Thread: SATIRE- After TMZ releases video of Obama’s birth certificate, birthers admit they go

• Maddocks: After TMZ releases video of Obama’s birth certificate, birthers admit they got it wrong

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  Philip Maddocks
  
  
  
  
• By Philip Maddocks
  Posted Sep. 19, 2014 @ 10:08 am
  
  NATICK
  The birther movement offered a rare apology this week after TMZ, a celebrity gossip website, made public a video of Mr. Obama’s long form birth certificate.
  
  In a lengthy letter to its supporters, the movement tried to explain its sudden about-face following the new video proof, admitting that it had mishandled claims that President Obama wasn’t born in this country and saying that it deeply regretted acting before it had gathered all the evidence.
  
  "Our action has led the public to question our sincerity, and though we have pursued this ludicrous line of argument for years, and with a zeal that borders on extremism, it appears we may have been a bit hasty in questioning the president’s birthplace," the birther movement said in its letter to the nearly 25 percent of Americans and 45 percent of Republicans who had said that they believed Mr. Obama was born in another country.
  
  "Though we were working with the best evidence available to us at the time, that apparently isn’t good enough."
  
  "We take full responsibility for our ill-informed decision and for ensuring that our actions in the future properly reflect our values," the movement wrote. "We didn’t get it right. We have to do better. And we will."
  
  Members of the birther movement said they had not seen the video of the president’s birth certificate before TMZ released it this week.
  
  "We assumed there was a video, we asked for a video, but we were never granted that opportunity," birther members told CBS News on Thursday. Instead, they said, they were only offered the president’s guarantee, copies of his short form and long form birth certificates, and assurances from the state of Hawaii that its records confirm the president was born there.
  
  "We just didn’t have the whole story until we saw that video," the members said.
  
  The reversal by the birthers was stunning in its earnestness and uncharacteristic clarity. The group noted in its letter that it had lost sight of not only the seriousness of its claims, but also the movement’s role "as a leader in the political world."
  
  "Because we are seen as a role model for aspiring fringe candidates, we are held to a higher standard than other conspiratorial outfits, and we expect that. We embrace that," the members wrote in their letter.
  
  The birthers initially defended their claims that the president’s birthplace is in question by citing the numerous reputable lawmakers and businessmen who shared their skepticism, including Michele Bachmann, a Republican congresswoman from Minnesota, Donald Trump, the wealthy developer and showman, a former speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, Mike Huckabee, a former governor of Arkansas, and the multibillionaire Koch brothers, Charles and David, who are major donors to conservative political causes.
  
  

  False accusations about Mr. Obama’s being born abroad — and the implication that his election was thus invalid — have percolated on the Internet and among conspiracy theorists since the early days of his presidential campaign, when aides distributed a shorter version of the birth certificate that is normally given out by officials in Hawaii.

  
  And even after the president released his long-form birth certificate he didn’t receive much love or even a hint of an apology from the birthers.
  
  

  But when more graphic footage of Mr. Obama’s birth certificate emerged this week, those stoking the birthplace controversy seemed to feel compelled to abruptly change their course.

  
  But in its haste to dramatically right what they now see as an inappropriate response to Mr. Obama’s assurances he was born in the United States, the birthers now leave themselves open to complaints of inconsistency.

  
  Why did Mr. Obama face years of skepticism from the group when Mr. Trump, for instance, seemed to pay almost no price when, during his most recent short-lived presidential campaign, he presented a document that turned out not to be an official birth certificate as he sought to demonstrate that, unlike the president, he was able to prove his own U.S. citizenship.

  
  "Let me be the first to say that the birthers have a lot to answer for, but I am really proud that I have been able to bring those problems to the fore," Mr. Trump said while giving a phone interview from his private jet, recently dubbed Citizen One.

  
  "But really," he said, "I think too much is being made of this. Trust me when I say the birthers are no different than society at large."

  
  Philip Maddocks writes a weekly satirical column. He can be reached at
  
  pmaddocks@wickedlocal.com.
  
  http://framingham.wickedlocal.com/ar.../12456/OPINION