SALON

Monday, Jun 29, 2009 11:30 PM UTC

Pat Boone goes Birther

The entertainer gets behind the movement that claims -- wrongly -- President Obama isn't eligible for his job

By

Topics: Birthers, War Room,

In 1997, Pat Boone — the singer who became famous for his whitened covers of R&B classics — released an album of heavy metal, “In a Metal Mood: No More Mr. Nice Guy.” In an effort to promote the album, he showed up to the American Music Awards wearing leather.

For a little more than 10 years, nothing Boone did was as embarrassing as that.

Then, this weekend, he officially joined the Birthers, the group of people who believe that President Obama doesn’t meet the Cosntitution’s requirement that presidents be “natural-born” citizens of the U.S. (Hat-tip to the Washington Independent’s David Weigel.)

In a column published at World Net Daily, the conspiracist Web site that’s been the prime mover for the Birthers, as well as conservative Web outlet Newsmax, Boone writes:

When you get gas – if you can still afford it to – and you want to use your credit card, you pass it into a slot checker, and still have to punch in your zip code. Right? In today’s world, you have to be ready to show valid, verifiable identification for almost anything you want to buy or do.

What about applying for the most powerful, consequential, dangerous office in the world – THE PRESIDENCY OF THE UNITED STATES?

From there, the column is largely a reflection of Boone’s skill at covering the work of those who’ve gone before him — it is, in other words, a retread of WND’s usual myths, half-truths and outright falsehoods.

Alex Koppelman is a staff writer for Salon. More Alex Koppelman.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 286 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

vote
FBI reportedly joins Bachmann campaign finance probe
215 points216 points | 13 comments
vote
Jon Karl makes things worse: He regrets “inaccurate” Benghazi email but says his story based on it “still entirely stands.” Really. ABC News?
194 points195 points | 29 comments
vote
Paul Krugman’s right: Austerity kills. "In an economy where we’re all in the same boat, one person’s spending is another person’s income. So when the government cuts spending, it reduces people’s income, leading to less business, more unemployment, and a vicious spiral of slowing down the economy."
183 points184 points | 117 comments
vote
“Jodorowsky’s Dune”: The sci-fi classic that never was.
76 points77 points | 16 comments
vote
Doug Henwood: Capitalism Thrives on Class Exploitation
45 points46 points | 5 comments

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations