This morning, in a belated effort to quiet the nation’s “birthers,” Pres. Obama finally released a copy of his original long-form birth certificate. This after spending taxpayers’ money to have an aide fly round trip to Hawaii to pick it up. The certified and perfectly legal short form was released during the 2008 presidential campaign, but a vociferous minority of Americans, led most recently by businessman Donald Trump, continued to demand proof of Obama’s citizenship. Well, now they have what they’ve been demanding.
I predict, however, that releasing the long form will do nothing to silence the doubters and may actually backfire, prompting still more questions. Why didn’t Obama release this document before, especially if he had nothing to hide? Why did he finally acquiesce, and why now?
I’ve never doubted Obama’s citizenship, but I do think his actions this morning are just going to fuel the fire. The birthers will keep asking the same questions and now will be asking, if this is only a copy of the original long form, how do we know there’s really an original document in that vault in Honolulu?
I hate how Obama has handled this and I hate Donald Trump’s crowing about how proud he is to have brought this about. I also have no doubt that as long as there’s a black Democrat in the White House, the birthers will keep at it.
Finally, for the desperately, insatiably curious, here’s a large form of the long form: Obama birth certificate, long form. Knock yourselves out, birthers.
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Note: The above .pdf was downloaded from an ABC News link. It is also available on the White House website. The White House version has already spawned a new conspiracy theory about the document having been doctored. Gawd, it’s going to be a long campaign.
Correction: According to the Huffington Post, it was Obama’s legal counsel Judith Corley, not an aide, who flew to Honolulu, and the trip was paid for out of Obama’s personal account.
I’m pretty much with you on this. The worst… the absolute worst thing any politician can do is try to hide something that is insignificant.. so then, why? All of your continuing questions only make sense in light of this unnecessary, months long delay.
My only real disagreement may be more wishful thinking than fact, but I hope that a white person who might have been born in Germany, who refused to demonstrate iron-clad proof that he was actually born in Oklahoma would have inspired the same kind of birther controversy. Maybe I’m just naive, but I don’t know anybody who is openly racially biased. Wait… That’s not true, I do know someone who openly hates Middle Eastern Muslims.
I share your hope that any hint of a foreign birth would be scrutinized the same way, but I’m also cynical enough to think there’s some racism involved here. Being openly racist is no longer PC, but I don’t believe that means racist thinking is a thing of the past.
Obama has known all this time what document the birthers wanted to see, and I’ll never understand why he didn’t release it back during his campaign. As you point out, every politician knows they need to get ahead of the story, releasing info, admitting mistakes, etc., before the press gets a chance to blow it up into something big and sinister.
It was a mistake to dignify the issue by releasing this document now.
What I hate about this is that it gives that ultimate huckster, Donald Trump, reason to crow about how he was able to force Obama’s hand – exactly the type of thing the fake, “crony” capitalists love to pad their resume with! Good lord, is it possible that such a fool could end up running for president as the “grownup” candidate? 😯
I know. Trump had been making me crazy anyway — and now this. He’s nothing but a braying, pompous ass, but he’s leading the pack of Republican presidential hopefuls. Leading! That’s just plain scary.
By comparison, Ron Paul doesn’t seem so scary now, huh? 😀
Hehe. Compared to most of the presidential wannabes, he looks pretty normal.
Man, oh man do I agree with you both about Ron Paul.
The lunacy of where we are, and the folks who got us here are so far out there in the abnormal that Ron Paul would have to be from another planet to be more so.
Of course, I’m prejudiced because I’ve supported him for going on 30 years.
From what I know, Ron Paul is the only one of the potential republican presidential candidates whose record actually reflects the fiscal policies they now claim to stand for. In the end though, I suspect that they’ll once again prove themselves to be the false “defenders of freedom” Ayn Rand said they were by not choosing him as their nominee.