Four Dimensional Chess

There's an ongoing debate among both people who voted for Obama and people who loathe Obama as to how cagey our president is. When Obama does something that boggles one group or the other, the question is often addressed in shorthand using the phrase "four dimensional chess:" as in, is Obama actually five steps ahead of his opponents strategically? Or is he flying by the seat of his pants?

This question has been bothering me all morning, as Obama has apparently been goaded by professional jackass Donald Trump into addressing the Birthers by providing a long form birth certificate. As I write this, Trump is live on CNN gloating about his role in the release of Obama's documentation. The fact that the initial Birther response seems to be "well why didn't he release this sooner? What is he hiding, HMMMMM?!" is both obnoxious and predictable. Will this satisfy the Birthers? Oh my good God no.

At WND, also known as Crazy Corsi's House of Clinically Insane Bullshit, the natives are already moving on to questions about Obama's school records, thesis, etc. etc. etc. - as others have pointed out, the Birther's moving goalposts (first the birth certificate, now other documents) and credulity (WND posted a fake Kenyan birth certificate, and has also given credence to lunatics claiming everything from a gay affair with Obama to "evidence" that he is the Antichrist) guarantee that there will be plenty of hot air and easy money surrounding Obama conspiracy theories.

I suppose that Obama might have something up his sleeve here (or, to stick to my original metaphor, Obama might be five moves ahead in four dimensional chess), but honestly, I don't think so. I think this whole situation just reminds me of an old saying (one that I recently heard applied to Glenn Beck, interestingly): never wrestle with a pig.

The pig just enjoys it, and you'll wind up in the mud.

UPDATE: I didn't catch it personally, but NPR is reporting that Obama referred to the Birthers as "carnival barkers." THAT is awesome, no matter how you slice it.

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