Obama Eligibility Tops AOL News

Internet reports mock 'Birthers' who want constitutional proof

OBAMA WATCH CENTRAL
Posted: March 01, 2009 6:04 pm Eastern
By Drew Zahn
© 2009 WorldNetDaily

Internet giant America Online headlined its daily news coverage today with a story and polls covering the "Birthers," a group of people it describes as "fringe conservatives convinced that Barack Obama is ineligible to be president because of supposed questions surrounding his birth status."

The AOL coverage quotes an extensive Politico article and cites WorldNetDaily as the source for news on the United States Justice Foundation's  most recent attempt to demand Obama give legal evidence of his constitutional eligibility to serve as president.

Politico's coverage of the questions that still linger over Obama's birth, however, is far from kind.

"Viewed as irrelevant by the White House, and as embarrassing by much of the Republican Party," writes Politico blogger Ben Smith, "the subculture still thrives from the conservative website WorldNetDaily, which claims that some 300,000 people have signed a petition demanding more information on Obama's birth."

Smith then states unequivocally that there is no basis for questioning Obama's eligibility, that Obama "was in fact born in Honolulu in 1961" and that "long-settled law" resolves his dual citizenship at birth, another fount of legal questions surrounding the sitting president's eligibility to serve in the Oval Office. Smith cites Hawaii officials who have testified that there do exist records – though unreleased to the public or the courts – verifying Obama's American birth.

To add fuel to his argument, Smith then quotes from several sources, including radio host Michael Medved, to compile a list of descriptions for those he brands as conspiracy theorists, including the following: embarrassing, destructive, crazy, nutburger, demagogue, money-hungry, exploitative, irresponsible, filthy conservative imposters, the worst enemy of the conservative movement, weird, demented, sick, troubled and not suitable for civilized company.

Politico quotes David Emery, an urban legends writer for About.com, who suggests those that want to see proof of Obama's eligibility are fueled by revulsion and rage.

"Thanks to the relentless agitation of the conspiracy theorists and the sheer quantity of hypothetical scenarios and legal arguments floating around," Emery states, "they've clearly succeeded in planting unreasonable doubts in reasonable people's minds."

As WND has reported on several occasions, however, none of the so-called "evidence" of Obama's constitutional eligibility produced thus far is beyond reasonable doubt nor as iron-clad as simply producing an authentic birth certificate, something everyday Americans are required to do regularly, but the president still refuses to do.

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