So many on the left have accused birthers of using the issue of Obama's birth certificate as a way to distract from the "real" issues. You hear that accusation against the right quite often from the left, by the way. Never mind their constant obsessive need to attack Sarah Palin, which has ceased to be a "real" issue because Palin is irrelevant to any important political issue in today's world. (What does Palin have to do with rising gas prices, three wars in the Middle East, etc.?)
I do really wish, though, that Obama had released his "real" birth certificate years ago. Today he said he thinks the question of his place of birth has been going on for more than two years. Why didn't he just stop it in its tracks by releasing the original certificate? Could it be people are accusing the wrong people of trying to keep the dialogue on trivial things like this instead of really important issues?
Birthers, who were considered by most to be laughable, obsessive conspiracy theorists, were clamoring for the long form of the birth certificate. Short-form birth certificates are not historical documents; my husband's is filled with false information, which is common for adoptees. It's true Trump nearly resurrected the whole issue with dozens of interviews on the subject, but the question was always there, hanging, considered by birthers to be insufficiently answered.
The indisputable truth is that the power to shut up the birthers was always in Obama's hands. Now his detractors can't dispute his birth certificate because it's the original long form (unless they go down the road of calling it a forgery).
One note to remember: This whole issue was started by Hillary Clinton, who asked for his birth certificate and questioned his place of birth when they were running against each other for the Democratic endorsement. He chose not to produce it then; so this begs the question, "Why now?"
I think Obama liked having the focus be on something so trivial and stupid as to distract from the real issues. Why else would he wait until now to produce the document that could have ended more than two years of din in America? He had to produce it now to stop Trump from talking and stop the new bandwagon he was driving through the whole of America on which loads of people were beginning to jump. He's trying to be re-elected. He's in campaign mode again, and he wants the focus to be on, well, how great he is, which he usually tries to illustrate by talking about how awful Republicans are.
The fact remains that the public was manipulated by Obama on this issue and the birthers played right into his hands. Nevertheless, I do believe it's time to move on (which I thought we had until Trump's appearance on The View), and hopefully see MUCH less of Donald Trump.
