It’s not enough for WorldNetDaily to liken President Obama to an Al-Qaeda terrorist — after all, it’s been a while since they likened him to Nazis.
WND editor Joseph Farah takes it upon himself to fill the void and go Godwin in his June 23 column:
The American political and media elite have determined, for whatever reason, that the Constitution’s eligibility requirements for the presidency are not important.
That is the only conclusion one can draw from the misinformation, disinformation and disinterest they have shown to the serious questions swirling around not only the unique case of Barack Obama but also to the definition of “natural born citizen” in future presidential elections.
It’s not unprecedented that failing republics dumb down eligibility requirements for the presidency. It’s not unprecedented that failing republics ignore or obscure eligibility requirements for the presidency. It’s not unprecedented that failing republics make tragic mistakes in permitting non-qualified candidates to serve in the presidency.
It happened in 1932 in Germany with a candidate named Adolf Hitler.
Needless to say, Farah doesn’t want you to think he’s likening Obama to Hitler:
I can almost visualize the reaction to what I am saying here: “Farah is comparing Obama to Hitler!”
No, I am not.Hitler is in a unique historical class of tyrants and fiends and mass murderers. There’s Hitler and Josef Stalin and Mao Zedong. Together they are responsible for the deaths of more than 100 million people.
For perspective, Obama has merely contributed to the economic and moral degradation of the greatest country on earth.
I use the Hitler illustration only to demonstrate there are real-world consequences to bending the rules in constitutional republics for political expediency.
Indeed. Why else would WND feel the need to make such a comparison on such a depressingly regular basis?
Farah seems blissfully (or deliberately) ignorant of the fact that explaining away his comparison doesn’t matter; he’s discredited himself by making it at all.
UPDATE: Salon’s Alex Pareene points out one little flaw in Farah’s analogy: Hitler was never elected president of Germany.