Why Obama Freed His Inner 'Kenyan'
It must make the birthers' heads explode to hear President Barack Obama ridicule the ridiculous charge that he is a secret Kenyan. That's only one good reason for him to do it.
"Birthers" are people who just can't -- or refuse to -- get it through their narrow minds that Obama was born as he and documentation says he was, a legal United States citizen. Yes, I'm thinking of you, Donald Trump.
"I suspect that some of my critics back home are suspecting that I'm back here to look for my birth certificate," the President quipped at a Saturday night state dinner hosted by Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta.
On Sunday, speaking to a packed sports arena in Nairobi, he brought cheers by calling himself "the first Kenyan-American to be president of the United States."
Indeed he is. In fact, having an ethnic hyphen is in many ways the American way.
This is particularly true in cities like Obama's hometown, Chicago, where ethnicity is celebrated with annual parades and neighborhood festivals from St. Patrick's Day to Columbus Day.
But the irony of being a racial or ethnic pioneer like the nation's first black president is the need he must feel to play down any action or expression that might be viewed as divisive. In fact, Obama's critics will call him divisive whether he calls attention to his racial heritage of not.
But now that he's in his final 18 months as president and has no more campaigns to run, he can be more candid about doing what his two predecessors have done: help Africa, the world's least developed continent, to have the world's fastest growing economies.
Obama had not returned to Kenya for his first visit as president only to tour economic development projects and say hi to his Kenyan kinfolk. He also aimed to strengthen security alliances in the war against Boko Haram and other regional terrorist groups.
He also aimed to make a strong plea for human rights, press freedoms and government transparency across the continent.
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