KS newspapers withdraw endorsement of birther candidate

[proud2BlibKansan]

The entire interview can be heard by clicking this link: www.hutchnews.com/www/candidateforum-full.mp3
Last updated 7/23/2010 11:30 PM

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Mann camp: He 'misspoke'

By Michael Strand - Special to The News

SALINA - A front-runner in the race for the Republican nomination for the 1st Congressional District was dealing Thursday with fallout from a Tuesday radio show appearance in which he said the issue of President Barack Obama's citizenship needs to be resolved.

Tuesday, on KSAL's afternoon talk show "Friendly Fire," Salinan Tracey Mann was asked if he was a "birther," or part of a group of people who claim Obama was born in Kenya, or elsewhere, and so isn't legally eligible to be president.

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Mann's on-air response: "I think the president of the United States needs to come forth with his papers and show everyone that he's an American citizen and put this issue to bed once and for all."

Mann campaign manager Jake DeVantier said Thursday morning that Mann "misspoke" on the radio show.

"Tracey has seen sufficient evidence to prove Obama is a citizen," DeVantier said, explaining that Mann had seen that evidence some time ago, and not in the past few days. "He believed Obama was a citizen when he said that on the air."

KSAL's Bryan Jennings, who asked the question, said he brought up the issue because Mann had questioned the president's citizenship at a June 21 candidate forum in Elkhart.

The Salina Journal obtained a copy of video from that forum, which shows Democratic candidate Alan Jilka answering first, saying he didn't think the question of Obama's citizenship merited the time it would take to respond.

Mann was next up, saying he disagreed with Jilka, and that "I would say that he should show his birth certificate to really resolve this thing one way or another."

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The News responded to Mann's Tuesday on-air comments by withdrawing its endorsement of Mann; the Salina Journal's endorsement of Mann appeared in an editorial in Tuesday's paper, hours before his appearance on "Friendly Fire."

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Editor and publisher Tom Bell, who wrote the Journal's endorsement, said he, too, plans to withdraw his endorsement.

"I am pulling my endorsement and will have another editorial early next week," Bell said Thursday.

He said he will take another look at the five remaining Republican contenders.

If this is an important enough issue to merit that response, why didn't Bell ask Mann his opinion of Obama's citizenship status before making the endorsement?

"I never dreamed it was necessary to ask this of any of the candidates," Bell said. "I thought it was so far out of the mainstream."

More ..http://www.hutchnews.com/Todaystop/SJ--Mann--1.

[kestrel91316]

1. I think Mr. Mann needs to "come forth with" his own fucking papers, and no,

a certified copy won't do. If it's not good enough for Obama, it's not good enough for him.

[proud2BlibKansan]

2. Just unbelievable that a candidate would bring this up

I thought it was a joke when I first heard this.

[47of74]

3. In other words...

...Mann finds the idea of a non-white President to be an intolerable state of affairs. The only thing that's missing here is a set of white sheets and a hood.

[proud2BlibKansan]

4. I believe you are correct

[applegrove]

5. LOL! A republican candidate tries to bond with birthers using empathy for their

position and gets held accountable for it. YES!!! (finally)

[proud2BlibKansan]

6. It's been pretty sick here in red state hell

Primary is next week. The repukes are having a contest to see who hates Obama the most.

[applegrove]

7. So sorry you have to live through it.... vibes to you.

[47of74]

8. Sorry to here that...

We had our primary back in early June, and on the GOP side it was a bunch of idiots trying to out brown-shirt each other.