Showing 101 posts tagged obama

theatlantic:

Why Is There A Resurgence of Congressional Birtherism?

There is no serious debate over whether Barack Obama is an American citizen. He is.

Of course, that hasn’t stopped people from saying otherwise. For example, Rep. Vicky Hartzler, a Republican representing Missouri’s 4th district. Following the standard template for these things, she was asked by a constituent at a town hall about the president’s birth certificate. And following the template, she failed to denounce or even disagree with this disproven idea:

I don’t know, I haven’t seen it. I’m just at the same place you are on that. You read this, you read that. But I don’t understand why he didn’t show that right away. I mean, if someone asked for my birth certificate, I’d get my baby book and hand it out and say ‘Here it is,’ so I don’t know …. I have doubts that it is really his real birth certificate, and I think a lot of Americans do, but they claim it is, so we are just going to go with that.

A spokesman clarified her comments to Politico today, but the explanation neither addressed her statement nor her actual views; after all, she repeated the statements to a reporter immediately following the original meeting.

Crazy, right? But not isolated. In March, Rep. Cliff Stearns — the man whose questions about Planned Parenthood led to the Susan G. Komen Foundation’s decision to cut off funding for the organization — made similar comments. “All I can tell you is that the general consensus is that he has produced a birth certificate,” he said. “The question is, is it legitimate? That’s where we stand now.” […]

If members of Congress truly believe that the president isn’t an American citizen, then they surely have the obligation to single-mindedly focus on proving that and ejecting him from office. But since they almost certainly don’t believe it and just as certainly can’t prove it (since it’s false), they instead have an obligation to speak out against birtherism. Unfortunately, as members of Congress spend more time mixing with constituents as they campaign, we’re only likely to hear more incidents along these lines.

Read more.

A personal appeal to the Obama team tumblrers

think-progress:

joshsternberg:

apsies:

Hi! Remember me? At the end of last year I led a successful campaign to get you guys to follow me. I don’t need to re-hash that tale. You know it already. Apparently you even love telling about it.

That campaign was not successful without the help of some lovely fellow tumblrers. Namely imwithkanye, who screencapped my post, the one that got your attention, that you eventually reblogged and caused you to follow me.

You have now reblogged imwithkanye multiple times, including today! The sad thing is: you don’t follow him.

I think this is a major oversight on your part.

He would never tell you this. You see some people (imwithkanye, I’m assuming) are above begging. I, on the other hand, am not.

Some might say this appeal is me taking this Obama thing just a little too far. You already follow me so how dare I go out of my way to get you to start following my friends? I get that. But here’s the thing: I did not get here today, on tumblr, being followed by the President’s social media team without a little help from my friends.

Which is why I think you’ll understand when I ask: Will you please follow imwithkanye?

Co-sign. 

imwithkanye is a good follow any day.

I’m with this!

“This was a train wreck for the Obama administration…This law looks like it’s going to be struck down. I’m telling you, all of the predictions including mine that the justices would not have a problem with this law were wrong… if I had to bet today I would bet that this court is going to strike down the individual mandate.”

CNN’s Jeffrey Toobin on the way the wind seems to be blowing during the Supreme Court hearings. (via tpmmedia)

Why this might not be bad for Obama and his reelection bid. 

(via cheatsheet)

“As for the killing of Osama bin Laden, Mr. Obama did what virtually any commander in chief would have done in the same situation. Even President Bill Clinton says in the film “that’s the call I would have made.” For this to be portrayed as the epic achievement of the first term tells you how bare the White House cupboards are.”

Karl Rove: Why is everyone making a big deal out of this Osama bin Laden killing thing? [Washington Post, sourcing Wall Street Journal] (via producermatthew)