I have to say that as an opponent of many of President Obama’s policies, I am appalled at the way Website like Matzav.com treats him. Whenever they do a story about him they feature the most awful picture they can find. They will publish anything to discredit him. And when they do - the commenters there go to town showing just how disgusting they can be - competing with each other to see who can make the most derogatory comments about the President.
The latest is in the ridiculous attempt by some of the President’s political opponents to ‘get him’ on the place of birth issue. Constitutionally only people who were born in the USA are allowed to run for President. There has been a claim that the President was not born in the here and they cite as ‘evidence’ that no official birth certificate showing the he was born in here has ever been produced.
The media is doing cartwheels over this issue in part because media personality Donald Trump has brought it up again in the context of a possible run for the Presidency.
Now I like Donald Trump. He is a bright, generous, and fair person. I truly believe he is basically a good man. But on this issue he is being an idiot. To make the place of his birth an issue instead of the way the President is dealing with the deficit, unemployment, high gas prices, the unraveling of the Middle East - and not the least of which the Israeli-Palestinian issue - is foolish and irresponsible. By focusing on the non issue of the Presidents place of birth he is distracting attention of the public and even congress from the issues they should be focusing upon.
This is a non issue. The President was born here. You want to defeat the President in 2012? Get a candidate with substance who can beat him on the issues! Trying to beat him this way is a sure path to defeat. It is sure to make a laughing stock out of the Republican Party if they pursue this course. Republican leaders ought to be the first to reject this as an issue instead of embracing it as some seem to be doing.
I don’t know what to make of all the attention this is getting. But I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a least some latent racism involved.
Frankly the whole thing is sickening to me, especially when a supposedly respectable Orthodox website like Matzav.com is right there in the thick of things picking up on every ‘birthter’ story they can find and publishing it along with an unflattering picture of the President. In my view every time they do this, they make a Chilul HaShem! If Matzav is supposed to be a model of Charedi thinking, then things are a lot worse in this community than I ever thought.
Oh, and one more thing. The White House released the Certificate of Live Birth this morning showing that the President was indeed born in the United States.
