On August 20^th, President Obama almost blew it.

"The American people have assumed that if you want to be president of the United States that your life's an open book    (pause)   when it comes to things like your finances," he told reporters in an impromptu press conference at the White House today.  (article)

The moment was glaring.  He almost called for full disclosure of the pasts of candidates, then quickly smoothed it over and qualified the comment to "finances".

The quote doesn't do justice to the brief but awkward moment.  The stumble , ( video 17:00 mark) on that phrase, the slight pause, then the cover.

The title of most secretive Presidential past in the history of the country is owned by Barack Obama.  Now this would have been news...maybe.

He says the American people expect what other presidents have done in the past.

Mr. President, does that include college records?  (see GWB college records)

Mr. Obama and his handlers did something very clever, years ago, in preparation for his public life. They overloaded the information on Obama early, so much so as to be a distraction. then kept closed the protected matters. Why two autobiographies at such an early age?  To give the impression of disclosing the past (and earn millions to support Michelle's wardrobe). 

Then the game. To question anything of Obama or his past,  was to be doubting, negative, and now racist.

To wit:  The Chris Mathews rant with Reince Priebus in the room.  An interview it was not.

Chris is an angry man.  Time on the $200 an hour couch might reveal exactly why.  That leaves us only with the "how" he displays it.  And his ranting monologue the other day was a manifestation of some disturbance in the inner Mathews.

"That cheap shot about 'I don't have a problem with my birth certificate' was awful. You are playing that little ethnic card there. You can play your games and giggle about it, but the fact is your side is playing that card." says Mathews. (article)
Romney doesn't have a problem with his birth certificate.  That is a fact. Obama delayed any release of his own, and at various times cited 2 different hospitals as the site. Supposed politically neutral websites held up fakes and declared them as real.  Then when Obama himself finally presented a document, it was a forensically flawed .pdf file.  Oh, and at the age of 48 when he was elected, there wasn't a living person who remembers him being born. Does anyone that age or older have that same curious condition?

Why is it not fair for Romney to point to the clarity in his origin? Where he was born, what hospital, etc.?  Did Chris miss the contrast in openness? And a bigger question to the stupid accusation, why is it racist?

Mathews goes on to make some disparaging remarks about Republican candidates going to prep school.  Chris must have forgotten that Obama went to the finest prep school in Hawaii.  Those tingles down the leg may be drawing blood from the brain.

For Republicans to mention the increase in Food Stamp participation (doubled) and Welfare (nearly a third of all citizens), Mathews considers racist topics as well.  Chris must not know there are more whites on food stamps than blacks.  Chris is confused.  But Priebus was unarmed.

"Though blacks are disproportionately represented among food stamp recipients, far more whites receive such assistance. When recipients identified themselves by race in 2010, 34 percent were white, 22 percent were black and 16 were percent Hispanic, the Agriculture Department said."  (article)

The noted article also mentions that the numbers for the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF, a system that offers cash assistance and is much smaller than the food stamp program in 2009, 33 percent were African-American, 31 percent were white and 29 percent were Hispanic.

Rants like the Mathews diatribe delivered the other day need only be met with facts, if you can get a word in.  Maybe that was the idea of the filibuster.