Native Son

What some bloggers are describing as A Video That Could Change the Election actually contains few new allegations, even though it has garnered almost four million views for its conspiracy theory style argument that Barack Obama is not an American citizen by birth and therefore cannot serve as president. At the Fight the Smears website, a copy of Obama's Honolulu birth certificate is on display. FactCheck.org has also taken Obama's side in the dispute and even posts a photograph showing the number of the certificate, which the Obama site has blacked out.

Nonetheless, supporters of this "October Surprise" promote the Obama Crimes blog, which reports that injunctions are being filed to prevent the supposed Kenyan's and/or Indonesian's election. The group's bells-and-whistles Flash site, No Hussein, is devoted to ad hominem attacks, many of which go beyond the issue of Obama's supposed foreign nationality.

As a rhetorician, what I find interesting about the YouTube video is the filmmakers' attempts to establish credibility by claiming to be nonpartisan and implying that People magazine style journalism rather than a vast left-wing conspiracy causes this "story" to be untold. Obama opponent attorney Philip J. Berg also prefaces his remarks with claims of Democratic party affiliation and expertise in Constitutional law.

Ironically, of course, McCain was born in Panama, while his father was stationed there as a naval officer.