O'Reilly baits Palin to be-fringe birthers -- she won't bite

By Michael Bresciani

In an interview with Sarah Palin on Tuesday February 16, Bill O'Reilly repeatedly asked former Governor Sarah Palin to state whether she thought 'birthers' are on the fringe. She went ahead to describe the kinds of people she encountered at the Tea Party meetings but tactfully avoided directly answering the question.

Palin who has undergone relentless media bashing since her run for the White House seemed unwilling to join the fray of name calling and pigeon holing that is so much a part of politics and punditry in this day. It was a show of grace and dignity that is one of her best qualities that the media seems to be missing most of the time.

O'Reilly asserts that the question is forever answered because of the research efforts of his Fox team who seem to be centering the bulk of their conclusions on the two birth announcements placed in Hawaiian newspapers.

Far from being conclusive, the newspapers themselves admit that they did not see Barack Obama's birth certificate either and were not required to see any official BCs at that time to place anyone's announcements.

The obvious leading was rejected by Palin but what stands out is left open to greater scrutiny. At the very least angrily labeling birthers the fringe is overly dramatic. At the worst it is debasing when the birthers are mentioned in the same sentence with those who want to "gather guns and overthrow the government." We love this guy but that's a horse that's a bit too high.

Let's not argue the legality's or the fine points of the law. Instead, let's just compile a very short list of the obvious that both O'Reilly and the media seem to be missing altogether.

• Many birthers don't think there is a conspiracy at all on any level they just want to see the birth certificate and be satisfied as they were with the documents John McCain produced during his candidacy.
  
  
• It is the law to vet all public officials from policemen to presidents in the United States
  
  
• Posting documents online is not part of the vetting process.
  
  
• Birthers are largely a group of law abiding citizens who have made recourse to the law to be sure that things were done properly.
  
  
• Suspicion has been raised more by the refusal to expose the birth certificate than in a rage to assert that there has been usurpation.
  
  
• The other missing and secreted documents from Obama's past are only adding fuel to the fires of that suspicion.
  
  
• Birthers have been shunned by the law, mocked by the media and now are being labeled as 'the fringe' by Mr. O'Reilly. All this while not one of this nations Attorneys General, election commissioners or state election board officials has been called home for supper.
  
  
• Leading a guest is not 'fair and balanced' reporting
  
  
• Many Tea Party people are birthers, many conservatives are birthers, even some liberals and democrats are birthers.
  
  
• All birthers are concerned Americans; shouldn't they be?
  
  

Birthers have made no call to arms and they have not demonized the President they have only asked one single question, 'Where's the birth certificate.' Why does this simple question create such ire in the nation's most noted conservative commentator and such a need to label the birthers for yet others?

The only question that begs to be asked more than the aforementioned is this; why doesn't the President make short work of all the doubters and put the matter to bed with one quick showing of the official document? For many Americans this seems like a far more pertinent question than whether the birthers are on the fringe.

© Michael Bresciani