An Abundance of Caution

I’m no fan of Lou Dobbs, and this latest flap about President Obama’s birth certificate is just more evidence that he’s an idiot, but the dialog has highlighted what I think is an interesting political oddity. The Obama administration has chosen to ignore this tempest in a teapot. Okay. I don’t disagree — this claim is not legitimate, as far as anyone can tell. As Jon Stewart pointed out the other night on The Daily Show, unless Obama has a time machine, the birth announcements in the August 1961 Hawaiian newspapers are compelling evidence. However, how difficult would it be for the Administration to simply produce the birth certificate, and silence all of the critics? This may seem like caving into the demands of the lunatic fringe, but this is the same administration that held a do-over of Obama’s swearing in, after Chief Justice John Roberts flubbed his lines, in a preemptive strike against anyone who would question the validity of the ceremony, all out of “an abundance of caution.” Remember that? Where is that caution now?

Of course, the more interesting question in all of this (that I don’t hear anyone talking about) is not was Obama born in Hawaii, but is Hawaii actually a state? This issue may enjoy the same level of respect as other internet conspiracies, like the Bohemian Grove and black helicopters, but there is little debate that Hawaii was illegally annexed by the United States, as evidenced most recently by President Clinton’s 1993 apology to the State of Hawaii for overthrowing their kingdom. If Hawaii isn’t really a state (legally), then Obama’s birth certificate doesn’t really matter much, does it?