Believe it or not, there are still people in this country who think President Obama is not a US citizen. A disturbing YouTube video was featured last night on the NBC Nightly News, showing a "birther" at a recent town hall meeting in Delaware getting all bent out of shape because she wants "my country" back.Fortunately, Brian Williams followed this with a thoughtful discussion including Washington correspondent Pete Williams about how most reasonable Republicans (even somewhat unresonable Michael Medved!) don't believe this is true. They also recalled how this issue has dogged Presidents and candidates from John McCain (born in the Panama Canal zone) to Barry Goldwater (born in Arizona when it was a territory) to President Chester Arthur (born in northern Vermont but maybe the woods of Canada). They then aired a piece thoroughly debunking the notion that Obama is not an American, producing not only the mystical Obama birth certificate but also a birth notice in the Honolulu daily paper published a week after he was born.
I find it curious this non-story, a regularly recurring one throughout the 2008 campaign, is even in the news again...especially in the first segment of the evening news. But then I realized that this week, the President is trying to push through a massive reform of the nation's health system. As happened throughout the campaign, the re-emergence of this issue is yet another distraction from the real issue at hand; the health care crisis in this country. After 20 years of political distractions from Vince Foster to Monica Lewinsky to Swift Boats to Sarah Palin, it's time for our government to take care of business...namely the business of the nation's health. And that's what this American President is trying to do.
