Regarding the Birth Certificate

All this talk about the birth certificate is so frustrating to me.

Listen, everyone who is mad that Obama "had" to show his birth certificate:

You know how you think it's all those right wing talk radio nuts who wanted him to show it? That they wouldn't shut up about it? How the President, in his speech, said people were talking about it instead of real issues?

I listen to a lot of right-wing talk radio.

No one, not one single radio talk show host who I've listened to in the past two years was an advocate of the birther theory. None of them. Not Michael Medved, not Hugh Hewitt, not Larry Elder. Not even--believe it or not--Rush Limbaugh. Not even--prepare to gasp--Glenn Beck. I barely even listen to Beck, but I heard his show the day before Obama surprised everyone with his birth certificate, and he was doing an extended segment making fun of people who believed that Obama was born somewhere other than Hawaii. I believe he (or someone else on the show) used the words, "I have enough documentation that I am more sure Obama was born in the United States than anyone here in this room with me."

Are there people (like Trump) who doubted, despite the evidence?

Sure. Just like there are people on the left who think, every single year, that we will suffer global environmental disaster in the next ten years. They've been saying that since I was in high school, and they're still saying it today.

That doesn't mean it's what most on the left think. It doesn't mean it's what the left wing pundits are saying.

And it certainly would be ridiculous to point at those people and say, "This is what everyone on the left thinks."

Obama had already proved he was born in the U.S. He didn't need to prove it more.

And even if he really, really felt the need to prove it, he could have had some undersecretary or flunky do the press conference, or, at most, just had the press secretary release it at the regular White House press briefing.

So remember my rule, adapted from a Dave Barry quote, regarding how to figure out the truth: It's usually the opposite of whatever the politician or corporation is going out of their way to convince you of. If Coke and Pepsi are spending tons of money to convince you that one will make you popular and the other will make you an outcast, it's probably all just fizzy sugar water.

And if the President won't shut up about his birth certificate and how he wishes people would stop talking about it so he can get back to the issues of the day, there are probably issues of the day he really, really doesn't want people talking about.

So can we give it a rest, for heaven's sake?

If you think you still need to talk about it, because you have to complain about the "huge masses" of people who were calling for it, you can relax. Not nearly as many people gave a rip as you think.

If you think you still need to talk about it because there's something still worth talking about, nothing I'm going to say is going to change your mind anyway, so I'm not really talking to you.