Maybe today was the tipping point. The point where finally the birther movement starts to lose its steam.
And it may not even be because of the outcry directed at CNN’s Lou Dobbs for giving the birther crowd an air of legitimacy. And no matter how many high-profile conservatives criticize the group questioning Obama’s citizenry, it hasn’t slowed them down.
After all, Ann Coulter won’t give them any support. She’s calling ‘em “cranks”. Don’t look to FOX News host Bill O’Reilly. He doesn’t care. Further, he compares them to 9/11 conspiracists. Michelle Malkin has no time for it.
But it keeps growing. Like a mutation. In fact, it went into overdrive this weekend with the release of a supposedly newly found alleged birth certificate showing President Obama’s birthplace to be Mombasa, Kenya.
So what might be that illustrious tipping point today? An inside job. An implosion. A self-cratering. Whatever you want to call it, it wasn’t pretty. But, strangely, you can’t look away.
The circus began when Orly Taitz, a longtime chieftain of the birther posse (and a dentist), appeared with MSNBC host David Shuster this afternoon to discuss the document.
Shuster, who is no friend to the right, was actually pretty gentle with his guest seeming to be aware that he really didn’t need to do much — at all — to precipitate the train wreck. It was like he was a super-gifted weatherman who accurately predicted a 100 percent chance of meltdown.
No need to antagonize, belittle, or bully to get a reaction. Shuster instead relied on an even more sinister media trick — he asked a question.
All he wanted to know was if President Obama was born elsewhere why were there birth announcements in both Honolulu newspapers. “How could these birth certificates have been fabricated 48 years before President Obama possibly took office? How would they have that foresight to know that?” he asked.
It’s a fair question. And someone who has the facts on her side should be able to answer that question easily.
Taitz began her answer by asking Shuster how much time she had to respond, explaining that she had a bad experience with CNN’s Kitty Pilgrim who said “a lot of lies” and didn’t give her an opportunity to respond.
Shuster said if she would just answer the question they would give her plenty of time to respond. (Pilgrim, be damned!)
Already appearing to be worn out, Taitz took a breath and began explaining that all you needed in Hawaii for a birth announcement was a statement by a relative and that’s why they were demanding the original birth certificate.
“What would be the motivation?” Shuster asked, stepping on Taitz. “What would be the motivation for Barack Obama’s family…”
“Give me an opportunity to answer,” Taitz said, stepping on Shuster. “If you could show some decency and integrity as a journalist to give me an opportunity to respond.”
“OK. You can talk about integrity and discipline. Go for it,” Shuster replied, while stepping on Taitz. (OK, he was a bit surly there).
“A parent could just fill out a form and lied,” Taitz said (stepping on Shuster). “If Obama was born in Kenya and the mother wanted to lie — she didn’t want to go through immigration, she didn’t want to pay an immigration attorney, she would fill out the form and say ‘my son was born in Honolulu’ and mail it to the health department…”
“Just to be clear, your allegation here is that Barack Obama’s mother was somehow motivated to lie …”
“Let me finish!”
“Orly!”
“You don’t let me finish! No I don’t. You are unable to listen!”
Believe it or not, it went downhill from here. Jerry Springer show comes to mind. Although no chairs were thrown, Taitz accused Shuster of being one of Obama’s “Brownshirts” in the media.
Offended, Shuster asked Taitz if she refused a cab ride to the NBC studios because the driver had a Muslim-sounding name. She denied the accusation.
Meanwhile, she said she had a problem with another MSNBC host. This host was then piped in via a split screen and they talked on top of each other until Taitz was eventually thrown off the show (or they just cut off the feed).
We’ve included the video below. As the Chicago Tribune’s Mark Silva said: Fasten your seatbelts.
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