Voters have every right to ask candidates for information if they so choose. I’ve pointed out that it was seemingly fair game during the 2008 election for many on the left to badger my doctor and lawyer for proof that Trig is in fact my child. Conspiracy-minded reporters and voters had a right to ask… which they have repeatedly. But at no point – not during the campaign, and not during recent interviews – have I asked the president to produce his birth certificate or suggested that he was not born in the United States.
Of course, Palin does NOT believe it was “fair game” to ask about Trig (as she indicates with her use of the word “seemingly”), whereas she specifically said in her radio interview that people are “rightfully making [Obama’s birthplace] an issue” — so this argument makes no sense.
What Palin obviously SHOULD have said, if she were true to her principles (excuse me, if she had “principles”), is, “It was wrong for people to concoct false conspiracy theories about Trig in the guise of ‘asking questions,’ and it’s likewise wrong for people to false concoct conspiracy theories about President Obama in the guise of ‘asking questions.’ Trig is my son, and President Obama was born in this country: those are both established facts, and no more ‘questions’ need to be answered, nor any additional ‘information’ provided. There is nothing left to discuss.”
But that would be the non-petty way of expressing her opinion, and Sarah Palin can always be counted on to say the most petty, absurd thing imaginable.
(In point of fact, Trig’s parentage has NOT been factually “established” to the same extent as Obama’s birthplace, though I personally have no doubt he’s Palin’s son… though I suspect portions of the specific “birth story” narrative that she’s propagated are a lie. But in any event, this is what Palin would say if she wanted to make a valid comparison based on her presumed actual opinion about the two matters.)
In any case, as transparently disingenuous as this statement is, I’m certainly glad that Palin’s handlers — i.e., the people who tell her what to think and say — have advised her to walk back from the brink of Birther lunacy.
P.S. As noted liberal elitist Allahpundit of the lefty site Hot Air (co-founded by communist Michelle Malkin) points out, Birthers, like 9/11 Truthers, “say[] that all they’re doing is ‘asking questions.’ The answers have already been provided; they just reject them because they’re married to their conspiracies.”
RT @dmataconis Sarah Palin, Birther http://ping.fm/RvWnP | Are we surprised?
UPDATE: Palin is backtracking furiously and disingenuously from her earlier comments:
Of course, Palin does NOT believe it was “fair game” to ask about Trig (as she indicates with her use of the word “seemingly”), whereas she specifically said in her radio interview that people are “rightfully making [Obama’s birthplace] an issue” — so this argument makes no sense.
What Palin obviously SHOULD have said, if she were true to her principles (excuse me, if she had “principles”), is, “It was wrong for people to concoct false conspiracy theories about Trig in the guise of ‘asking questions,’ and it’s likewise wrong for people to false concoct conspiracy theories about President Obama in the guise of ‘asking questions.’ Trig is my son, and President Obama was born in this country: those are both established facts, and no more ‘questions’ need to be answered, nor any additional ‘information’ provided. There is nothing left to discuss.”
But that would be the non-petty way of expressing her opinion, and Sarah Palin can always be counted on to say the most petty, absurd thing imaginable.
(In point of fact, Trig’s parentage has NOT been factually “established” to the same extent as Obama’s birthplace, though I personally have no doubt he’s Palin’s son… though I suspect portions of the specific “birth story” narrative that she’s propagated are a lie. But in any event, this is what Palin would say if she wanted to make a valid comparison based on her presumed actual opinion about the two matters.)
In any case, as transparently disingenuous as this statement is, I’m certainly glad that Palin’s handlers — i.e., the people who tell her what to think and say — have advised her to walk back from the brink of Birther lunacy.
P.S. As noted liberal elitist Allahpundit of the lefty site Hot Air (co-founded by communist Michelle Malkin) points out, Birthers, like 9/11 Truthers, “say[] that all they’re doing is ‘asking questions.’ The answers have already been provided; they just reject them because they’re married to their conspiracies.”