Andrew Sullivan: Back To Square One [Andrew Sullivan, Semi-Birther?]

The Atlantic ^ | July 29, 2009 | Andrew Sullivan

[dragonblustar]

At least most of us aren’t gargling someone’s nuts, like andy.

Yeah, it's hard to tell whether Andy meant that to be insulting or not. I always assumed gay men liked nuts.

Like Anderson Coopers comments on tea bagging.

[Baladas]

This birther thing is getting to them, they are becoming increasingly vicious. Heh.

[guitarplayer1953]

The only thing that Bo has not done is come out and say we have shown you the birth paper and if you do not believe it then you are a racist and as President I will not be forced into racial politics. That is all he has to do is play the race card and this will all go away, because being called a racist is one of the worst thing in the USA today next to being a pedophile.

[TommyDale]

"I, Dr. Chiyome Fukino, director of the Hawaii State Department of Health, have seen the original vital records maintained on file by the Hawaii State Department of Health verifying Barack Hussein Obama was born in Hawaii and is a natural-born American citizen."

So Dr. Chiyome Fukina is not only the Director of the Hawaii State Department of Health, but is also an expert on the issue of what the Constitution defines as a "Natural Born Citizen". Sounds like Dr. Fukina is a paid judge and jury, serving Obama.

[DejaJude]

Then you must be nuts too, because all the so called "birthers" want is to see the original certificate as well,

That's not all I want. I want to see all the docs he has sealed. I want the college records, passport info, etc., etc. I want to see who this man really is.

[El Gato]

My suspicion is that he is talking about the COLB, not the original long form birth certificate, as that was the only document in question in 2008.

There is no such document on record. COLBs are only created when someone requests one. That said, they are generated from a database, and perhaps what she is talking about is the electronic "virtual" COLB, plus whatever other "data fields" they keep in the database.

I personally don't think she saw a Birth Certificate, or she'd have said that. OTOH, she may have seen a birth certificate that conflicts with what is on the COLB, but still has Obummer born in Hawaii. It's also possible that it doesn't conflict at all, but shows that it was filed as a "home birth" or other filing that does not reflect birth in a hospital, which otherwise would have filled the thing out for the parent's, doctor's, and hospital registrar's signatures.

[Goreknowshowtocheat]

Exactly...Andrew has joined us.

[ckilmer]

Um, Andrew? If you want to see the original record, you ARE a birther. That is the primary birther demand.

If this is the signature of a birther then the libs are in deep doo doo.

[SteveH]

Thanks. I still think she’d be in a heap of trouble if she’d said other than what she did. I think it’s still an open question whether she’s only speaking of the COLB though, right?

She could have remained silent and let nature take its course. In fact, however, she chose to go public on her opinion, twice, both at times that were highly favorable to Obama given that both of her statements were regarded as favorable towards the POV that Obama was born in Hawaii and is elegible for the office of the US presidency, etc. As to whether she is speaking about the COLB (meaning certification versus certificate) I would personally imagine that she at least intended to convey that she looked at the original long form certificate. OTOH, since IMHO there is some question that she may be politically biased and that her interpretation or action may be swayed by such bias, I personally consider it defensible to reserve judgment on virtually everything she is claiming in her statements. There is really no substitute for the long form for this type of situation-- for example, IMHO a verified though partially redacted long form would have obviously more credibility than a fake short form posted on the internet by an Obama-friendly biased source. Certainly her statement is open to a liberal (no pun intended) though IMHO unjustified interpretation that heavily favors Obama's constitutional elegibility.

[rightey1]

very interesting