President Obama:  “We Do Not Have Time For This Kind Of Silliness”

If there has ever been a case for media reform, it is now. The media will go on covering birthers.  We hope that President Obama will make them pay politically for what they are doing as he made them pay for their insipid Reverend Wright non-troversy by making the best political speech of his career on race in America during the campaign.  Making them pay a price for what they are doing is the only thing that will make them stop. Meanwhile, did you know the GOP is trying to get rid of Medicare?]

THE PRESIDENT:  Hello, everybody.  Now, let me just comment, first of
all, on the fact that I can't get the networks to break in on all kinds
of other discussions — (laughter.)  I was just back there listening to
Chuck — he was saying, it’s amazing that he’s not going to be talking
about national security.  I would not have the networks breaking in if I
was talking about that, Chuck, and you know it.

Q Wrong channel.  (Laughter.) 

THE PRESIDENT:  As many of you have been briefed, we provided
additional information today about the site of my birth. Now, this issue
has been going on for two, two and a half years now.  I think it
started during the campaign.  And I have to say that over the last two
and a half years I have watched with bemusement, I've been puzzled at
the degree to which this thing just kept on going.  We've had every
official in Hawaii, Democrat and Republican, every news outlet that has
investigated this, confirm that, yes, in fact, I was born in Hawaii,
August 4, 1961, in Kapiolani Hospital.

We've posted the certification that is given by the state of Hawaii on
the Internet for everybody to see.  People have provided affidavits that
they, in fact, have seen this birth certificate.  And yet this thing
just keeps on going. 

Now, normally I would not comment on something like this, because
obviously there’s a lot of stuff swirling in the press on at any given
day and I've got other things to do.  But two weeks ago, when the
Republican House had put forward a budget that will have huge
consequences potentially to the country, and when I gave a speech about
my budget and how I felt that we needed to invest in education and
infrastructure and making sure that we had a strong safety net for our
seniors even as we were closing the deficit, during that entire week the
dominant news story wasn’t about these huge, monumental choices that
we're going to have to make as a nation.  It was about my birth
certificate.  And that was true on most of the news outlets that were
represented here.

And so I just want to make a larger point here.  We've got some
enormous challenges out there.  There are a lot of folks out there who
are still looking for work.  Everybody is still suffering under high gas
prices.  We're going to have to make a series of very difficult
decisions about how we invest in our future but also get a hold of our
deficit and our debt — how do we do that in a balanced way.

And this is going to generate huge and serious debates, important
debates.  And there are going to be some fierce disagreements — and
that’s good.  That’s how democracy is supposed to work.  And I am
confident that the American people and America’s political leaders can
come together in a bipartisan way and solve these problems.  We always
have. 

But we’re not going to be able to do it if we are distracted.  We’re
not going to be able to do it if we spend time vilifying each other. 
We’re not going to be able to do it if we just make stuff up and pretend
that facts are not facts.  We’re not going to be able to solve our
problems if we get distracted by sideshows and carnival barkers.

We live in a serious time right now and we have the potential to deal
with the issues that we confront in a way that will make our kids and
our grandkids and our great grandkids proud.  And I have every
confidence that America in the 21st century is going to be able to come
out on top just like we always have.  But we’re going to have to get
serious to do it. 

I know that there’s going to be a segment of people for which, no
matter what we put out, this issue will not be put to rest.  But I’m
speaking to the vast majority of the American people, as well as to the
press.  We do not have time for this kind of silliness.  We’ve got
better stuff to do.  I’ve got better stuff to do.  We’ve got big
problems to solve.  And I’m confident we can solve them, but we’re going
to have to focus on them — not on this.

Thanks very much, everybody.

whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/04/27/remarks-president