July 28, 2009: Conservative Magazine Editors Decry ‘Birther’ Conspiracy Theory

The editors of the conservative National Review criticize the “birther” movement, which has for years claimed that President Obama is not a US citizen despite all evidence to the contrary (see July 20, 2008, August 15, 2008, October 8-10, 2008, October 16, 2008 and After, November 10, 2008, and December 3, 2008). Although the editorial mocks Obama’s character and political stances, it asserts that Obama is, indeed, a US citizen, and the evidence presented by the Obama campaign in 2008 is enough for anyone to accept that as fact (see June 13, 2008, June 27, 2008, July 2008, August 21, 2008, October 30, 2008, July 1, 2009, and July 28, 2009). “Much foolishness has become attached to the question of President Obama’s place of birth, and a few misguided souls among the Right have indulged it,” the editors write. They call the idea that Obama is not a citizen a “myth” that “represents the hunt for a magic bullet that will make all the unpleasant complications of his election and presidency disappear.” The editors say that conspiracy theories such as “birtherism” are usually promulgated by liberals and progressives, citing the “9/11 truther” movement and the various arguments made against the Iraq invasion and occupation as “left-wing” conspiracy theories. The editors believe that the White House, while probably not actually encouraging “birther” speculation, certainly takes advantage of it, because, they write, “[t]here is nothing that President Obama’s coterie would enjoy more than to see the responsible Right become a mirror image of the loopy Left circa 2003.” The editors write: “The fundamental fiction is that Obama has refused to release his ‘real’ birth certificate. This is untrue. The document that Obama has made available is the document that Hawaiian authorities issue when they are asked for a birth certificate. There is no secondary document cloaked in darkness, only the state records that are used to generate birth certificates when they are requested. If one applies for a United States passport, the passport office will demand a birth certificate. It defines this as an official document bearing ‘your full name, the full name of your parent(s), date and place of birth, sex, date the birth record was filed, and the seal or other certification of the official custodian of such records.’ The Hawaiian birth certificate President Obama has produced—the document is formally known as a ‘certificate of live birth’—bears that information. It has been inspected by reporters, and several state officials have confirmed that the information in permanent state records is identical to that on the president’s birth certificate—which is precisely what one expects, of course, since the state records are used to generate those documents when they are requested. In other words, what President Obama has produced is the ‘real’ birth certificate of myth and lore. The director of Hawaii’s health department and the registrar of records each has personally verified that the information on Obama’s birth certificate is identical to that in the state’s records, the so-called vault copy. Given that fact, we are loath even to engage the fanciful notion that President Obama was born elsewhere, contrary to the information on his birth certificate, but we note for the record that his mother was a native of Kansas, whose residents have been citizens of the United States for a very long time, and whose children are citizens of the United States as well.” However, the editors note, “[t]he hallmark of a conspiracy theory is that a lack of evidence for the theory is taken as yet more evidence for the theory. Indeed, the maddening thing about dealing with conspiracy hobbyists of this or any sort is the ever-shifting nature of their argument and their alleged evidence: Never mind the birth certificate, his step-grandmother said he was born in Kenya (see October 16, 2008 and After)! (No, she didn’t.)” [National Review, 7/28/2009]