The Long Con

Some years ago, there was a classic movie with Paul Newman entitled "The Sting." It was the story about a master con man running what is known as the "long con", an elaborate scheme designed to relieve  suckers from their money. Well folks, we have just witnessed one of the great political cons in history, and the master con man, Barrack H. Obama II has just pulled it off. We are left with our mouths gaping open in amazement and grudging admiration. Take a step back for a minute and examine how this con worked.

Obama and his handlers were well aware of the fact that they could produce the long form birth certificate at any time of their choosing. The fact that for years they resisted all efforts by the "birthers" to produce the document can lead to only one conclusion: it was to their political advantage not to. It was like Perry Mason holding back the exculpatory bit of evidence until the very last minute, springing the evidence on the hapless numbnuts prosecutor and winning the case with a flourish. In Obama's case, he coyly played the birthers for all it was worth, even insinuating several times that the document may not exist at all. By his refusal to produce the document, fighting it tooth and nail through many court cases, he built up the appearance that he was hiding something, stoking even more crazy theories by the birthers, who by association were Tea Party crackpots cum Republican conservatives. So Obama and his handlers milked the con until Trump stirred up too much public doubt in Obama's birthright. Time to cash in. The long form certificate is produced, and the birthers/Tea Party/conservatives/Republicans/Trump are all left standing around with egg running down their collective faces. A masterful stroke. A masterful con.

Unless, of course, it took them that long to manufacture an acceptable forgery.

JP