Intelligent people often believe stupid shit, but it is hard to maintain much confidence in the notion that Bettina Viviano is particularly intelligent. Viviano is a birther. Now, even as conspiracy theories go, birtherism is silly, and Viviano’s take is silly even for birthers. Viviano, who apparently started her own film production company in 1990 after serving as vice president of production for Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment, told the WND (of course) that it was common knowledge among delegates committed to Hillary that the Clintons believed Obama was constitutionally ineligible and that Bill Clinton would eventually disclose this information to the public. In other words, according to Viviano, the Clintons started the birther conspiracy: “everybody who has called this a conspiracy from the Republicans or the tea party, they need to know who started it: the Democrats” – and the Clintons did so because the allegations, as Viviano sees it, are true. We do not know whether Viviano is a Democrat or a Republican, and her allegations appear (moderately) interestingly different depending on the answer, but they are laughably stupid in any case. 
Viviano in an interview with what
looks like Jerome Corsi
Viviano allegedly had access to Clinton’s 2008 campaign through a documentary she produced concerning the claims of delegates that Obama and the DNC were stealing the nomination from Hillary. Yes, it is nonsense on the surface and nonsense all the way down. Viviano also recalled that Bill Clinton spoke of Obama as “the non-citizen,” but given her demonstration of her cognitive abilities, we are not convinced we’d trust Viviano’s memories at this stage either, even if she thinks she speaks truly.
So why didn’t the Clintons actually reveal this information to the public? Because they were cowed into silence by threats made by Obama operatives on the life of their daughter. Indeed, the Clintons were so afraid for the life of their daughter that they a) didn’t raise the birther issue in the 2008 campaign and b) freely gave it away to conspiracy flick producer Bettina Viviano. Apparently Obama later “made similar threats to all of the leading Republicans in both the House and Senate.”
Now, Viviano was of course not the only one to push the idea. Jerome Corsi was quickly on the case, as expected, and Fox News reporter show host Heather Childers tweeted the allegations as a question to her followers (quickly deleted, though not before Childers got to claim “martyrdom” after being criticized for posting it). The WND also found another putative Hillary campaigner from LA, one Michele Thomas, ready to claim that she learned from “many people who were close to Hillary” that Obama “was not eligible to be president.”
Diagnosis: Ok, so it turns out she’s a serious wingnut. Too bad, since the other option, Hillary fan, would have made her ideas slightly more non-standard and slightly more colorful. Most of all, though, she is a laughable loon.
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