For the GOP's sake, birtherism has to die

By Matt Mackowiak

What should go without saying must be said: With this week's release of President Obama's birth certificate, I hope - for the sake of my fellow Republicans - that a death certificate can be issued for this topic.

Claims that Obama was not born in the United States have been unquestionably discredited not only by numerous media outlets, but by people who strongly disagree with the president, including conservative author Ann Coulter and Fox News host Bill O'Reilly. The state of Hawaii has affirmed that he was indeed born in a Honolulu hospital, and two different Hawaii newspapers published announcements of his birth in 1961. In 2008, Obama released his "certificate of live birth" from the state of Hawaii, and now he has produced his long-form birth certificate.

Set aside every fact or argument you have ever heard about this issue and consider the following: If there were any shred of evidence that Obama is not a U.S. citizen, wouldn't his former opponent Hillary Clinton's campaign (or John McCain's) have unearthed it and used it? Rumors are one thing, but Clinton's research staff looked into this and found nothing.

The so-called birthers deserve the same level of public scorn as those who believe Lyndon Johnson organized John F. Kennedy's assassination, that George W. Bush allowed 9/11 to happen, that Franklin D. Roosevelt chose not to prevent Pearl Harbor, or that rapper Tupac Shakur is still alive.

The conspiracy theorists evidently hope to prove Obama is constitutionally ineligible to serve as president (and they apparently haven't considered the frightening next step: President Biden). But until Wednesday, the president made little effort to put the matter to rest, which should have birthers wondering: Why? Perhaps the White House saw a political advantage in letting its opponents appear unserious and extreme.

All serious Republicans should completely and publicly disavow birtherism, and disown the birthers themselves, for one reason apart from the issue's lack of merit: Any time spent discussing it is time not spent discussing high gas prices, exploding deficits and debt, the 20 million Americans who are either out of work or have stopped looking for it, and the administration's foreign-policy failures.