What's the Matter With Kansas?: Birthers Want Obama Removed from Ballot

He's not embarrassed. He should be, but he's not.
Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach. Image from TPM.

There's a lot of ridiculousness in politics these days, but nothing tops the "Birthers." These people have concocted a convoluted set of (sometimes self-contradictory) conspiracy theories about President Barack Obama and his eligibility for the office of president. Some of what they believe is based on very sketchy, old case law about the meaning of "natural born citizen." Some of it is a wholly concocted fantasy, in which Obama's mother traveled to Kenya whilst very pregnant, gave birth there (or elsewhere on the way home or something), and then smuggled little Barry into the country, all the while orchestrating false evidence that he was born in Hawaii. Using the expensive and complicated travel and communications technology available in 1961. All in anticipation that her half-black, half white child with "Hussein" as a middle name would one day run for president and need to have citizenship to do so.

ZOMG! It has layers! I debunked the amateur
analysis of the allegedly "fake" Obama long-form
birth certificate HERE.

Believing such (utterly without evidence) nonsense isn't so hard to understand when you consider the significant overlap of young-earth creationists in this crowd, who believe that all evidence of an old earth is put there by God to test our faith, or the Devil to lead us astray. They're not deep thinkers, and are seemingly eager to believe anything that supports their story, and able to ignore evidence to the contrary. For the record, every single aspect of Birtherism has been debunked, in a very detailed and organized way at ObamaConspiracy.org. If you even have an ounce of doubt, go there, poke around, you'll see what I mean.

The fact that a conspiracy theory has become almost mainstream in Republican politics is a frightening thing. It's something you tolerate in your weird Uncle Rick. It's not something you expect in an elected official. Kansas is not alone in having a prominent birther in office, but they are a state with a lot of embarrassing politics, including creationism in science class. What is it going to take to get these people to see Barack Obama as an ordinary person, and not a statist, Maoist, Marxist, socialist, fascist, communist, Kenyan, Muslim, Black-Identity-Christian, Godless, far-left radical Alinskyite? And do you really still want to tell me this has nothing to do with the fact that he's. . . black?

[Excerpt]

Kansas Goes Birther: State Board Considers Removing Obama From Ballot

Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, an informal advisor to Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, said on Thursday he and his fellow members of a state board were considering removing President Barack Obama from the Kansas ballot this November. . .

Read more at: Talking Points Memo