Even as I type this, I know there are people reading your article and fuming that you would dare to challenge their beliefs re Obama and their right to hold those beliefs. However, as you state, why continue when their is irrefutable proof to the contrary? Sadly, I have minimal psychology training, so am not in a position to comment.

I am all for people having opinions and debating them robustly. In fact, I love it! However, once they start to argue against fact, I can only assume a political agenda. In the case of Obama, this would certainly seem to be the case. Argue about his policies all you like but stop spreading lies about the rest.

The United States of America is made up of some 300,000,000 people, a small, very vocal minority of which are firmly united in denying that the Civil War was fought and won to stop the enslavement of all Americans, that the Declaration of Independence is incorrect in its statement that "All men are created equal" and that the revered Founding Fathers did not really want "liberty and justice for all". In fact, another branch of 'flat-earthers', but firm in their belief that African-Americans are a lesser form of humanity than 'white Americans'. And now frantic in their attempts to do anything to remove Obama from the Presidency.
Considering the sad history of the USA in such affairs, only another presidential assassination will curb their lust for Obama's removal.

This is nothing new in US history. Franklin Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln were horribly vilified. They tried to change things and stepped on the toes of the powerful, the bigoted and the mean-spirited.

I am an American living in Australia and hope to cast my absentee ballot for Obama next year.

It should be noted that the US with a majority white Christian population chose to elect a dark skinned man with a Muslim father as president. A hotel maid accused a very powerful man, the head of the International Monetary fund, of sexually molesting her. He was arrested and is now in custody. Many other countries would not have bothered with the maid's complaint. The law applies to all.

Most countries in the world do not have an independent judiciary and free speech. Any resident of the US is perfectly free to condemn the US vehemently, and nothing is going to happen to that person because of that. See what happens if a Chinese does that in China.

One price for that freedom and equality is to have birthers, deathers and deniers.

Well it is the nature of politics. Never let the facts get in the way of a good hate campaign. It is a mistake in politics to belive in the idea if you spin a lie long enough it will take on a truth of it's own. In reality it is only the wing-nuts that take on those lies as it serves a self-fulfilling agenda. The thinkers are not impressed.

Donald Trump was a worry, one would assume a level of intelligence given his propensity to make money. I was waiting for someone to say April Fools.

Some of it is down to the sour grapes over the loss of the election and blind prejudice around race and one only need look at the demographic these attitudes spring from.

Well said David f.

It's easy to point a laugh at the US but the fact is we have plently of own nut jobs on both side of the fence.

Hi Runner.

Let's be fair: the same kind of charges were levelled against Bush Jr, against Clinton, against Bush Sr, against Carter, against Ford, and for all I know against every President back to Washington. Obama's racial background obviously makes his defenders more sensitive to what might be construed as racial slurs, and rightly so. But there's nothing particularly new about ridicule and mockery being applied to Presidents or other powerful figures, and we should be very careful not to condemn what amounts to a powerful freedom of speech.

Where racial vilification and hate crimes are concerned Obama has access to the same laws as anyone else. As for being sent up, that goes with the job.