The video at peekURL.com/vw8kycs shows CNN contributor Jeffrey Toobin apologizing for smearing a "Birther" who Toobin had - perhaps unwittingly - accused of being among other things a racist. It's great to see Toobin forced to give a correction, but if others who discuss the Obama citizenship issue were smarter and competent and understood why this issue is important we could get much more meaningful corrections from more powerful people.

The backstory: a few weeks ago, CNN's Anderson Cooper interviewed Army Doctor LTC Terry Lakin about his court martial over this issue, which was followed by a segment featuring Toobin claiming:

"You know, these people are bigots, they're racists, they're freaks, they're lunatics, these are not rational players in American politics."

That was apparently broadcast with a picture of Lakin in the background, and Toobin now says he didn't mean to single him out, he was just speaking generally. This wasn't that great of a smackdown - Toobin did it with a smile on his face. If others would endeavor to understand this issue - and my take on it (see the links above) - we could make a lot of very obnoxious people look bad. Instead, some of the supposed opposition to Obama, the Democrats, and the MSM ends up helping those groups.