Here’s the long-form birth certificate, so birthers can get to work on explaining why we now need a photograph of President Obama’s parents standing in front of Kapiolani hospital with a copy of the August 4, 1961 edition of the Honolulu Star Advertiser in one hand and a complete genome in the other.
Here’s White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer’s full statement on the matter:
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):
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.
And here’s the White House’s correspondence with the Hawaii State Department of Health.
What else is happening today? Donald Trump is going to New Hampshire.
Trump 1 , Obama 0
Trump was never a birther but he does know an opponents weakness when he see's it ... he made Obama blink ... he'll be making Obama blink some more in the weeks ahead ...
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI'm shocked, I'm shocked - NOT!!!!
It his been abundantly clear that the President was born in this Country and is constitutionally eligible to be President. Whether or not he is the right choice or his policies are good for the Republic or consistent with the Constitution, will that is, and always has been, the only issues that mattered.
Now the 62% of Americans who have had unreasonable doubts about this pseudo-issue can join the other 38% of us Americans on this pseudo-issue and turn their heighten, if somewhat discredited, focus on the merits, or lack thereof, of our President and the future of this great Republic.
God Bless America.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"Win the future". I want to puke every time I see or hear that phrase.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseDaniel,
I never put any stock in the birthers, but your opening line in this post deserves a bit of a challenge. President Obama has done all he possibly could from the beginning to make this an issue. The birther stuff survived because he refused to release an entirely uneventful document they demanded would settle the issue. He could have settled this during his 2007 primary, but instead he decided to use it as a way of labeling all his opponents as a little nuts.
By withholding his birth certificate (or releasing it to only a select group of reporters to see, but not photograph...gimme a break), President Obama got conservative pundits to do his bidding, rolling their eyes at some of Obama's opponents for not taking Obama's word for this uneventful document he absolutely refused to let the public see.
President Obama had complete power to settle this issue from the beginning. He is nothing short of the President of the Birther movement.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThere must have been some polling done showing that some not insignificant number of independent voters actually cared about this issue. Otherwise, why do it?
It'll be interesting to see how Bachmann, Palin et al handle this. Will they claim it's a fake? Will they find some detail that's not there, and say there are still unanswered questions? How far down the rabbit hole do they want to go?
My guess is, pretty far down. I imagine the birther thing is a long ways from over.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseTrump did not make Obama "blink". Trump looks like more of an idiot now.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseOh dear, oh dear, oh dear. Suddenly I am reading on these posts about Palin and Bachmann? Those two ladies have nothing to do with the birth certificate issue, so stop attempting to drag them into something they have remained apart from. This was all a game played on the American people by President Obama. Until now, when it finally became obvious that the game was turning against him, and he better resolve the question of where he was born before 2012. He has relished this game. Laughed at the American people and made fun of us. Do all of you holier-than-thou posters out here today feel good about that? I don't. When somebody hides something, they foster doubt. When a President does it, he willingly allows the people of this country to suffer without cause. I despised Obama already. Now, I want him out in 2012. I don't like game players, particularly those in charge of running my country. All of you pompous idiots out here should feel the same.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI guess I am a birther, so heap your snarky scorn on me. No, I didn't want a picture of Pres. Obama's parents in front of the hospital, but I did and do wonder why so many of his records, including this one, were hidden or sealed.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI think that my curiosity shows that I am a thinking person, not a crazy person.
If you don't get it by now, the left-controlled media's first line of attack is to ridicule the opposition, any opposition. Hence, 'birthers'. It's what they did to Sarah Palin immediately after she was announced by John McCain. With the help of Tina Fey, they tried to make her a joke. It's what they tried to do with the Tea Party (tea "baggers" wink wink aren't we so witty and clever?)
A little disappointed in the NRO writers who readily jump on this bandwagon.
The dems are loving every minute of this idiocy. Right now the most visible potential republican candidate is trump, a registered idiot. Just that hair is enough to put off a goodly portion of the gum chewing public. Then rerun a few episodes of 'celebrity apprentice' or whatever moronic reality show or shows he has been part of and bo will win in a landslide.
Be of good faith, America - there ARE some serious republican candidates out there and as time passes they will show themselves.
Right now it's just show and tell. Just be patient.
Please
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI'm sorry. The birthers and Trump make the President answer the simplest of questions, and they're the ones getting snark?
The President acted as if he's above all this. I get the annoyed suspicion that his provenance requires any more inspection than a white man's, and the preference that he should simply be taken at his word. But at the end of the day due diligence is always in order. Had the President simply provided the document, the commentary would have focused on why anyone felt the need to ask. Instead he directed the story to his own peevishness.
Alas, it's the same approach he takes to _every_ question.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAs far as I can tell, there's a reason the President kept this going for so long. He needed to keep this debate so that he would always have an easy win in his pocket. We all see how easy it was for him to win the debate: release his birth certificate. It probably took five minutes, so there has to be a reason it took 2 and a half years to do it.
In 2008 he didn't have a record to back him up. Today the record he built for himself is far from flattering. I think this is his last ditch effort to gain some popularity, but the so called birthers were never going to support him anyway, and the independents he needs will base their decisions on his abysmal record, or lack thereof.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI'm with Connie on this one, BHO has used this matter to turn attention away from his real deficits, which are legion and well-known to readers of this site. The state of Arizona's almost-law made it inevitable that he would release this document. Why not years earlier? To allow it to distract, to encourage one group of the right to dump on another.
And I'm frankly disappointed that the Hawaii Dept of Public Health did not record a religion for newborns, it would have been delicious to read that BHO was born a Muslim...oh well, back to work.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAfter three years of letting this fester, it took "vulgarian", "huckster" "Al Sharpton of the Republicans" Donald Trump to finally put it to rest. When a guy with those descriptions can get totally under the President's skin, I say, nicely played,Donald.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI have got to agree with Rocket Squirrel below, never took the Birther thing seriously but Obama sure benefited from it and was able to use it as a broad brush to smear Republicans with. I wonder why release it now? It seems he could have taken it all the way to the bank and used it to discredit his opponents in the 2012 election. Moving it off the table, I don't really see the logic. Unless he's hoping some people will still claim he wasn't born here and devolve into an even nuttier conspiracy?
I know some take offense at Daniel's tone but quite frankly I think it is appropriate. This issue was silly from the get-go and a foolish idea deserves mockery. I hope everyone who fell for this feels a little ashamed of themselves and turns to more productive pursuits. There are enough problems with Obama that we didn't need to invent one.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI was initially a bit bemused when I heard this news this morning. After all, why release this right now, as a political matter? Wouldn't it be absolutely devastating to wait until a debate with candidate Trump (oh dear Lord, please let it not be so) and then wave the copy in the air? But on further review, I think the timing is quite clever. Along with the pious calls to end the distraction, the President gets massive media coverage pumping up the distraction. The hard core Birthers aren't going to be convinced by anything short of video of the birth with a Honolulu newspaper and a view of the city in the background, followed by DNA testing. Probably not even by that. Meanwhile, the massive problems that need to be addressed are pushed to the background. Instead of "bread and circuses" we get birth certificates and collusion investigations of the oil industry.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseOk, Trump. About those tax returns you promised?????
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI remind you that before you accuse Republicans for making this an issue, it was Hilary Clinton who first raised the issue during the 2008 primary campaign. Let's point our fingers at the real target.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI went to the same undergraduate school that Trump went to and it really annoyed me how the business school types worshiped him (and Michael Milken!)
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseBut I've gotta say, I am diggin Trump right now. I like his candor, I like the way he pushes right back at the reporters. No careful weighing of his words, how will this play-he just says what he thinks.
I don't think I'd vote for him, but I agree with rightasrain-this was well-played. Now, The Donald's next move: onto the school transcripts! External Link
For all the fools that think this boosts Trump--are you conveniently forgetting that Trump lied? That he said his investigators had found that the certificate wasn't there? That he was finding some good dirt?
Trump is a fool who was manufacturing an issue that normal people don't care about so he could get his goofy mug on television even more, and so he could promote a reality tv show. The fact that anyone takes this charlatan seriously is bizarre.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse“have got to agree with Rocket Squirrel below, never took the Birther thing seriously but Obama sure benefited from it and was able to use it as a broad brush to smear Republicans with. I wonder why release it now?”
@cypher - This:
External Link
You are correct about Obama not releasing the Birth Certificate until now because it politically benefited him. That Gallup poll indicates that Trump changed the dynamic and that the inroads the Birther belief has mad into mainstream America began to politically damage him. Contra Obama’s presser today, hew is more than happy to have distractions when they accrue to his political benefit.
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