Yes, is is happening. Arizona’s top official who can determine who can go on the ballot in November, Secretary of State Ken Bennett, is seriously suggesting that he might keep President Barack Obama off Arizona’s November ballot until he provides the state with a birth certificate to its liking.
Two things that need to be said about this, if it is indeed a serious threat and not one more Twilight Zone verbal moment from someone who is clearly a partisan:
1. I can’t believe this kind of action in trying to defeat Barack Obama at all costs and using any pretext (and, yes, there are always the denials that this is not what it is really about) would do anything but get a ton of media coverage and gravely hurt Mitt Romney with independent voters. It might hugely energize the Democratic Party base.
2. Any President who got into office because they benefited from something like this would have an authentic legitimacy problem. There would be huge numbers of Americans who would feel an election was stolen.
If Republicans take on Obama on his policies, and dispute his touted successes and highlight his failures with them, and if they ask voters whether people are willing to believe any more of Obama’s promises, they have a chance to win the White House.
If they decide they want to parrot polarizing conservative talk show hosts, or make a big deal out of political grassy knolls, then I suspect with many independents, moderates and exiled GOP RINOs, they will be on the losing end of the lesser of two evils.
UPDATE: Read more here.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.