Just a quick one... started at 8:00 AM. hopefully I can grab a clip because it's kind of refreshing to see. A lot of pundits on the right side of the isle seem to be vitriolic and hopelessly naive, but at least in this case everybody on the show took the issue on directly and openly mocked the birthers.
Joe: "Is that issue going to go away? Is it a done deal - so people understand taht this is just a conspiracy theory?"
Chris explains, then joe asks
"So where is this guy supposed to have been born? So let's say he was born in Indonessia... is somebody suggesting that she went "You know, my son might be president of the US in 46 years.... let's put an announcement in a honolulu paper!"
General agreement on the lunacy, then Chris off camera: "Some of our more sane viewers are saying this is really racist"
Joe fought back on this slightly, calling it stupidity - and Mica said that the two can overlap.
Later in the show, the birther movement is compared to the moon landing conspiracies... nice to see!
Nothing 'BREAKING' or 'UPDATED' here, but I think it's worth recognizing reasonable dialogue - whichever side of the isle it is on - in the interest of promoting a more sane national dialogue.
OK, kind of lied, quick update: they ran Chris Mathews from last night taking on the guy gunning for a law requiring birth certificates, then mocks the birther movement (makes your movement look stupid if you focus on it compared to the other issues in the country).
Good for him! There are issues we can legitimately disagree on, but the birther movement is a complete waste of effort.
Then excellent commentary from somebody else (I wish I knew the names of the people around the table!) of how much easier it is to gain power on divisive issues and ignore the issues we agree on and need to move forward on.
Quote: "It's much easier for me to wave around hookers, pot, and birth certificates - and now we have a busted healthcare system that nobody cares about".
Which gets general agreement.
I really like what I'm hearing.