Why Didn't GOP Stand Up to Birthers?
Abe Greenwald suggests at the Commentary blog that President Obama deliberately exploited the birth certificate pseudo-controversy.
Greenwald suggests that the president cunningly baited a trap with the conscious intent of portraying his opponents as racist lunatics.
Greenwald may very well be correct about this. Question: Faced with such a devilish ploy, how might Republicans and conservatives have avoided being victimized? Here's a thought. What about: not walk into it?
Instead, with rare exceptions, leading Republicans from the Speaker of the House downward played games with the birther issue. Maybe they played those games unhappily, but they played the games even so. That was a choice, not a compulsion. And some Republicans - Sarah Palin inevitably, but others too - did much more than play games. That was a choice too.
What else could Republicans have done? They might have answered as Bill Clinton answered when confronted by 9/11 conspiracy theorist hecklers. He heard them out. He recapitulated the facts. He restated the truth. And he told people who continued to defy reality that they "looked like idiots." He added for good measure: "We heard from you. You go away."
Watch the clip, then tell me: Who's the Republican who talked that plainly to the birthers?
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