Month: September 2016

  Getting to the bottom of Trump's comments on President Obama's birth certificate will lead you down many dark corridors, so let me spare you the trip. Birtherism is a movement that was started by political opponents of Barack Obama during his presidential run. The basic assertion and force of the movement was a claim that Obama was not born in the US, since there was no evidence of a "birth certificate." Since Birtherists assumed that this was true, the movement called for Barack Obama to quit the presidential race (and later the presidency) as an illegitimate candidate. Donald Trump jumped on the bandwagon sometime in 2011. He insisted that President Obama should step down or produce a "real" birth certificate, claiming that the certificate of live birth Obama produced in…

I watched the debate last night. Did you? What did you see? Maybe you saw the wrangling for influence or the shouting match or the occasional "point well taken." I saw fear. The candidates weren't necessarily fearful. Though there were a few moments I thought Secretary Clinton was a little startled by Mr. Trump's "winning personality." I saw fear being dispensed. It was absolutely free, though! If you were in the mood for fear, there was plenty...on the house! But I wasn't in the mood for fear. I, like Governor Johnson, was in the mood to be inspired. That never happened. There was a moment where it could have happened - where Secretary Clinton could have inspired me to see a way forward in the matter of race relations in…