Long Form

President Obama gave in to the trolls and released his birth certificate this morning. David Frum has a nice piece up discussing the lameness of the thinly veiled racism behind the whole birther movement and the damage that it has caused the Republican party.

I think that this move is political gold for the President because it will force those who rally opposition to Obama via racist remarks to make them a little more overtly. When the discussion moves to religion we are going to get some truly appalling behavior. The fun will start as “serious” GOP figures begin pressing for Barack Hussein Obama to prove that he is a “real” Christian and not a secret Muslim. I wonder if people that aren’t old and white will notice the subtle difference if the speaker of the house comes out and says “I take the President at his word that he is a Christian” instead of “That’s stupid, of course he isn’t a Muslim.”

This is very bad for the medium term prospects of the Republican Party. To remain competitive they need to win over younger, socially conservative voting blocks of non-white ethnicity. Campaigning against the President because he is black doesn’t help. Go team.