Obama releases long form birth certificate

Read Time:2 Minute, 16 Second

No doubt this won’t shut Donald Trump’s big mouth, but at least it’s a start.  It seems that the president has decided to release his long form birth certificate, something I think he should probably have done at the outset.  Regardless here is the story from CNN:

The Obama administration is releasing copies of President Barack Obama’s original long-form birth certificate, White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer announced Wednesday.

Obama will discuss the decision to release the certificate Wednesday morning, the White House announced.

“The president believed the distraction over his birth certificate wasn’t good for the country,” Pfeiffer said. “It may have been good politics and good (television), but it was bad for the American people and distracting from the many challenges we face as a country.”

“At a time of great consequence for this country — when we should be debating how we win the future, reduce our deficit, deal with high gas prices, and bring stability to the Middle East, Washington, DC, was once again distracted by a fake issue,” Pfeiffer added. “The president’s hope is that with this step, we can move on to debating the bigger issues that matter to the American people and the future of the country.”

Pfeiffer told reporters that the so-called “birther debate” has been politically damaging to the Republican Party.

Obama released a legally binding “certificate of live birth” in 2008, but many opponents of the president continue to assert he was born overseas.

While the president has tried to make light of the controversy, the question has remained political red meat for some of his critics. A recent CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll showed that nearly 75% of Americans believe Obama was definitely or probably born in the United States. More than four in 10 Republicans, however, believe he probably or definitely was not born in America.

The U.S. Constitution says only “natural born” citizens can become president — a vague clause that some members of the birther movement contend disqualifies Obama from the presidency.

Skeptics contend, among other things, that Obama was born in his father’s home country of Kenya. Potential GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump recently seized on the issue, saying he had doubts about Obama’s background.

The administration had to make a special request from the state of Hawaii to get the long-form birth certificate released, White House Legal Counsel Bob Bauer noted. Typically, the state only releases a certificate of live birth when people request a birth certificate.

Allegations that Obama was not born in the United States have been repeatedly discredited. A recent CNN investigation turned up no evidence to support the birther claims.

To see a copy of the long form certificate go here.

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Professor Mike

Professor Mike is a left-leaning, dog loving, political junkie. He has written dozens of articles for Substack, Medium, Simily, and Tribel. Professor Mike has been published at Smerconish.com, among others. He is a strong proponent of the environment, and a passionate protector of animals. In addition he is a fierce anti-Trumper. Take a moment and share his work.
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12 years ago

Pathetic!

If Obama has a birth certificate then he should have shown it when this garbage kicked off.

The fact that he didn’t has bugger all to do with his ‘faith in the American people’ but everything to do with the fact that something’s dodgy here.

Look. I quite like Obama – well he’s never done me any harm anyroad – but let’s get real here.

All he had to do from ‘day 1’ was wave around his birth certificate and all the accusers who claimed he was inelligible to be Prez would have returned to their holes.

He didn’t.

Why?

No idea, but I suspect it’s because the ‘accusers’ knew something.

If they didn’t why not shut them up straight away?

It ain’t rocket science peeps.

I don’t care whether your Prez is black/white or green with yellow dots…er…well I might care about green with yellow dots in case he’s contagious…but…BUT

If you’re the Prez of the supposedly most powerful country on the planet do you let your detractors gain from serious accusations that are false? No. You shoot them down in flames.

He didn’t.

It’s bugger all to do with colour (color) ultimately…it’s to do with YOUR constitution….

Has he a valid birth certificate?

Yes or no?…..Is it such a hard question to answer?????

Jess
12 years ago

If you guys have 7 minutes to spare, this is TOTALLY worth it and explains a lot of stuff. As a person of half brown skin, this made me cry it’s still happening April 2011. This is Baratunde Thurston from The Onion. All about the race is what it is, since not one single other person has had to prove he was an American to occupy the White House offices.

12 years ago

I tend to think this is a good move on the part of the White House. Trump can claim a small victory, but who cares? We’re still 18 months from the election – that’s an eternity in politics. Better to get this out of the way and be done with it. At the very least it will mostly kill this story in the press. When it does come up again the White House can just say, “Go look at the birth certificate. We’re not answering any more questions on that topic.” It also makes the birther crazies seem all that MORE crazy in the eyes of possible independent voters, and will only further solidify the Tea Party as a fringe group not to be trusted on big topics.

Jess
Reply to  Michael Edward Kelly
12 years ago

I just went tiptoeing through some of the freepers sites, brain bleach not necessary I have my own industrial stuff. Just eww, these people are just ewww. “It’s been photoshopped, why is he releasing this now what does he not want us to know, his dad’s race is African so he can’t be legal, because of his moving around the world when he was small and his mothers other husband adopting him” and so on. Oh and that’s just two of the freeper sites. I have to shower and go to the other ones with a hazmat suit I have to find. This is all about racism and as sure as I am sitting here, a half brown person myself, there is not one piece of pprwork anywhere that will make me nor PO a white man/woman any time soon.

Jess
12 years ago

AW shit, Trump is going to bloviate some more about how he is the only one that forced the issue out into the open and get a weeks worth of press for the release of college transcripts now. I have to say, I am sad that they gave into this bullshit instead of leaving it where it should have been. Maybe I will set my alarm for the royal wedding this Friday, it’s a circus also?

Oh, checked before I finished this message. Trump asking for the college transcripts to be released. who in the WH thought this would be a good idea is my question. They(dundermentals and baggers) will not accept him because..wait for it..wait for it, he is a black man.

Jess
Reply to  Professor Mike
12 years ago

Well mah smart hubby just said something smart(I was shocked). He said, you know J, do you think they might want to give Trump a boost in the polls so that others have to go to the crazy side he is on basically make them go even further rightwards than they are. Now hubby, smart as he is, is not a politics addigeek the way I am, so he is seeing things from an apolitical middle view. Have to say, I did go hmm know what, you could be right about that. I hate when that happens by the way, don’t let him know 🙂

12 years ago

I fear this will play out as a huge victory for Donald Trump and give him credibility where he had (less than) none before. We’ll see. He will certainly claim he got done what no one ever accomplished before. heh.

Regardless, Obama has now definitely put this to rest. Only the genuinely insane Obama haters will hold on to the conspiracy theory.

Peter Lake
12 years ago

Obama didn’t release his long form earlier because he had too much faith in the American people. He never dreamed such a silly, silly thing would end up dominating the news.

Joe
Reply to  Peter Lake
12 years ago

First thing I noticed looking at the Presidents birth certificate was the border where the page is pulled back.

I have tried to explain to myself how that page is logical. Flatten it out and its over the cut area. Why is that area pulled back when its surroundings aren’t?

Look at the bottom of that area. Its not pulled back, its flattened out somehow with the rest of the document while the top is rolled back. However, it is partially hidden.

I want to, but I just cant believe this is the real certificate. If this is fake, it is because a great man and citizen feels he needs to make up for a lost certificate with one made by somebody.

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