Obama's birth certificate, and Trig Palin

Compare and contrast how the Republicans have handled the Obama birther thing, and how the Democrats handled the thing with Trig Palin last fall.

Last fall, there was perfectly understandable speculation from folks like the Huffington Post as to why Sarah Palin, after her water broke, undertook an incredibly dangerous cross-country journey before delivering her son. It was a legitimate question, since Palin made her family, and specifically her son Trig, the centrepiece of the Sarah Palin story she peddled to the nation, and there was a legitimate question as to whether she lied about giving birth to her son. Anderson Cooper wondered how Sarah Palin could demand, in the spirit of “transparency”, that her political opponent publicize her marriage license to prove she was really married, and then not hold herself to the same standard. A few bloggers speculated about the Trig Palin issue, the Democrats themselves essentially ignored it, and the whole thing disappeared in a matter of days.

Days.

The Democrats gave Palin the benefit of the doubt, despite her refusal to clear anything up, despite her incessant acts of dishonesty and ethical lunacy. They decided that America had more important things to argue about.

But the Republicans have kept the Obama birther thing going for a solid year, despite all of the readily available contrary evidence, until it has swallowed up half the GOP, the media, and a gigantic chunk of the internet. The Republicans out there spend more time obsessing about the birth certificate, than they do about health care, Afghanistan and the economy put together. Because for the Republicans, it’s more important to attack America’s Democrats, than to attack America’s problems.