Nice Try, Mr. POTUS

“But the brilliance, the versatility of madness is akin to the resourcefulness of water seeping through, over and around a dike.” F. Scott Fitzgerald.

President Obama has now released the long form of his birth certificate in an attempt to quell the obsessive concern over his birth that has been distracting us from far more important business. It’s a nice try, but unfortunately, as Fitzgerald suggests, madness is resourceful when it comes to dealing with facts and information it does not wish to acknowledge; releasing the long form will most probably just open up new horizons for the insanity that has plagued Obama from the very beginning. It has already begun with some criticizing Obama himself for the controversy because he did not offer the long form earlier. Never mind there was no reason for him to do so, as what was released was the perfectly legal proof of his birth and citizenship and should have been all that was required.

The crazies that want to insist Obama is not really who he says he is will persist. They will no doubt ask how we know this version of his birth is truly the correct one, it could, after all, just be a clever forgery. As President Obama is the most powerful person in the world he could easily have arranged to have such a document created. And note that his name is the same as his father’s, and his father’s place of birth is listed as Kenya, so how do we know for certain which Obama was really born in Kenya? I have little doubt they will come up with other more creative, ridiculous, and conspiratorial objections.( I started writing this when I first heard the news about his releasing his long form birth certificate, before I saw Orly Tait on The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell, and also before I saw the Rachel Maddow show this afternoon. It is proving to be even worse than I expected. It seems there are at least three distinct groups that are benefitting from this absurd controversy: (1) the truly insane like Orly Tait and some of the other hardcore “birthers,” (2) members of the more traditional Republican Party that benefit from anything that belittles Obama and helps them in their quest to bring him down, and (3) those who stand to benefit materially from the further promotion of this nonsense. Rachel Maddow made this latest point quite clear, pointing out the books being promoted along with all sorts of merchandise having to do with this nefarious business, that would fail to make money if the matter was allowed to rest in peace). This tends to confirm my belief that the Republican party is little more than a criminal conspiracy. Even Grover Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform, if you think about it, is just a glorified protection racket, “either play ball with us or we’ll ruin your career.”

President Obama seems unable to overcome what I think is a serious flaw in his personality or basic make-up, he cannot seem to grasp that he is not dealing with people who are all sane and reasonable like himself. Just as he keeps insisting on trying to compromise with his implacable enemies that have announced they have no intention of compromising with him and, indeed, want nothing less than his failure and single-term Presidency, so he now seems to think the loonies and others that question his birth will simply accept his long form (that contains very little information we did not already know). Similarly, if I remember correctly, he has also said in the past he does not think racism has much of anything to do with his critics, or at least has indicated he does not want to acknowledge that as a possible explanation. Here again I believe he is wrong. There are some who simply will not, apparently even cannot, acknowledge that we have, in fact, a Black President. This is not unrelated to the birther controversy, as well as to still more fantastic beliefs about his being a secret Muslim planted here to bring us Shari’a law, or perhaps even someone from outer space. He is clearly, to these people, some kind of “Other,” not really like “us.” One of these people not long ago even went so far as to deny that Obama was really the President, suggesting that it was really the Congress that was in charge. While it was comforting to know that many American citizens were prepared to elect a Black President, it is not at all comforting to realize that even now there are almost as many who were not so prepared (and probably will never be). We can only hope that the younger generations now coming more and more into their own will not cling to racism as tenaciously as their elders did. The blatant racism involved has now been exposed for what it is. Donald Trump, one of the few people, perhaps the only one to successfully expose himself as a racist, scumbag, phony, sleazeball, all rolled into one body, boasting about how he alone has been successful in making Obama reveal his long form birth certificate, has now brought up the question of Obama’s academic record, suggesting not at all slyly that Obama did not deserve being admitted to Columbia and Harvard and was, “he heard,” that Obama was a terrible student (with, as usual no basis in fact whatsoever). The racial element in this accusation is obvious, as is Trump’s demand that Obama produce “his papers (records).” I think it is not surprising that Trump is leading the field for the Republican nomination to be the party’s candidate.

I trust the masses of the poor and unemployed in Britain and around the world will enjoy the marvelous spectacular medieval pageant we are about to witness on our televisions, a royal wedding the likes of which has not been seen for quite a long time. Pomp and ceremony, multi-millions spent on security, diamonds and jewels rarely seen, and souvenirs, no doubt lots of souvenirs the peasants can treasure in their hovels and remember how wonderful it all was. On Friday we can all forget about the rather precarious situation the world is in and just enjoy, enjoy, enjoy. It is nice to know that Prince What’s-his-name and his commoner wife-to-be are basically just normal people like us, they drive their own cars, are nervous about their upcoming nuptials, even to the point of having nightmares about them. Of course the details of the bride’s gown, the guest list, the seating arrangements, the menu, and so on will be much appreciated. I understand that President Obama and his charming wife have not been invited and some Bahrainian billionaire has turned down an invitation, but what do I know about Royal protocol when it comes to the wedding of the century? I intend to celebrate this momentous event on Friday by unplugging all the TV’s in the house and spending the day planting potatoes, weather permitting. I rather doubt the bride and groom will treasure my best wishes, or even want or need them. I don’t know who first penned, “Stop the world, I want to get off,” but they certainly had the right idea.