FOX 31's Eli Stokols unveils yet another embarrassing moment for 2006 2014 GOP gubernatorial candidate Bob Beauprez (video above):
In June 2010, Beauprez appeared as a guest on The Talk to Solomon Show, and was asked about whether President Obama was born in American by the host, Stan Solomon, a favorite of fringe conservatives who is an anti-gay birther who said last year that Trayvon Martin “deserves to be dead.”
“On the birth certificate, I don’t know,” Beauprez said, responding to Solomon’s claim that there “is no birth certificate.”
“I’ve heard both sides of it. I find it absolutely astounding that, if he has one, if this is all just a myth, why in the world not put it to bed? There’s a reason why they haven’t at least settled that controversy.”
In April of 2011, after Donald Trump’s birther turn sparked a new wave of media attention around the issue of the president’s American nationality, the White House obtained the original long-form birth certificate from the State of Hawaii and released it to the public.
Beauprez, in the radio interview 10 months prior to that, went further.
“I address it another way: if this guy is an American citizen, he’s a different kind of an American than virtually any that I know,” Beauprez said. [Pols emphasis]
In the few short weeks since failed 2006 gubernatorial candidate Beauprez filed to try again this year, we've been treated to a gusher of absolutely nutty on-record statements from his time between campaigns. There's the 2012 interview in which Beauprez says President Barack Obama is "pushing the boundaries" toward "civil war," and the environmental policy chapter of his 2009 book where Beauprez says climate change is "a complete hoax foisted on most of the world." And that doesn't even count the slapstick comedy, like this property developer and banker who sold the family farm to build a golf course who says he's "lived off the land all of his life."
Be honest, folks, are you surprised to learn that Beauprez is a "birther" too? Beauprez sounds so similar to Rep. Mike Coffman, whose 2012 remarks at an Elbert County GOP fundraiser about how Obama "is just not an American" helped shave Coffman's already perilous margin of victory in 2012 even smaller, that they're practically interchangeable. Arguably, Coffman's 2012 statements were even worse, since back in 2010, "birtherism" was all the rage. By the time Coffman went "birther," even the most obstinate Manchurian Candidate conspiracy theorist should have known better.
But regardless of when it was said, the answer should be the same: the years-long "birther" campaign against President Obama represents one of the ugliest episodes in recent American history. That is not, or at least should not be, a partisan sentiment. The "dog whistle" appeal to racism underlying the endless questions about Obama's birth certificate betrays a side of conservative politics that should have no place in our public discourse.
But thanks to Republican politicians like Mike Coffman and Bob Beauprez, it still does.
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The funny thing is that the so called long form most birthers refer to with the little foot on it is simply a hospital momento, It's no good for most official purposes. For that you need the raised seal short certificate that Obama put online very early on.
His initial reluctance was only because no other candidate was being asked to produce any birth certificate and he wasn't crazy about the idea of having to be the only one required to suffer this indignity at the hands of crazy hateful bigots
That little raised seal certificate is what I had to send in for to get my passport even though I had the nice long one with the cute footprint. That one wasn't good enough for getting a passport. It was good enough for a scrap book.
So for everyone in the US except Obama in the eyes of the birthers, the raised seal short form is not only good enough for all official purposes it's the gold standard document, the only one you can be sure will be accepted. Yet GOTP apologists such as Elliot still insist that the whole birther thing had nothing to do with race. Just a coincidence that the first African American President is the only one during the course of that election and beyond who was not only asked to produce a birth certificate but, no matter how many times he did, it has never been enough, it's forged, it's part of a conspiracy etc.
The fact that they won't come out and denounce birthers for what they are is proof that they are either in denial, too cowardly to stand up for what's right, are happy to use racism to appeal to the base or are themselves racists. Or a combination of several of those things.
I put poor self-deluded Elliot in the first category only. Beauprez and Coffman each fit several. If Beauprez thinks aligning himself with birthers is the path to winning statewide in a state that went for Obama twice despite all the racist birthers' efforts, he's even more of a horse's ass now than he was in that notorious campaign photo.
Has nybody checked Stormfront to see if BWB is posting there? That's about all that's left.
Stormfront would be too working-class for BWB. He prefers "Line of Sight", a conservative blog he posts on regularly. These sites just bounce around the currently fashionable talking points and scandals – in this case, Benghazi, IRS, Obamacare, Udallcare, Obamacare, bla bla bla.
Beauprez and his birther buddies are also showing a profound contempt for the United States Constitution and the "full faith and credit" clause that requires all states to accept, among other documents, the birth certificates issued by any one state. What Beauprez and his birther buddies are saying is that they do not accept the official seal and birth certificate of Hawaii.
When anyone requests a copy of his/her birth certificate, any state will issue the computerized version with the raised seal that Obama first posted. The birthers do NOT ever post their own birth certificate precisely for that reason.
The "full faith and credit clause" should be a factor, as well as the "equal protection clause" when the Supreme Court considers state laws outlawing same sex marriages.
Finally, the birther crusade is led by foreigners, who may or may not be US citizens. For anyone who has the slightest tendency towards conspiracy to listen to someone born in the Soviet Union talk about how our president is not a US citizen is alarming.
Dwyer, They get away with diregarding birth certificates and refusing to recognize same-gender marriages by quoting the last clause of Article IV Section 1 of the constitution; the one that addresses the relation of the states one to another. This was also the basis for DOMA. "Full Faith and Credit shall be given in each State to the public Acts, Records, and judicial Proceedings of every other State. And the Congress may by general Laws prescribe the Manner in which such Acts, Records and Proceedings shall be proved, and the Effect thereof." The stubborn states and the Gingrich Congress decided these marriage records should have no effect.
As far as I can tell, the I only real difference between BWB and Cory Gardner is that Gardner at least has someone who tells him what to think at any given moment, whereas BWB pretty much just muddles on his own . . .