As someone who has always immersed himself into American political history, the 2008 election is particularly memorable and fascinating to me, perhaps because it’s the first election I can vividly remember growing up. What makes this election historically important is it’s the first time in our nation’s history electing someone who’s African American to the presidency; this is notable due to the racist remarks Obama would receive promptly after becoming a front-runner in the election and having elevated his presence on the national stage. The since-debunked claim of Obama not being a natural-born citizen of the United States spread during the course of the campaign. In this blog post, I will be elaborating on the origin of this myth, the persuasion strategies that were used, as well as the aftermath of the conspiracy theory.
A 48-year old U.S. senator from Illinois, Barack Obama did not have as much political experience compared to his opponents in this election cycle. Rather, he used this to his advantage, campaigning as the “hope and change” candidate, as many Americans grew tired of eight years of Bush’s presidency. Obama became a rising star in the Democratic Party during his keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. Shortly after giving this speech, Obama went on to win his Illinois senate race. It was clear Obama was setting his sights high, as this event coupled with the release of his 2006 bestseller, “The Audacity of Hope” catapulted him into the limelight as a prime contender for the presidency. Shortly after the release of his book, he would announce his candidacy.
While the road to the presidency appeared like a long shot for the junior senator, as there was an incredibly stacked democratic candidate field (with former First Lady and U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton being an immediate frontrunner), Obama was able to jump to the top three in contention for the democratic nominee fairly quickly in the campaign cycle. Obama utilized his gift of a being an incredibly articulate orator, which clearly resonated with voters, coupled with an aggressive, grass-roots campaign focused on younger, college-voters. It was during Obama’s 2008 campaign where we see one of the first attempts at internet-based campaigning for a presidential election. Although there were many benefits to this strategy, the internet also proliferated a lot of buzz around Obama, with some of these claims having questionable authenticity.
During the democratic primary, some of Clinton’s supporters began speculating about the legitimacy of Obama’s birthplace in Hawaii. It’s worth noting there has been no evidence to support Hillary or her campaign staff’s involvement in contributing to these claims, and is seen today as speculation amongst a small percentage of her supporters as the highly-competitive democratic race between her and Obama dragged on. In June 2008, Obama’s campaign released a photocopy of his short-firm birth certificate, in an effort to lay these speculations to rest. While this pleased some, a portion of this crowd were still insistent on Obama releasing his long-form birth certificate.
This rumor continued further into the general election. One of the most notable examples of a video clip that surfaced of a lady at a McCain rally speaking to John McCain claiming that Obama is an “Arab”. McCain quickly dispels the rumor. While this claim involving Obama’s birthplace was well-known at the time, it never manifested into a consensus or was able to successfully derail Obama’s campaign. Upon Barack Obama winning the presidency, the speculation largely subsides.
This is until Donald Trump enters the picture. In 2011, Trump goes on record expressing his “real doubts” over the legitimacy of Obama’s birth certificate, claiming he was to send a team of private investigators to Hawaii to highlight any inaccuracies, while also promising to donate $5 million to charity if anyone could persuade him Obama’s was born in the US. Later the next month, the White House released the “long-form” version of his birth certificate. While this seemed to satisfy Trump in the moment, presenting himself with immense pride that he was able to provide a “great service” in helping resolve these claims, he continues to bring up the issue in the coming years. These concerns lacked any sort of credibility or verifiable sources, yet a sizable portion of the population were convinced of this, according to a an NBC/Survey Monkey poll provided in 2016 (Zurcher, 2016).
In 2016, amidst Donald Trump’s run for president, he makes a statement admitting that Obama was indeed born in the United States, though there was no apology addressed to President Obama (Montanero, 2016).
A noteworthy persuasion tactic used to propagate this conspiracy theory during the height of its notoriety, found from this week’s learning materials in “The Language of Persuasion” is utilizing fear. While fear-mongering is not a new phenomenon, I believe it applies in this instance because there was never any hard evidence to prove Obama’s birth certificate was fake. The underlying motivations from the start of this conspiracy all the way to Donald Trump’s claims was purely political. Whether the specific political motivations are tied to 2008 with the disgruntled Clinton supporters, or Donald Trump’s claims which we now know in hindsight was used as a form of propaganda in order to keep his name in the news cycle revolving political figures to contribute toward name recognition and relevance toward his 2016 run for president. This myth is also a prime example of a racist dog whistle, as influential figures such as Donald Trump were able to make their baseless claims to an audience who may have held already existing racist resentments towards evolving demographics. Even though this claim was debunked by Obama releasing both versions of his birth certificate, the lasting effects this strategy, largely popularized by Trump, has been used to attack other political figures, such as Nikki Haley and Kamala Harris (which interestingly enough were Trump’s political rivals in the 2024 Republican Primary and 2024 general election respectively.)
References:
Montanero, D. (2016, September 16). Without Apology, Trump Now Says: “Obama Was Born In” The U.S. Npr.org. https://www.npr.org/2016/09/16/494231757/without-apology-trump-now-says-obama-was-born-in-the-u-s
Clinton, J., & Roush, C. (2016, August 10). Poll: Persistent Partisan Divide Over “Birther” Question. NBC News; NBC News. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/poll-persistent-partisan-divide-over-birther-question-n627446
Zurcher, A. (2016, September 16). The birth of the Obama “birther” conspiracy. BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/election-us-2016-3739165256