BIRTH ANNOUNCEMENT – AT 11:50 P.M. ET:  First, let me apologize for the gap in posting.  We had a technical problem tonight, rare, but it happened.  We're back operating right now. 

Of course, the joyous news today – I've heard church bells ringing – was the announcement that the president of the United States had actually been born.  Not only that.  The White House now assures us that he was born in the United States, and produced a certificate to prove it.

Our great national nightmare is over.  True, many of us understood that our president was born in a manger, but we just weren't sure what country the manger was in.  It was in the U.S., in Hawaii, not far from Pearl Harbor, where a lot of other questions were asked.

So, what are the pundits saying?  Just about all of them, including most conservatives, believe that the whole birther thing has been put to rest.  But a number of the best pundits – those who agree with me – are uneasy about Mr. Obama's behavior throughout the birth controversy.  He could have released this birth certificate years ago, but chose not to.   He spent over a million dollars to prevent its release, even though it doesn't say anything horrible.

Why?

Some suggest that the president got some joy out of this.  According to this theory, he believed that, by keeping the matter alive, he could paint his opponents as kooks and conspiracy theorists.  He may have been right, but that certainly doesn't say much about Mr. Obama's respect for the presidency, his countrymen, or his colleagues.  Anyone else would have just released the thing. 

And then there are the number of false statements, some by White House spokesmen – that the certificate couldn't be released under Hawaii law, or, more recently, that the president thought the whole thing silly, even though it's now clear the White House had petitioned for the release of the certificate several weeks ago.

There are still some who maintain that the certificate released today may be a forgery.  Given all the machinations by the president, I can't honestly blame this crowd.  Let them work.  Maybe they'll tell us something.

Bottom line, I think we have a very strange man in the White House, someone who allows a controversy to go on when he could have ended it, then presents himself as above the fray, someone too important to deal with paperwork.  We have seen that Mr. Obama is not much of a leader.  Now, I wonder about his ability to reason through his own policies.

April 27, 2011