Sarah Palin: Obama’s birth certificate is fair game

Yesterday Sarah Palin did a radio interview with Rusty Humphries and was asked a question about Obama’s birth certificate.

Here is the transcript [H/T Hot Air]:

Would you make the birth certificate an issue if you ran?

I think the public, rightfully, is still making it an issue. I don’t have a problem with that. I don’t know if I would have to bother to make it an issue ’cause I think there are enough members of the electorate who still want answers.

Do you think it’s a fair question to be looking at?

I think it’s a fair question, just like I think past associations and past voting record — all of that is fair game. You know, I’ve got to tell you, too: I think our campaign, the McCain/Palin campaign didn’t do a good enough job in that area. We didn’t call out Obama and some of his associates on their records and what their beliefs were and perhaps what their future plans were. And I don’t think that that was fair to voters to not have done our jobs as candidates and as a campaign to bring to light a lot of the things that now we’re seeing made manifest in the administration.

I mean, truly, if your past is fair game and your kids are fair game, certainly Obama’s past should be. I mean, we want to treat men and women equally, right?

Hey, you know, that’s a great point, in that weird conspiracy-theory freaky thing that people talk about that Trig isn’t my real son. And a lot of people say, “Well you need to produce his birth certificate! You need to prove that he’s your kid!” Which we have done. But yeah, so maybe we could reverse that and use the same [unintelligible]-type thinking on them.

Needless to say, within no time at all the left side of the blogosphere began tagging Palin as a “Birther”. Did you think they would do anything else?  Palin immediately issued a Facebook note setting things straight.

Palin on Facebook:

Stupid Conspiracies

Yesterday at 10:16pm

Voters have every right to ask candidates for information if they so choose. I’ve pointed out that it was seemingly fair game during the 2008 election for many on the left to badger my doctor and lawyer for proof that Trig is in fact my child. Conspiracy-minded reporters and voters had a right to ask… which they have repeatedly. But at no point – not during the campaign, and not during recent interviews – have I asked the president to produce his birth certificate or suggested that he was not born in the United States.

Of course if anyone takes the time to read, Palin herself never says she believes Obama isn’t American. What she does say is that people have a right to ask their questions and she is right. 

For some people the birth certificate question was never answered fully and they want to know. Just like for some people the issue of Trig’s birth wasn’t answered fully and they want to know (paging Andrew Sullivan).  If Sarah Palin can put up with the Trig Truthers, then let Obama deal with the Birthers.

The reason why both the Trig Truthers and the Birthers exist in the first place is because the media does such a crummy job reporting the news. In the case of the Trig Truthers, the media immediately picked up the story without checking facts and put it out to a wider audience and it took root. In the case of the Birthers, it was the media’s long silence on the issue that allowed the question to gain so much traction on the net.  In both cases, the media’s well-known biases and people’s distrust of those biases that also contributed to these conspiracy theories.

So until our media gets its act together, there are going to be people like the Trig Truthers and the Birthers asking questions and politicians will just have to answer the questions to the best of their abilities and move on.

Via: Memeorandum

Via: Hot Air

Via: Sarah Palin’s Facebook Page