The Birthers against Obama: The Controversy That Will Not Die

Jerome Corsi’s new book will not appear until May 17, 2011, but has already risen to the top of the list of most popular titles at Amazon.com, where users could reserve their copies starting last week. Its title, however, raises a question whose answer should no longer be in doubt in the minds of Americans: Where is the birth certificate — the record of President Obama’s ineligibility?

This is not Corsi’s first defamatory or fabricated work. In 2004, he co-authored “Unfit for Command,” a book bursting with false allegations about the military career of John Kerry, who then aspired to the presidency. And here he does it again by exploiting a controversy about Barack Obama’s origins that will not die.

Where is the 44th president’s birth certificate? It is the favorite question of “birthers,” the name given to those who claim that Barack Obama was not born in the United States, which would prohibit him from being in the White House. George Stephanopoulos, host of Good Morning America, responded last Wednesday by showing the famous document to Minnesota Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann, a potential candidate for the White House, who had previously flirted with the birther idea.

“That’s what should settle it,” she finally said, on seeing Barack Obama’s birth certificate, which had already been made public by the former Illinois senator during his 2008 presidential campaign, as well as by FactCheck.org.

But there is reason to believe that no document will settle this issue. More than two years after Barack Obama’s arrival in the White House, a plurality of Republicans (45 percent) still believe that he was born abroad, according to a New York Times/CBS News poll published Friday. Several days before, another barometer indicated that this opinion was shared by 51 percent of Republicans in Iowa, where the first caucuses of the 2012 presidential election will occur.

The Birther Bills

These results partly explain Donald Trump’s rise in the polls. He is another potential presidential candidate who recently reignited the controversy surrounding Barack Obama’s birthplace. They also explain the proliferation — in several conservative states — of so-called birther bills, bills that seek to require presidential candidates to prove that they were born in the United States.

Arizona Republican Gov. Jan Brewer caused some surprise last week by vetoing such a measure. But Oklahoma could become the first state to enact a law inspired by birthers this week.

How can one explain this refusal to recognize that Barack Obama was indeed born in Honolulu, Hawaii, as indicated on his birth certificate? Several supporters of Barack Obama see nothing more than racism. For his part, Larry Sabato, a well-known American political scientist, prefers to speak of a “hard-line opposition” that is hiding behind the conspiracy theory.*

“It is an attempt by those who are still shocked by the election of Obama to deny the legitimacy of what he did without having to discuss the details of his policies. It is a product of the intense polarization that we see in American politics and culture,” he told La Presse.

Doublespeak

The University of Virginia political scientist notes that several Republican leaders have spoken ambiguously on the controversy so as not to alienate part of their electorate. But the eventual winner of the Republican nomination for the 2012 presidential election cannot afford to maintain such a vague policy, he said.

“To be taken seriously, they should announce unequivocally their belief that Barack Obama was born in Hawaii,” he said.*

Mitt Romney and Tim Pawlenty are among the potential Republican candidates who have already passed this test. By contrast, Sarah Palin has adopted the doublespeak headliners of some Republicans. While vowing not to doubt the birthplace of Barack Obama, she recently welcomed Donald Trump’s decision to hire investigators to find out “why President Obama would have spent $2 million not to show his birth certificate.”

Barack Obama has never spent this much money for such a purpose, but this myth — dear to birthers — will probably end up in Jerome Corsi’s new book.

*Editor’s Note: This quotation, while accurately translated, could not be verified.