Obama's birthplace is not the issue.

I first heard the notion that Barrack Obama was not eligible for the Presidency because of a supposed lack of native citizenship before his official nomination. When I looked at the field of contestants to be the Democrat nominee, I dismissed the notion mostly out of not having any "skin in the game" regarding who would eventually be picked.

Over the past few years, the emergence of the "Birther" movement continued to shine light on what was perceived to be shortcomings and gaps in the stories related to the Presidents' true origins. In truth, a lot of this was fueled by the President himself. Prior to his speech at the DNC, no one really had ever heard of him before. He wasn't a political animal or rock star along the lines of former President Clinton, and he certainly had not been a mover or shaker in academia or a Man of Industry in the private sector. Yet, this guy who came out of nowhere emerged as virtual political demi-god.

When these stories persisted, I sat back one day and gave the matter some serious thought. Obama had already been elected and assumed office for several months, so I broke it down as follows:

- If Barrack Obama was not a genuine citizen eligible to be President, it would have been impossible for him to get as far as he did without key people being involved to pull off such a scam. As such, the man had both the House and the Senate, along with a majority of state governorships. Even if undeniable proof came into being saying that Obama was not a legitimate President, what would the odds be that the Democrats in absolute power and control would either admit to their lack of vetting or admit to going along with what they knew to be a con of unimaginable proportions? The conclusion I came to was that in such a case they would not let him be removed from power regardless of the Constitutional illegalities involved. Thus - worrying about it was not worth it because it was completely beyond my control.

- If Barack Obama has been a legitimate US citizen from the start, then the President was intentionally promoting a fake controversy through deliberate obfuscation in order to distract people from the substance and consequences of his policies. This answer was something that I had come to expect. Former President Clinton was famous for having his people put out fake stories in interviews with the press. Clinton aides told the press that Monica Lewinsky's mother had broken down into sobs at her appearance before a grand jury - attributing the incident to Ken Starr being a monster. What actually happened was the revelation in court that Lewinsky's mother - a prominent ranking democrat in her local party - was recorded on tape by the feds referring to Hillary Clinton using the codename "Babba" also used in recordings of Lewinsky made by Linda Tripp, thus contradicting her previous testimony that she was never privy to her daughters affair. Her sobbing started when she realized that then First Lady Hillary was aware of her involvement. In other words...."Bye Bye democrat party ranking!" Or, my personal favorite was when Clinton aides leaked stories to the press regarding former President Clinton losing his temper during videotaped grand jury testimony and walking off camera. Later, when the video was released, it showed a very calm and collected President Clinton. Sydney Blumenthal, appearing on camera after grand jury testimony - used the opportunity to depict Ken Starr's courtroom mannerisms in a negative light, so much so that by the end of his third and final grand jury session, the jurors decided to give him a lecture. "We are very concerned about the fact that during your last visit that an inaccurate representation of the events that happened were retold on the steps of the courthouse," the grand jury forewoman told him, according to a transcript of the session.

My lesson learned from these and countless other examples of deliberate political deception to the public was that the only logical position for me to take was one of complete skepticism. I couldn't take anything claimed by InfoWars.com at face value, and I certainly wasn't about to trust anything said by President Obama as the truth, either. As a result, I treated the notion of Obama's birth as a non-issue with no tenable way to approach it, regardless of the circumstances.

Fast forward to two years later, and the rumor-mill regarding Obama's birth had only grown. That gave me pause. The President was in office, nothing was going to change, birthers were marginalized and it made no sense to continue fighting a fight that can't be won. So why on earth was this rumor - of all things - picking up speed?

On April 26th, 2011, a shock poll was released by USA Today/Gallup which came to the realization that only 38% of people polled believed that the President was absolutely born in the US. I quote "..not all Birthers are Republicans, and, not every Republican is a Birther. The ‘mysterious’ Americans–15% who definitely believe Obama wasn’t born in the US plus the 9% who ‘probably’ believe Obama wasn’t born in the US–are Birthers who are not Republicans."

Two days later, the President released a generated PDF copy of his birth certificate.

This surprised me a great deal. Liberals were outraged that the President's birthplace has ever been questioned. Anyone who questioned it had to be a racist. A kook. A Klansman. A wingnut. People who lived on the fringes.

It then struck me as to what had really been going on. People were not buying the birther notions because of an innate doubt regarding Obama's birthplace, they were doubting his origins for completely different reasons.

Imagine the following scenario:

In an alternate timeline, President Obama assumes office and calls together a joint session of Congress. There, he outlines a plan based on his campaign promises to cut spending a reduce the size of government. He convinces the House and Senate to pass budgets that reduce spending to 15% less than incoming revenue. To spur economic development, he convinces them to remove excessive and burdensome regulations on businesses and reminds America of it's entrepreneurial spirit and roots. Refusing to be labeled as someone who shows favoritism, he calls upon the black community to return to the birthright which is theirs: Free Americans who live in an a society that offers unlimited opportunity. He calls out the divisively racist political posturing of Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson and calls upon them to look to themselves and each other. He reminds them of white America's sacrifices, accommodations and generational success in their transition from slaves to full Americans blessed by the protections of the Constitution. He calls for the complete elimination of racial preferences and quotas. He limits the expansion of unemployment and refuses to remove the work and job-seeking requirements for those living on public assistance. To reduce the struggle of the poor and middle class, he immediately cuts off all funding for ethanol subsidies - forcing more corn to be sent into the food market. The resulting increase in corn supply causes the price of all related food items and services to drop, lowering the cost of food. As a bonus, the gasoline industry - no longer forced to create seasonal blends of gas that contain ethanol - are forced to lower prices because the attempt between companies to bring gasoline supply to the consumer has now become more competitive. To further the assistance of the poor and disadvantaged, the President calls for the removal of restrictions placed on Heath care insurance companies, allowing companies to sell policies through interstate commerce. The resulting increase in the pool of available customers and competition between thousands of companies allows for a remodeling of how calculated risk is determined. Models where risk is spread out across a larger demographic results in the cost of policies to drop. More people are capable of buying insurance, reducing the cost of risk even further. The reductions in cost allow for the employed to command larger salaries while not significantly changing the bottom line of businesses. Businesses expand. Knowing that more energy is needed for a thriving economy, and being honest enough to know that windmills cannot provide what we need, the President eliminates the restrictions on American oil exploration off the continental shelf, in Alaska and throughout the lower 48 - telling the world that he is determined for America to be the most prosperous, innovative and freedom-loving society on Earth. He delivers a speech to call upon the free world to reject the hatred and deceit of Muslim extremism and unequivocally renounces the anti-Semitic desires of the Islamic world to eliminate Israel.

This is a condensed scenario to be sure, but ask yourself:

- If the President had actually done or even attempted to do the things I suggested and actively concentrated on making America stronger, better and more prosperous instead of constantly vacationing and golfing - would the birther issue have grown?

- If he had spoken openly about America's Christian heritage and core influence in our Founding and demonstrated it through personal practice instead of tweaking the nose of Christian believers on a regular basis - would his religious identity have ever been called into question?

-If the President had spent as much time professing how much he loves America, it's traditions, it's pastimes, culture and religiously moral roots as he has deriding America's faults and shortcomings - would the notion of where he was born have ever come into play outside of when Hillary Clinton's people first suggested the idea during a very contentious primary?

Look at Donald Trump: The man has a huge ego, is very confident of himself and bluntly speaks his mind - hardly the kind of person we'd ever expect to try and run for President. Yet this guy as of this writing currently leads the pack. Why? Because Donald Trump has demonstrated an ability to vocalize what a majority of people are thinking. He has called the President and his policies a disaster. He calls Obama's actions and stances Un-American. He questioned his qualifications, his background and his past. He openly talks about his love for this country and calls the economic disaster we are in for what it is. In short - Donald Trump has been actively asking questions and delivering candid scrutiny about Obama that any legitimate member of the press would have asked years ago when an unheard of upstart was rocket-propelled through the ranks of the democrat hierarchy out of nowhere.

Prior to Obama winning the democrat primary, former President Clinton said it better than anyone else when he told the late Ted Kennedy "Hey, come on man, a few years ago this guy would have been fetching us coffee." Is someone going to try and convince us otherwise that the Grandmaster of Politics himself - President Bill Clinton - was a "know nothing" regarding the vacuous nature of who Obama really was? One could make many arguments regarding the nature of Clinton's Presidency - but no one can honestly say that he was nothing short of brilliant in his academic and political career. For all of his entrenchment into the world of Political Correctness, he was honest enough during one of Kennedy's few sober moments to call it like it is.

The birth certificate controversy has never been the driving issue, rather its growth has been a reflection of the growing public distrust and skepticism of both the policies and the man who is nothing he was portrayed to be.