Hayworth: Produce the Birth Certificate

Reader Lee tipped me about this yesterday, saying it showed Hayworth was a "Birther."

I don't think it goes that far. One doesn't need to believe any particular thing to stand for the proposition that given the Constitution only lays out two (?) prerequisites for assuming the most powerful office on earth -- age of 35 or older and "natural born" citizenship -- any candidate contending for that office should have the burden, without a lot of arguing about it, of proving his qualifications.

This isn't a dramatic statement.

I have some worries about Hayworth overplaying this issue and winning the primary only to have made himself toxic in the general, but this clip doesn't indicate, to me at least, that sort of overplaying. I consider this a pretty reasonable statement: If a man wants to be president, he should have no problem releasing the run-of-the-mill public records that prove he satisfies the age and birth requirement.

Sure, I could take it on faith, but why the hell should I?

(Also, I never really thought "Birtherism" was as toxic an issue as some believe -- after all, to most people, the effort needed to disprove such theories is absolutely trivial -- and also 2010 is such a favorable climate for the GOP (knock wood) that it's hard to imagine Hayworth, if he won the primary, would lose the general over a bit of soft-form pseudo-Birtherism.

Maybe it's pandering. If so, color me shocked to see a politician pandering for votes.)

posted by Ace at 01:49 PM

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