Washington Post ^ | April 27, 2011 | Anne E. Kornblut
Posted on Wednesday, April 27, 2011 1:38:52 PM by Second Amendment First
After his major address on the deficit two weeks ago, President Obama sat down for an interview with ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos expecting a conversation about fiscal issues.
Instead, Obama faced repeated questions about the controversy surrounding his place of birth, which had escalated in recent weeks as potential Republican candidate Donald Trump made it the centerpiece of his platform.
Although the questions were couched as coming from the political fringe, the interview added to the growing sense within the White House that the mainstream media was perpetrating a dangerous myth.
Obama, furious, demanded that his staff finally get a copy of his long-form birth certificate from Hawaii to set the matter aside for good, according to senior administration officials.
“He did that despite the fact that it probably was…probably in his long-term political interests to allow this birther debate to dominate discussion in the Republican Party for months to come,” White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer said. “But he thought even though it might have been good politics, he thought it was bad for the country. And so he asked counsel to look into this.”
The swift action that followed – in less than 10 days, Obama’s lawyers were able to obtain the legal waivers necessary to bring copies of the certificate back to the White House – raises questions about the timing.
Why, for example, did Obama officials wait so long to tamp down rumors that have dogged the president since the 2008 presidential campaign? Why did they release the forms on the very day that Trump is making his first visit to New Hampshire, and during a week when Obama is slated to make other major announcements about his national security team?
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
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