On April 29, 2009, on his weekly radio show that he co-hosts with his wife, former Maryland Republican Governor Robert Ehrlich engaged in this conversation with a caller:
Caller: I have two questions, the first of which is, in the interest of full disclosure, which our president seems to be getting at, at the situation in Guantanamo: will he finally be releasing his birth certificate so that we, the citizens of this country, can be satisfied, fully satisfied, that he is meeting Article 2, Section 5 [sic] of the Constitution? My second question is: will he also release the texts of all the sermons which he witnessed at Rev. Wright’s church over the 20 years of his attendance? Ehrlich: Well I think your first question is more relevant than the second. I think he got caught with Rev. Wright, I think he became more of a politician in trying to explain it.… He just should have said, “You know, I should have quit the church, I didn’t, and that was wrong.” I think that would have put it all to rest. I think your first question is a really good one. If we’re going to talk about transparency, let’s just go all the way here, and let’s produce your birth certificate. (laughing) Kendel: Very interesting. If he were a Republican, he’d have to do that.At the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in February, Dr. Eric Wargotz was filmed and interviewed by a blogger who asked him whether he thought Obama was born in the United States.
Interviewer:Do you believe Barack Obama was born in the United States or not? Eric Wargotz: No, I do not believe he was born in the United States.
Ehrlich is the presumptive GOP nominee in the upcoming Maryland gubernatorial election. Wargotz is a frontrunner to be the GOP opponent of Demcoratic Senator Barbara Mikulski in her upcoming reelection bid. While Wargotz has almost no chance of winning, Ehrlich, while behind in the polls, is a serious challenger to O’Malley. After all, he was governor only four years ago.
The United States used to have two serious political parties. With one of those parties now domianted by the likes of Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin, we are now down to one (and sometimes I worry about the Democrats as well). The fact that insane conspiracy theories like this are allowed to flourish in the GOP shows just how extreme the party has become in recent years. Hopefully this November, voters will realize just how dangerous it would be to put the government in the hands of people who think the President was born in Kenya. There are serious problems facing the United States and we need serious people in charge if those problems are to be dealt with.
Robert Gibbs pointed out last year just how insane the birther conspiracy theories really are:
Tell me if you've heard one that's this totally crazy. A pregnant woman leaves her home to go overseas to have a child -- who there's not a passport for -- so is in cahoots with someone...to smuggle that child, that previously doesn't exist on a government roll somewhere back into the country and has the amazing foresight to place birth announcements in the Hawaii newspapers? All while this is transpiring in cahoots with those in the border, all so some kid named Barack Obama could run for President 46 and a half years later. You couldn't sell that to the WB.John Stewart did the same, except he was funnier.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ketJSP-bv3k]
—Peter Sicher, Magazine Editor
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