Cafe, I agree that each POTUS deals with something in the neighborhood of the birther issue, however they all have their own unique set of circumstances and attract a certain segment of the population.
Calling the birfer movement racial is not ignoring history, in my view. I call the birfer movement racist because of the nature of the conspiracy and the rhetoric coming from the birfers. Can you honestly read the crap that gets said here and say that there isn't a strong racist streak among them?
If in calling it racist you call all the democrats (which were many at the time) who supported this crap when Hillary Clinton ran with the birther issue and the Muslim issue, racists, then so be it.
I do not believe that she started the birther issue with racism in mind, or the Muslim issue with such in mind. She and those that supported her believed that fear of his being associated with terrorists would buy her points. Could such be racist, yes. She played on AmericaÂ’s fear of terrorism and any possible connections with such. It has since amassed a following that is on par with all the other presidential conspiracies.
Adding I think that some of the MSM has made it worse. I say this because people are naturally curious. And it seems that some left wing papers nagged and nagged Bush over his National Guard records, and school records. One went as far to produce a story based on false records for Bush to degenerate him (CBS, Dan Rather)
Now we have those people who look to the MSM for the same demands they made of Bush – when they do not see such they think something is amiss and automatically assume things are being hidden from them. (Why would his own party say such if it were not true, they think.) It is human nature to question and people are doing so because they perceive a ”lopsideness” if you will with some media outlets. And when they do not see it happening they assume the worst. They MUST be hiding something is what is in their minds IMO.
This entire thing has snowballed into what it is today and it is taking on a life of its own. As I said above I can’t say there are not racists in this group—all groups will have them. But I do not think that racists define Birthers. I think that the usual conspiracy theorists have gained momentum and it is following the same course which has beset past presidents.