Barack Obama birth certificate statement ? live coverage

[DVTimes]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog...cate-statement

Blog home Barack Obama birth certificate statement ? live coverageUS president to make statement reaffirming fact he was born in United States to head off continuing 'birther' row


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Barack Obama's long-form birth certificate, released 27 April 2011.
10.51am ET: As predicted, the Birther Taliban are not yet ready to let go of it ? and are busy moving the goalposts, according to this reporting by Politico:

Phil Berg, who filed one of the original birther lawsuits, now believes that Obama was adopted by his Indonesian father and lost his US citizenship:

"I think the issue is that he's not any more natural born. I don't care if he releases his birth certificate or whatever," said Berg. "Let's see his records coming back through immigration"

Orly Taitz, once called 'Queen of the birthers' and who was responsible for a number of lawsuits, is verifying the document's authenticity and now believes that the President is using a false social security number.

None of which is as sexy as "born in Kenya". But top marks for trying.

10.35am ET: How has the epicentre of birtherism ? the swivel-eyed website WorldNetDaily ? coping with today's events? Here's its lead headline:

White House releases Obama 'birth certificate'

The "quote marks" say it all.

10.20am ET: With a great sense of timing, earlier this morning I'd blogged on the very subject of Trump, Obama and birtherism, which noted this from a new USA Today/Gallup opinion poll:

[I]n the USA Today poll, only 38% of Americans say Obama definitely was born in the USA, and 18% say he probably was. Fifteen percent say he probably was born in another country, and 9% say he definitely was born elsewhere.

And when the same sample was asked if Donald Trump was born in the US, here's the result:

For what it's worth, not everyone is convinced Trump was born in the USA either: 43% say he definitely was born here, and 20% say he probably was; 7% say he definitely or probably was born in another country. Nearly three in 10 say they don't know enough to say.

[DVTimes]

[billywatson]

I can't wait to hear how the dopey Birthers counter this one.

[DVTimes]

Donald Trump, who's popularity as a possible Republican presidential contender shot up after he started questioning the whereabouts of President Obama's birth certificate, said Wednesday he is "so proud" the president has finally released his forms.

"I am so proud of myself because I've accomplished something that nobody else has been able to accomplish," Trump said from Portsmouth, N.H., where he was giving early primary voters a close-up look at a potential presidential campaign.

"I feel I've accomplished something really, really important and I'm honored for it," Trump said.

The billionaire real estate mogul and host of "Celebrity Apprentice" brought the issue of the president's birth certificate to the forefront after years of complaints from a small segment of society, come to be known as "birthers," who said it is not satisfied with the short-form version of the president's certificate provided during the 2008 presidential campaign.

Trump, who suggested he may run as a Republican challenger to the president, fed the story as reporters repeatedly asked about his interest in the certificate. Polls showed that Trump was capturing people's imaginations as his position in Republican presidential candidate polls rose. At the same time, more and more Americans surveyed said they questioned the president's birthplace.

A Gallup/USA Today poll released Tuesday found that only 38 percent of Americans said they believe Obama was definitely born in the United States while 18 percent said he probably was and 15 percent said he probably was born in another country. Nine percent said he definitely was born elsewhere. The same poll showed only 43 percent believed Trump was born in the United States and 20 percent said he probably was.

Trump, who released his birth certificate last month, said the issue was very relevant, especially since so many other topics are being clouded by the distraction.

"I hope it checks out beautifully. ... Now we can talk about oil, gasoline prices. We can talk about China ripping off this country. We can talk about OPEC doing numbers on us," he said.

Trump's position is similar to the White House's reasoning when it surprised reporters Wednesday morning with copies of the two-page, long-form certification of live birth issued by the state of Hawaii. It shows the president was born Aug. 4, 1961, at Kapiolani Hospital in Honolulu to father Barack Hussein Obama and mother Stanley Ann Dunham.

Speaking Wednesday, Obama said he decided to release the certificate because he wanted to put to rest the gossip, which has sidetracked major issues like the economy.

"We do not have time for this kind of silliness. I've got better stuff to do," said Obama.

Trump said that he hopes the certificate is real and true "because we have very big problems in this country." He added that the president should have released the document sooner.

"It is rather amazing that all of a sudden it materializes, but I hope it's the right deal, for sure,
Experts will look at it, and I am really happy and I'm really proud that I was able to bring this to a point nobody else was," Trump said.

Despite his pride, Trump said he isn't done asking questions, though they perhaps are of lesser consequence than Obama's eligibility to be president.

"I'd like to know how does he get into Harvard, how does he get into Colombia if he isn't a very good student," Trump said, asking why the president doesn't release his college records from Occidental College.

"If he wants to release it that's fine, if he doesn't want to release it that's fine too. But the word is he wasn't a very good student," Trump added.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011...h-certificate/

[DVTimes]

On Wednesday, Mr Obama described the unprecedented move as an effort to rid the US political debate of a distraction, saying he had watched, puzzled and bemused, as the birther conspiracy had built and developed over the past years.

"We do not have time for this kind of silliness," Mr Obama said. "We've got better stuff to do. I have better stuff to do. We've got big problems to solve, and I'm confident we can solve them, but we're going to have to focus on them - not on this."

The release of Mr Obama's long form birth certificate, which had been stored in a vault in Hawaii since his birth in August 1961, comes after years of speculation among conspiracy-minded conservatives.

Under the US constitution, only a "natural born citizen" - a clause widely interpreted to mean born in the US or in some cases to US citizens abroad - is eligible to be president.


Click to play
Barack Obama: "We've had every official in Hawaii...confirm that yes in fact I was born in Hawaii"
The birther conspiracy held that Mr Obama was born in Kenya or in Indonesia, where he lived as a child, or that the birth certificate revealed other unwholesome information about the president.

During the 2008 presidential campaign Mr Obama released a computer print-out of the birth certificate information that is recognised as an official record of his birth, and Hawaiian public health officials vouched for its authenticity.

But the move did little to quell the birthers, even as most mainstream Republicans have sought to quash the movement, calling it a distraction from substantive policy disagreements.

On Wednesday, the White House released copies of the original birth certificate, with a stamp verifying its authenticity.

Birthers unsatisfied

It shows Barack Hussein Obama II was born 4 August 1961 at Kapiolani Maternity and Gynecological Hospital in Honolulu, to Barack Hussein Obama, a 25-year-old student, and Stanley Ann Dunham, 18, and includes the signature of the attending physician.

It remains unclear whether the release of the birth certificate will satisfy the most hard-core birthers.

Joseph Farah, chief executive of birther-oriented website WorldNetDaily.com, said on the site the document "raises as many questions as it answers".

"It is important to remember there are still dozens of other questions concerning this question of eligibility that need to be resolved to assure what has become a very sceptical public concerning Barack Obama's parentage, his adoption, his citizenship status throughout his life and why he continues to cultivate a culture of secrecy around his life," he said.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-13212230

[TripleXPrint]

If it was that easy to produce then why were millions spent to protect/seal the information to begin with? I'm not a birther, I'm a common sense American and it just doesn't jive with me. It's been almost 4 years and now all a sudden he's like oh, here's my birth certificate. I'm not slamming Obama but can anyone explain this to me? It just doesn't make any sense at all.

Spend millions to cover something that you had on hand the entire time? Sounds like an astronomical waste of money to me.

[bronco67]

I honestly don't even think he should dignify all of this bullshit with a response. The vetting that takes place to make sure someone is eligible to run for president is staggering compared to Hawaii digging up a single piece of paper.

[Jman]

Unreal that the US a supposed Super Power has to do statement about such a stupid thing. The guy was elected president for fuck sakes... Deal with it.

[CaptainHowdy]

[2MuchMark]

I could punch Trump in the face. What a fucking asshole this guy is. He was proven completely wrong (something everyone else knew anyway) and instead of apologizing to the President of the United States, he glorifies himself yet again. And what's worse, idiots in the republican party will cheer. Un fucking real. The man couldn't deal with the Truth that a Black Man was elected president any more than he could deal with the truth that he's balding. Donald Trump is pathetic.

[brassmonkey]

even if he was born outside of the united states he has the right to claim citizenship. his mother is american.

[pornguy]

Originally Posted by Crak_JMan

Unreal that the US a supposed Super Power has to do statement about such a stupid thing. The guy was elected president for fuck sakes... Deal with it.

Thats the exact thing.. He has to prove it just to run. Some how he ran without and got elected.. It is the right and duty of Americans to question the government other wise they would be over running them more than they do already.

If it was on hand and so easy why was it not leased sooner instead of letting it get out of hand like this.

[kmanrox]

he's so not American... hello

[_Richard_]

Originally Posted by pornguy

Thats the exact thing.. He has to prove it just to run. Some how he ran without and got elected.. It is the right and duty of Americans to question the government other wise they would be over running them more than they do already.

If it was on hand and so easy why was it not leased sooner instead of letting it get out of hand like this.

he didn't prove it?

[Vendzilla]

I love how they are still pushing a copy, still doesn't matter, his mother is an american, so why do they do this?
I want Barry gone too, but I'll wait for 2012

[nation-x]

[kristin]

He's president until 2012, I wish people would just deal with it. At this point, I don't give a shit if he's US born or not - just fix the issues that actually matter.

My thought is that if they were to get Obama out and Republicans gained control, what the hell would they do in one year to change everything and make this birth certificate crap a valid argument? It's a waste of time and a pure distraction. Get back to work.

[Vendzilla]

Originally Posted by kristin

He's president until 2012, I wish people would just deal with it. At this point, I don't give a shit if he's US born or not - just fix the issues that actually matter.

My thought is that if they were to get Obama out and Republicans gained control, what the hell would they do in one year to change everything and make this birth certificate crap a valid argument? It's a waste of time and a pure distraction. Get back to work.

It's anything they can get supporters backing
Both sides use the tactic, it's old and it works.

Same happened with the liberals and Bush about the WMD's

and here we are in 3 wars now instead of 2

[kristin]

I love The Onion.

http://www.theonion.com/articles/tru...-hes-no,20250/

[nation-x]

[V_RocKs]

Anybody notice how long it took our government to produce an authentic, yet fake birth certificate? Un-real how many Democrats are going to applaud at this obvious forgery!

[blackmonsters]

Originally Posted by DVTimes

[url]Phil Berg, who filed one of the original birther lawsuits, now believes that Obama was adopted by his Indonesian father and lost his US citizenship:

"I think the issue is that he's not any more natural born. I don't care if he releases his birth certificate or whatever," said Berg. "Let's see his records coming back through immigration"

[blackmonsters]

Originally Posted by Vendzilla

Same happened with the liberals and Bush about the WMD's

The difference between WMD's and Obama's birth certificate is that one of them
was actually found.