OK, Can We PLEASE Move Onto The Important Things Now?

Here is Barack Obama's birth certificate.

There are a LOT of failings of our current President that point to his lack of fitness for the job. His place of birth has never been one of them. The 'Birther' issue has distracted us from highlighting the real problems before this nation. It has given attention to a malignant fringe strata in our body politic, and in so doing has handed our opponents an issue with which to poison Independents against those of us who argue for fiscal sanity and limited government. Because of 'Birthers', our ability to convince the critical middle to align with our point of view is now that that much harder.

The 'Birthers' should, if they have any honor - and any understanding of politics beyond a high-school civics class level - admit they were wrong and then STFU. But if I know them, they won't.

UPDATE: Well, that didn't take long.

Ron Paul Supporters Aren't Born.

They Are Pooped Out By A Giant, Flightless Pig-Duck. Really.

It's a conspiracy, I tell you!!!

Born Free.

I'm not a big fan of Obama-worshipping Lefties, but if this guy does what he says, maybe it will shut-up the Birther idiots. But then again, knowing the tin-foil hat paranoia that infuses most of Birthers I know, it probably won't.

While I do not like Barack Obama as President, and I think he is (and will be) a disaster for this country, I've seen nothing definitive that shows he does not met the Constitutional qualifications for the office. And we - that is, the Citizens of this nation - elected him.

Respect the office, not the man (or, someday, woman).

Napolitano To The Left; Napolitano To The Right.

We know Janet "It's Constitutional For Us To Touch Your Junk" Napolitano is a nutter on the Left. No news there. But now my suspicions about Fox News' Judge Andrew Napolitano being a nutter on the Right have been confirmed. And I mean, confirmed at the Alex Jones nutter level.

Judge, if you're going to pontificate on things you don't understand, read an 'effing engineering report first - written by, y'know, people who actually understand how buildings stand up (and fall down). And ask yourself - how many architects and engineers buy into the twaddle of 9/11 "Truth" conspiracy theories?

Birthwrong.

First, let me say I do not support the "birhter" claims that Obama was born outside of the United States. I've seen copies of his birth certificate from third-party sources I find reliable, and his birth announcement in the Hawaii paper. Like him or not as President, he appears qualified in that respect for the Office.

I have, however, been critical of Obama's aloof handling of this issue, and of Team Hopenchange's use of it as a handy stereotyping weapon against anyone who disagrees with them. But by letting so fundamental a question survive, and percolate just below the surface, they have been playing with fire. And according to Professor William Jacobson, it is Team Hopenchange that is getting burned by it - not Tea Partiers or the GOP.

I am quite stunned by the numbers, actually. Eight percent of Democrats, yes, Democrats, believe Obama was "definitely born in another country", and 28 percent are unsure one way or the other; so this myth has traction across the political spectrum, not just among some right-wing fringe as The Left / Mainstream Media claim.

Obama could politically nip this in the bud by, well, just releasing his birth certificate. But political calculation doesn't seem to enter into the equation for Team Hopenchhange - this is seen, like everything else Obama, as part of an epic ideological struggle for "transformative change". Giving in somehow hurts the struggle. In the end, the only change this will bring about is a lasting distrust, more fodder for the Alex Jones/Infowars.com tinfoil hat crowd, and yet another reason to go out and vote against "hope and change" in November.

Be done with it, Barry. Just release the damn thing.

Saturday Morning Required Reading.

Walter Russell Mead hits another one out of the park:

"Rule to live by, folks: when your theory of how the world works starts sounding like The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, it’s time to recheck those assumptions."

Indeed.