Thread: OBAMA RELEASES LONG-FORM BIRTH CERTIFICATE

Obama releases long-form birth certificate

By Susan Page and Jackie Kucinich, USA TODAY
3m ago

WASHINGTON — President Obama, trying to squelch a persistent and distracting controversy over whether he was born in the United States, on Wednesday released the official long-form birth certificate that skeptics had demanded.

The signed-and-sealed Certificate of Live Birth shows he was born exactly where he had said: Kapiolani Maternity & Gynecological Hospital in Honolulu. During the 2008 campaign, he had released a copy of his Certification of Live Birth, a shorter official form with fewer details.

At a morning White House news conference, Obama said he decided to seek the official waiver needed to obtain the longer document after the debate over competing deficit reduction plans by him and House Republicans were overshadowed by the conspiracy theories fanned by possible GOP presidential contender Donald Trump and others.

"We've got some enormous challenges out there," the president told reporters in the briefing room. "I am confident that the American people and America's political leaders can come together in a bipartisan way and solve these problems. … (But) we aren't going to be able to solve these problems if we get distracted by side shows and carnival barkers."

BLOG: View Obama's birth certificate
BLOG: Jesse Jackson says Trump using 'racial code' in birther claims
Trump, at a news conference of his own in New Hampshire, bragged that he had forced the president to release the document. "I'm very proud of myself because I accomplished something that nobody else was able to accomplish," he said.

Then he immediately pivoted to another issue involving Obama's personal qualifications, saying he had read that Obama was a poor student and asking how he had won admission to Columbia University and Harvard Law School, both elite institutions. "I don't know why he doesn't release his records" from his school days, Trump said.

Democratic consultant Phil Singer said it was smart of the White House to release the longer birth document.

"This is a non-issue that for whatever reason takes up space that would otherwise be dedicated to the good things that the president is doing, so it makes every piece of sense in the world to try to take the issue off the table," said Singer, an aide to Hillary Rodham Clinton in the 2008 primaries against Obama.

"It probably would have been a good thing if they'd done it when the issue first surfaced, but better late than never," he said.

A USA TODAY/Gallup Poll released Monday showed the issue gaining surprising traction, given that investigations by news outlets and non-partisan organizations consistently concluded there was no question about Obama's place of birth. In the poll, taken last week, only 38% of Americans said they thought the president was "definitely" born in the United States; 18% said he "probably" was.

Nearly one in four, 24%, said he was probably or definitely born in another country. Nineteen percent said they didn't know enough to say.

Among Republicans, 43% said Obama was definitely or probably born abroad — more than the 35% who said he was definitely or probably born in the USA.

"This has long been a settled issue," said Brendan Buck, a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio. "The speaker's focus is on cutting spending, lowering gas prices and creating American jobs."

Obama also said he was focused on jobs, the economy and other big challenges. But he pointedly noted that the release of his birth certificate was consuming more news attention that the pending White House announcement of appointments of a new Defense secretary and CIA chief.

And Trump sounded like a candidate undeterred by the loss of the issue that had drawn him attention, saying he would announce his decision on the finale of his TV reality show, Celebrity Apprentice.

"I think if I do run, I'll do very well," Trump said. "I think I'd beat Obama."

The Constitution requires that the president be "a natural born Citizen." Some conspiracy theorists have suggested that Obama, whose mother was an American and father a Kenyan studying in Hawaii, was himself born in Kenya. Speculation on the issue had grown in recent months.

Trump raised the "decibel level" so high it became necessary for the White House to address it, said Al Cardenas, chairman of the American Conservative Union.

"I think he had somewhat of an arrogance before, in thinking he wasn't going to respond to an accusation of this nature,but obviously if it warranted that much national attention he should have dispensed with it and moved on," he said. "You scratch your head wondering why it took the president so long to put this to rest — if indeed that long form puts it rest."

Civil rights leader Jesse Jackson accused Trump of appealing to "ancient racial fears" in raising questions about the birthplace of Obama, the nation's first African-American president. "He is now tapping into code-word fears that go far beyond a rational discourse," Jackson told Politico.

Meanwhile, Republican National Chairman Reince Priebus called the issue "a distraction" but seemed to blame Obama for the furor. "Unfortunately his campaign politics and talk about birth certificates is distracting him from our number one priority — our economy."

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington ... cate_n.htm

VIDEO @

White House Releases Obama Birth Certificate

White House releases long form of Obama birth certificate
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=13467987

Obama Releases Long-Form Birth Certificate

Putting the controversy to rest
http://video.foxnews.com/v/4664960

The White House Blog

President Obama's Long Form Birth Certificate

Posted by Dan Pfeiffer on April 27, 2011 at 08:57 AM EDT

Ed. Note: Read the transcript of the President's remarks following this release or watch the video below:

In 2008, in response to media inquiries, the President’s campaign requested his birth certificate from the state of Hawaii. The state sent the campaign the President’s birth certificate, the same legal documentation provided to all Hawaiians as proof of birth in state, and the campaign immediately posted it on the internet. That birth certificate can be seen here (PDF).

When any citizen born in Hawaii requests their birth certificate, they receive exactly what the President received. In fact, the document posted on the campaign website is what Hawaiians use to get a driver’s license from the state and the document recognized by the Federal Government and the courts for all legal purposes. That’s because it is the birth certificate. This is not and should not be an open question.

The President believed the distraction over his birth certificate wasn’t good for the country. It may have been good politics and good TV, but it was bad for the American people and distracting from the many challenges we face as a country. Therefore, the President directed his counsel to review the legal authority for seeking access to the long form certificate and to request on that basis that the Hawaii State Department of Health make an exception to release a copy of his long form birth certificate. They granted that exception in part because of the tremendous volume of requests they had been getting. President Barack Obama's long form birth certificate can be seen here (PDF):

Birth certificate-long-form

Correspondence with the Hawaii State Department of Health can be seen here (PDF).

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. 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.

Dan Pfeiffer is White House Communications Director

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/04/ ... ertificate

Is this an original birth certificate.? Was his name Obama at birth.? Does this clear up the question of natural born citizen under the Constitution.

I live in area of the country where fake documents are used by illegals in great numbers so I find myself in doubt about any papers and especially via this administration.

bravo to the president and donald trump ....

i'm starting to think they were working together on this issue ...


while many of you will view the birth certifcate , and some of you will undoubtly think it''s fake ...

odds are the vast majority of you will completely ingnore the FED meeting that's going on even now as we speak....

The timing on this is rather suspicious isn't it, lol. Misdirection, watch this hand while the other one does something else.

I'll hold off judgment on the validity of the birth certificate but it still doesn't exactly prove he was a natural born citizen. The qualifications for a "natural born citizen" with only 1 US parent depends on what the parent did. I don't remember the exact details but it has to do with how long they lived in the US and some other stuff.

Originally Posted by sugarhighwolf

The timing on this is rather suspicious isn't it, lol. Misdirection, watch this hand while the other one does something else.

I'll hold off judgment on the validity of the birth certificate but it still doesn't exactly prove he was a natural born citizen. The qualifications for a "natural born citizen" with only 1 US parent depends on what the parent did. I don't remember the exact details but it has to do with how long they lived in the US and some other stuff.

well , in one hand he has a birth certifcate , long AND short form , in the other he's president of the united states of america ... then of course his mother was a US citizen .....

mmmmm , i hate to play the "proablity " game ,, but what do you think the odds might be that , oh i don't know he's a naturalized citizen ?

what's that the bible says about pride comes before something or the other ...

it's OK to admit when your wrong ....

Originally Posted by oldguy

Is this an original birth certificate.? Was his name Obama at birth.? Does this clear up the question of natural born citizen under the Constitution.

I live in area of the country where fake documents are used by illegals in great numbers so I find myself in doubt about any papers and especially via this administration.
:?

Click this link to see his name on the original birth certificate http://content.usatoday.com/communities ... ocument-/1

Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck charge Obama released birth certificate to distract from Ben Bernanke's news conference
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/money_c ... rence.html

Fed leaves rates, bond program unchanged
http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/2 ... anke_n.htm