Tuesday, October 16, 2012

SENATE CANDIDATE'S SON: 'SEND OBAMA BACK TO KENYA'


Jason Thompson, son of Senate candidate and former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson, cracked a smile yesterday when he suggested voters send Barack Obama “back to Kenya.”
Jason Thompson, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reports, has represented his father’s campaign at various events in the former Republican governor’s contest against Rep. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wisc., for the state’s open Senate seat.
Video captured Jason Thompson speaking yesterday at a fall brunch hosted by the Republican Party of Kenosha County.
“We have the opportunity to send President Obama back to Chicago,” Thompson said in all earnestness, then added with a smile, “or Kenya.”
The joke got a smattering of applause from those in attendance, including one unidentified woman who added, “We’re taking donations for that Kenya trip!”
Not everyone was so amused, however.
The Journal-Sentinel – which reported the video was taken by “a Democratic Party operative” – called Thompson’s quip a nod to the “discredited ‘birther’ argument” perpetuated by “a fringe group of Obama critics.”
Gov. Thompson’s campaign also chimed in via email: “The governor has addressed this with his son, just like any father would do. Jason Thompson said something he should not have, and he apologizes.”
Obama, however, has frequently been tied not only to Chicago, but also to Kenya.
Obama’s wife, Michelle, in fact, called her husband as “a Kenyan” and referred to “his home country in Kenya.” Natives of the nation have also referred to Obama as “a fellow Kenyan” and a “son of the soil of this country.”
Before Obama was elected, it was fairly common to find references in the media that even referred to the former Illinois senator as born in Kenya.
The Kenyan government, as well, in 2009 commissioned a cultural museum in Kenya to “honour the birthplace of President Obama.”
Even Obama’s own literary agency billed him as “born in Kenya” as late as 2007 to promote the sale of his book, “Dreams from My Father.”
And while the White House released a purported copy of Obama’s Hawaiian birth certificate April 27, 2011, the president’s refusal to release his childhood and college records, coupled with charges that the birth certificate is a forgery, as well as Barack Obama Sr.’s status as a foreign national, have led many so-called “birthers” to continue to question Obama’s birthplace and/or eligibility under the U.S. Constitution to serve as president.

No comments: