President Obama’s reelection campaign is turning a conspiracy theory that had long dogged the president into a snarky fundraising tool, selling merchandise depicting Obama and his complete long form birth certificate.
For a $25 donation, you can get a t-shirt that shows a smiling Obama above the phrase, “Made in the U.S.A” on the front, and the president’s long-form birth certificate on the back. The campaign is also giving away coffee mugs with the same design scheme to supporters who make a $15 contribution.
Deputy Campaign Manager Julianna Smoot wrote in an email announcing the new items that the campaign felt it was best to make light of the birther controversy so the president could go back to focusing on more important issues.
“There’s really no way to make this stuff completely go away,” Smoot wrote. “The only thing we can do is laugh at it — and make sure as many other people as possible are in on the joke.”
“If the facts can’t make these ridiculous smears go away, we can at least have a little fun with it,” she added.
The new merch was announced the same week that a book questioning Obama’s citizenship, Where’s the Birth Certificate?, went on sale
Obama had long been hounded by skeptics who claimed he was not born in the U.S., and thus ineligible to serve as president. The furor reached a fever pitch this spring when pseudo-presidential candidate and reality TV host Donald Trump repeatedly questioned Obama’s legitimacy to hold office, and as polls began to show, as many as half of all GOP primary voters thought Obama was born outside America.
Obama held a press conference in late April to release his long form birth certificate, saying that the nation had more pressing matters to attend to than sideshows hawked by “carnival barkers.”
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