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Birthers? Why didn't the Truthers get all this attention?
By: David Freddoso
Online Opinion Editor
07/31/09 7:09 PM EDT
Twenty-eight percent of Republicans believe President Obama is not a natural-born citizen of the United States, and 30 percent are "not sure," according to this poll.
But before liberals begin to smirk, here's a poll from 2007, in which 35 percent of Democrats said that President Bush knew in advance about the 9/11 attacks, and 26 percent were not sure.
So if 58 percent of Republicans are living in a delusional fantasy world because they are out of power, then 61 percent of Democrats were doing the same thing until just recently (perhaps they still are). It's a clean, apples-to-apples comparison with a clear lesson: People get a bit kooky when they're out of power, Democrats about 3 points kookier -- which is probably within the margin of error.
I bring this up because I did a short mid-afternoon segment today on MSNBC with Tamryn Hall and Donnie Deutsch, in which I was asked about the Birther poll. I brought up the Truther poll and wondered aloud whether MSNBC had ever brought as much attention to the Truthers.
The Birthers are getting an awful lot of coverage right now, and that's great news for a White House desperate for distractions. President Obama is losing the public opinion battle over health care and putting his foot in his mouth over Henry Gates. His only major legislative accomplishment so far -- the stimulus package -- is widely perceived as a costly and ineffective boondoggle.
I was also asked about a video shot by the thoroughly disreputable Mike Stark, whose selective editing and misidentification of members of Congress contributes to the appearance, at least, that a significant number of Republican members of Congress are "Birthers" -- or at least that they won't say they're not Birthers. Stark, you may recall, is the man who made a scene during a 2006 Senate race by shouting repeatedly while cameras were rolling in order to start an unsubstantiated rumor that then-Sen. George Allen, R-Va., spat on his first wife.
Tamryn then asked a good question: Back in the Bush Era, did any Democratic members of Congress avoid questions about whether "Bush Knew?" On the spot, I couldn't remember. But the truth is, they didn't just avoid the question -- they stoked the flames of conspiracy theories and in some cases embraced them.
A few names: Hillary Clinton (the famous Bush Knew" speech of May 16, 2002), Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, and then-Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D, Ga.). When I covered Congress for Human Events, I asked Rep. William Lacy Clay, D,Mo., about McKinney's suggestion that Bush might have withheld knowledge of the attack. His reply: "I'm curious as to whether it will reveal what Congresswoman McKinney has stated. I'm interested. I'm interested in an investigation."
So who's kooky now?
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