It’s not hard to make me crazy. All you have to do is promote one of the following Big Lies:
The Holocaust never happened. It’s just a way for Israel to justify its existence … 9-11 was an inside job … The world is only 6,000 years old and dinosaurs walked claw in hand with Fred Flintstone … The moon landing never happened, it was filmed on a Hollywood back lot … Global warming is a hoax perpetrated by scientists who don’t want to lose their grants … Barack Obama wasn’t really born in the U.S. He’s not an American citizen, so he’s not eligible to be president.
To the people reading this column who believe any or all of the above, I have a bridge you might want to buy. It spans some unbelievably cheap land in Florida that is also for sale.
To Donald Trump, who is playing the “Obama is not an American” card to launch his U.S. presidential bid, I say shame on you. I didn’t think you could sink much lower than Celebrity Apprentice, but apparently you’re just getting warmed up.
So what if every credible news organization has verified that Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, on Aug. 4, 1961. The “birther” conspiracy theorists, a group entirely composed of rednecks from south of the Mason-Dixon Line (and opportunistic Republicans like the Donald) refuse to believe it. They believe Obama was born in Kenya. Or held dual citizenship — British/Indonesian/Kenyan — whatever.
This even though Obama has produced a certificate of live birth from a Honolulu hospital, legal in every aspect, documenting his birth. Pshaw, say the birthers. If he was really born in Hawaii, he would be able to produce the long form — by implication, the real thing that can’t be forged. But there was no long form in Hawaii. Obama’s certificate is the only form, and it goes with a long string of other evidence: For example, birth notices in the local papers from the Hawaii Department of Health.
None of this cuts the mustard with the Donald, who has decided Obama needs to be fired. And while mainstream Republicans are slowly backing away from Trump and his ridiculous allegations, the latest poll has him No. 2 among Republican hopefuls, below Mitt Romney, but above Mike Huckabee and Sarah Palin.
And he’s on a roll, endorsed by Celebrity Apprentice contestant Gary Busey, who obviously doesn’t care the boss is pandering to a blatant lie perpetrated by a bunch of racists who will do anything to get that black guy out of the Oval Office.
Ignorance is alive and well and living on cable.
And it has a really bad comb-over.
