by Benjamin J. Kirby
You only thought the whole birther thing had gone away.
Wrong.
Congressman Mike Coffman (a Republican from the Colorado 6th District) said:
"I don't know whether Barack Obama was born in the United States of America. I don't know that," Coffman said. "But I do know this, that in his heart, he's not an American. He's just not an American."
This is getting to be less funny and more just sad and weird.
And Coffman's not the only idiot out there talking this stuff up. The Arizona Secretary of State has said President Obama may not be on the ballot. Seriously:
The man in charge of running Arizona’s elections has gone to the birthers. Secretary of State Ken Bennett now says he’s not convinced Barack Obama was really born in the United States and so he is threatening to keep the president off the ballot in November.
According to the Washington Post, this is the guy who wants to replace horrible Governor Jan Brewer.
What makes it so sad and weird is that you'd kind of just wish these guys would come out and say what's really bugging them: they don't want a black man inthe White House. Suggesting that he's "not a real American," or "not an American in his heart," are cheap ways to tap dance around saying anything directly racist.
Too often, karma doesn't work directly enough for my tastes. That's okay. At least maybe these guys will pay a price at the voting booth.
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Chris Cillizza and Aaron Blake write about the death of Americans Elect over at the Post.
Late Thursday night, Americans Elect, a much-ballyhooed group dedicated to securing ballot access for a serious third-party presidential candidate in 2012, issued a statement acknowledging failure.
“As of this week, no candidate achieved the national support threshold required to enter the Americans Elect online convention in June,” the statement read. “The primary process for the Americans Elect nomination has come to an end.”
Even I had not un-hopeful words for the group last year.
Everyone knows the system is broken. It's not sustainable. So I'm open to new ideas, sure. We'll see where the Americans Elect folks end up.
I dunno. The system's broken, but I forgot one thing: it still works for a lot of people. That said, in hindsight, it seems like a weird idea to build this online space first, and then hope the movement follows.
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It's finally Friday.
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