot of politicos in both parties believed it only hurt the Republicans, being such nonsense.
But apparently the president never imagined a potential presidential candidate, Donald Trump, coming along and running on the issue and showing well enough in the polls to get taken seriously by the media. That changed things.
Contrary to the president’s insistence, the press has certainly not given this issue more attention than the deficit and budget lately. But, shortly after delivering his speech on the debt, he found himself in a television network interview being asked about the birth issue. He reportedly found that absurd and decided to act.
Some say the president made his decision because polls show that a lot of people believe he was born outside the United States. But the people who tell the pollsters that and who care — who understand that the Constitution says a foreign-born person can’t be president — are mainly Republican voters who are not accessible to the president anyway.
Some might also speculate that the president wanted to give a boost to Mr. Trump, thus discomfiting the adult forces in the Republican Party who want another pick for president.
But maybe the president should be taken at his word when he says he simply saw the issue distracting from monumental issues.
“We do not have time for this kind of silliness,” he said.
Whatever his reasons, by releasing the document, he has given the Republicans — who were becoming more divided on the issue — an opportunity to unite. They can all say the issue is now over.
Those who have known all along that the foreign-birth claim was nonsense can patronize the others, saying their persistence got the issue resolved. Those who pushed the birth issue can claim they got what they wanted.
Mr. Trump says, “I’m very proud of myself. I feel like I’ve accomplished something very, very important.” That shows something about his sense of perspective.
What’s important here is this question: Are there any facts anymore? Or are people just going to believe whatever they want to believe, based on their politics?
President Obama has not done anything to clear up the facts. The facts were always clear. He’s just given some foes an excuse for backing away from a discredited position. Now it’s up to them.
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