Just a friendly reminder of what we're still up against

One of the many interesting things about living with three Ukranians is their unique, mostly blank-slate perspective about American politics. I was reminded of this just the other night, as the latest wingnut cause celebre - "Obama wasn't born in the US" - made its way over here. It was just a minor story in the paper, nothing that would surprise anyone who paid any attention during the Clinton administration (and its accompanying sideshows with congressmen shooting pumpkins in their back yards to prove something or other about Vince Foster, etc.). You and I know nothing is going to come of it.

Not everybody who read that article did, though, and when I arrived home the other night, my roommates were dying for the inside scoop. "Dave. What is this with Obama not becoming president because he is not really American?!"

That's right, they believed it. I don't mean this as a knock at them in any way. They're intelligent, educated people who read in the paper that there may be a wrinkle in US law that keeps Obama out of office. Not the kind of thing people from a place like Ukraine expect to pop up in the Land of Liberty unless there really is something to it. And that's their first mistake.

Anyhow, just wanted to bring this up because I know a lot of Obama supporters out there seem to think the partisan excesses of the past are now going to stay in the past for some reason. Not as long as the right wing s**t machine can still generate enough momentum behind a completely baseless story to send it halfway around the world and fool anybody who trusts America to live up to its reputation. Here, you don't even get Act II, in which the manstream media wrings its hands and wonders how these ridiculous tall talles always slip into the public consciousness, totally oblivious to their own role in making it happen. All people here see - unless they really go looking for more information - is an article in a mainstream paper reporting that somebody somewhere thinks Obama was born in Kenya. Or Indonesia. Or England. Or something.