Death of the Birther Argument

"The resignation over the Labor Day weekend of White House "green jobs" czar Van Jones tells you some interesting things about the Obama administration. One of them is that a man who proclaimed himself a "communist" in the 1990s and signed 9/11 "truther" petitions suggesting Bush administration complicity in the Sept. 11 attacks was considered fit for a White House appointment. Liberal columnists have been attacking Republicans because some of their voters are "birthers," believers in the absurd charge that President Obama was not born in Hawaii and thus is not a natural-born U.S. citizen. But they have failed to identify any "birther" who occupied a position in the Republican firmament comparable to that of "truther" Van Jones in the Obama administration." - Michael Barone (from the Washington Examiner website)

While I disagree with Mr. Barone to an extent, because there are too many Republicans in Congress who have given the "birthers" a bit too much leeway in the political arena, Barone does have a point about the Van Jones appointment being disturbing, and potentially giving more weight to arguments about Obama's connections to communists.