Filed under: News, President Obama, Race and Civil Rights
On Wednesday, President Barack Obama released his long form birth certificate in order to lay the "controversy" to rest that he isn't an American citizen.
Later that day, the President and First Lady Michelle Obama flew to Chicago and sat down with Oprah, who wanted to know why the President waited so long:
"Why did you wait so long, though? When it first came up, were you thinking, 'I hope I was born here?'"
Amid laughter from the audience and Mrs. Obama yelling, "He was born here!" the President replied he needed to get permission from the state of Hawaii to make the document public.
As for why he decided to release the document at all, President Obama -- echoing his press conference -- said that when he and fellow legislators were dealing with major issues such as the budget deficit a few weeks ago, seeing only the sensationalized Birther issue in the news made him decide it was time to meet the controversy head on:
"We are living in a very serious time, and America has huge potential and opportunity to seize the 21st century.
"We are only going to get there, though, if we have a serious conversation about the things that matter to people, jobs, gas prices, how do we bring down the deficit, how do we deal with all the changes that are going on in the world -- and we can't be distracted by sideshows, and as I said in my press conference, carnival barkers who are going around trying to get attention."
When the Birther Movement began rearing its ugly head about two years ago, I agreed with the school of thought that Obma shouldn't give in to these ridiculously racist individuals who wanted to focus on everything but what mattered.
Watching many in the public actually being swayed by this rhetoric, though, started to change my mind. According to a CBS poll taken last week, 45 percent of Republicans as well as 45 percent of Tea Partiers believe that the President was not born in the United States.
What started out as a laughable fringe group began dictating how and what the public thought.
And it wasn't funny anymore.
While many are still arguing that the President shouldn't have given in to these crack pot's claims, I think releasing the document took the wind out of the Birther's wings and chatting with Oprah afterward was the perfect nail in the coffin.
Good work, Mr. President.
Oprah's show with Obama and the First Lady will air on May 2nd, but you can watch the preview here:
