by Ana Veciana-Suarez

What does Donald Trump choose to talk about on TV? The authenticity of President Barack Obama's birth certificate.

Oh, please, not that again. Once more the stupidity, like a bad case of lice, resurfaces. Once more we have surrendered to the inane, the preposterous, the ridiculous, not to mention the absurd and surreal. Is this our way of coping with information overload? Are we that willing to forego serious debate for the nonsensical?

Donald Trump -- he of the blond shag rug and enormous ego -- released his birth certificate to Newsmax, a conservative online news site. The developer/TV star/celebrity hound/millionaire/(fill in the blank) did so after a fiery exchange with ABC's Whoopi Goldberg on "The View." He questioned whether Obama was actually born in Hawaii, saying there was "something on (Obama's) birth certificate" that the president didn't like and didn't want revealed.

"Why doesn't he show his birth certificate?" Trump demanded. "I want him to show his birth certificate. I want him to show his birth certificate."

Goldberg called it "the biggest pile of dog mess I've heard in ages."

It should've ended there. After all, this accusation has been reported, analyzed, blogged, tweeted, Facebooked, texted and otherwise disseminated many times since Obama stepped into the limelight. Back in 2008, it was proven false by independent sources, most notably FactCheck.org staffers who, after a thorough investigation, concluded that the original birth certificate the Obama campaign had released met all the State Department requirements for proving U.S. citizenship.

But did that matter to Trump? Of course not. A master at manipulating attention, he's not one to let facts get in the way. He hopped on the bandwagon of misinformation. On Fox and Friends earlier this week, Trump said the president's birthplace "really concerned" him. Then, with quintessential Trump flair, he released his own birth certificate. Whoop de doo.

"I'm just asking President Obama to show the public his birth certificate," he announced grandly. "Why's he making an issue out of this?"

Turns out, Trump's posted document does not have the seal of the Department of Health or the signature of the city registrar. (Contrary to speculation, the certificate does not -- and I repeat not -- bear a baby picture of Trump with a pompadour.) In other words, Trump's much ballyhooed birth proof was probably not official.

To which I say: Who cares?

Enough with birth certificates. How about we return to what truly matters?

If someone wants to attack Obama on his jobs-creation policies or our involvement in Libya, if someone wants to discuss the merits of Social Security reform or jacking the eligibility age for Medicare to 67, please, go right ahead. I and plenty of other regular folks would welcome the debate. Just keep it clean and keep it civil.

But this silly talk about Obama's birth certificate is insulting and counterproductive. We might as well stoop to discussing Trump's comb-over: Is it really his or did it come from a Canadian rug factory? And, perhaps more importantly, does that disqualify him from the presidency?

 

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Enough With Obama's Birth Certificate | Politics

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