Pat Boone goes Birther

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

Published June 29, 2009 11:30PM (EDT)

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.


By Alex Koppelman

Alex Koppelman is a staff writer for Salon.

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