Tea Party Nation Continues to Question Obama's Birth Certificate

ANALYSIS | Unlike Donald Trump, the Tea Party Nation is not ready to let the President Obama birth certificate scandal go.

Obama released his long firm birth certificate today, seemingly in an attempt to quiet the speculation, fueled mainly by so-called "birthers," about whether or not he was born in the United States.

While the discussion among conspiracy minded political opponents of the president about his birth certificate (and, by extension his eligibility to be president) has been ongoing since his run for president, it seemed to hit a fever pitch in recent days as Trump, a New York, a rumored presidential candidate, repeatedly raised the issue.

Obama, who presumably did not want to be put in a position of reacting to conspiracy theorists, finally relented today, released the document and said, in part, "We do not have time for this kind of silliness."

Trump reacted by basically declaring the issue over and claiming credit for forcing the president to react by saying, "He should have done it a long time ago. I am really honored to play such a big role in hopefully, hopefully getting rid of this issue."

While Trump seems prepared to move onto other issues, however, Tea Party Nation, on its website, was quick to say that there still might be more to the story. Of Obama's birth certificate, founder Judson Phillips wrote, in part, "Could it be fake? Anything is possible and certainly there are a lot of people with the skills to create a faked document, such as a birth certificate."

Further on, Phillips questioned, "If this is all there is to it, why didn't Obama release this two and a half years ago?"

The Tea Party Nation's reaction is the latest example of where the group may be overplaying its hand. Despite media attention, there did not seem to be any evidence of a groundswell of demand by the electorate for Obama to address the matter. Even Phillips acknowledged this in the same articles, writing, "Trump was making a lot of traction in the GOP polls with the issue but it did not seem like there was a huge mounting cry for Obama to release the document."

With the 2012 presidential campaign about to kick into high gear, voters will likely get increasingly serious about real issues they face. Unemployment remains high, the housing market continues to deteriorate and geopolitical risk shows no signs of ebbing. If Tea Party Nation wants to be relevant in the conversation in this political cycle, it will likely need to focus on issues that are real to voters. The issues need be 'real' in two senses: both factually true and as well as relevant. In the case of the question of whether Barack Obama is a natural born United States citizen, Tea Party Nation may be seen embracing an issue that is neither.

Ron Hart is a political observer living in New York City. He has participated in political campaigns of both parties.