I still think President Barack Obama was born in Hawaii, even though for 14 years he allowed his literary agent to circulate a bio blurb stating he was born in Kenya, and even though for many years he attended a church where his pastor friend shouted such things as “God damn America!”

I still think that he just pretended to be Kenyan to be cool, to sell books and, perhaps, to get a foreign student scholarship at those colleges from which he refuses to release his transcripts. He’s probably not actually Kenyan.

But as I speculated in a column two months ago (https://theaspenbeat.com/2014/03/30/is-obama-a-manchurian), he might be Manchurian.

“The Manchurian Candidate” was a movie about a U.S. politician who was secretly a “sleeper agent” working to overthrow American democracy. (Manchuria is the region of Russia and China where the agent had been brainwashed into working for the other side.)

So is Obama a Manchurian? My earlier column noted that one of his first moves was to appease the Russians and infuriate our allies by unilaterally canceling defensive missiles in Poland. In exchange for that, the Russians agreed to, well, nothing — that we know of.

Later, Obama promised Russia that he would show more “flexibility” in American defense after being re-elected (a promise he thought he’d made secretly to the Russians but was caught on an open microphone). Russia judged that Obama’s “flexibility” would accommodate its invasion of Crimea. It was right.

And Obama drew a “red line” on the Syrian dictator gassing his people and said the dictator “must go.” The dictator publicly sneered at him, and Obama proved “flexible” about the red line. The dictator and his gas remain.

Iran periodically threatens a second Holocaust (or, in its view, a first one, since it denies the first one ever occurred). And Obama “flexibly” accommodates its march toward a nuclear weapon that could accomplish that.

Meanwhile, he has shown less “flexibility” with Americans. His Internal Revenue Service targets Americans who disagree with his politics, his National Security Agency taps the phones of millions of Americans, his CIA spies on American senators of both parties, and his State Department sits idly by — and he himself goes to bed — as American diplomats are slaughtered in Benghazi.

OK, all of that was in the column two months ago. Now, let’s update things:

First, let’s revisit Crimea. Obama had predicted that Russia’s invasion would produce “serious consequences.”

The Russians publicly laughed at him.

But Obama’s prediction proved accurate. There have indeed been serious consequences — to the Crimeans. They are now Russians.

On to Afghanistan — the war that Obama said was the smart one. In a Rose Garden media extravaganza, Obama announced the swap of five high-ranking terrorists for an American soldier being held by their comrades. The soldier, we were told, had “served with honor and distinction.”

But it turned out that he was a deserter. He’d simply dropped his rifle, walked away from his unit and asked the locals to hook him up with the Taliban.

As for the five terrorists who were the ransom, intelligence officials say they are “the worst of the worst” and it is “highly likely” that they will terrorize again. Obama apparently didn’t consider the fact that terrorists terrorize.

According to even the Democrats, Obama’s move was not only unwise but illegal, because the Senate was not notified in advance as required by law.

In short, Obama celebrated in a Rose Garden ceremony his illegal swap of five Taliban terrorists who will massacre innocent Americans (we’ll find out how many in due course) for a deserter.

Meanwhile, he flexibly dithers while other terrorists restart the war in Iraq. They have slaughtered thousands of civilians, many by public beheadings, after which the severed remains are displayed as trophies on YouTube videos.

After finishing his 176th round of golf since becoming president, he declared that his response would “not rule out anything” while he simultaneously ruled out ground troops. (Maybe he should indeed rule out ground troops, but why inform the bad guys — unless he wants them to win?)

Perhaps he’ll threaten “serious consequences” in Iraq, as he did in Crimea, so that it can be annexed by Russia.

As for the wounded and limbless American veterans whose sacrifices are now being squandered, we learned they’ve been languishing for years on secret wait lists at the Veterans Affairs hospitals. Some die waiting.

Perhaps Obama will threaten “serious consequences” at the VA hospitals so that they, too, can be annexed by the Russians.

And finally (for now), there’s Israel, home of the people who’ve been persecuted for 2,000 years culminating with the butchering of millions in that Holocaust that the Iranians say didn’t happen in the past but will in the future. Obama’s secretary of state declared that Israel risks becoming an “apartheid state,” like segregated South Africa, because Israel refuses to sign treaties with terrorists who deny its right to exist.

Oh, and the IRS? It says it “lost” two years of emails between the White House and the IRS employee who orchestrated the targeting of conservative Americans and then pleaded the Fifth Amendment in testimony to Congress.

In Manchuria, they must be smiling.

(Published on June 22, 2014 in The Aspen Times at http://www.aspentimes.com/opinion/11849796-113/obama-american-manchurian-russians)