Sunday, November 30, 2008

Behind the Screwy Obama Birth Certificate Controversy



Earl Ofari Hutchinson

At first glance it defied credulity that the staid, respected Chicago Tribune would do something as screwball as giving any credence to the issue of whether President-elect Barack Obama is really a U.S. citizen or not. But the Tribune will run not one but two big splashy ads paid for by a quasi libertarian outfit named www.wethepeoplefoundation.org based in Queensbury, New York. The group demands that Obama produce his original birth certificate with all the official markings and proper affixed signatures on it. The one that the Hawaii Department of Health officials made public last June was an electronic copy of the certificate.
Unfortunately, Hawaii officials left just enough room for the Obama birth certificate hounders to wiggle through when they correctly noted that privacy laws forbade them from releasing original documents without the authorization of the individual for which the documents are requested; in this case that individual being Obama.
Obama at the time and since then has also correctly declined to give any more ammunition to the birth certificate hounders. His campaign simply issued a statement that the document released by Hawaii officials is authentic. But that just emboldened the Obama hounders even more. Nearly a million have taken a gander at a You Tube clip on the controversy, dozens of websites fuel the rumor mill about his certificate, and a pile of articles have rehashed the issue of whether the birth certificate that Hawaii produced is legit. Nearly two dozen lawsuits or petitions have been filed in various state courts contesting Obama’s U.S. citizenship (one of them was filed by political gadfly Alan Keyes).
The Tribune ads won’t help matters. But it probably wouldn’t have made much difference if the paper had refused the ad. The online mill would still crank away about the certificate. Wagging tongues fan a controversy and that’s always good for website looks and business. As for We the People, it has used the controversy as a fund raising chip (gimmick).
But that’s less important for some than finding any issue no matter how farfetched to further stoke the paranoid suspicions of more than a few about Obama. Those suspicions were deeply implanted the moment that he declared his presidential candidacy in 2007. They rumbled above and underneath the surface throughout the campaign, and never stopped when he won.
He was not black enough. He was too black. He was not patriotic enough. He was too liberal, too effete, too untested. He was a Muslim, terrorist fellow traveler, and a closet black radical. The shock of an Obama in the White House is simply too much for many to bear. Obama defies the stereotypical textbook look and definition of what an American president is supposed to look like, and be like; namely a wooden image middle-aged, or older, white male.
Obama said as much during a campaign stop in late July when he quipped that he did not look like all those other presidents on the dollar bills. Obama got torched for saying the obvious and that is that his candidacy was different. Obama later admitted that it was a racial reference. The off the cuff remark simply reinforced the point that he and his candidacy marked a turning point in U.S. presidential politics and by extension race relations.
The Obama birth certificate hounders have kept the issue alive with some mainstream papers by crudely cloaking their motives. They depict themselves as public spirited citizens and legal experts with no personal, political, let alone racial, ax to grind. Their sole goal is to insure electoral truth and accuracy, to make sure that all the legal requirements for holding a presidential office are met, and to head off a constitutional crisis. They claim they want to put the matter to rest for good before his January 20 inauguration.
Their fantasy is that the U.S. Supreme Court will help them out and demand that Obama produce his supposed “real” birth certificate and if not declare the election null and void. The Supreme Court hasn’t made any demand on Obama to pony up his birth certificate, and likely won’t. Even if a justice or two had a stray thought about taking a peek at the issue, the memory of the fury over the court’s meddle in the 2000 election that ultimately tipped the White House to Bush is still too fresh in their and the public’s mind to butt in on such a wacky issue.
The bad thing about the controversy over Obama’s birth certificate is not that some print publications have dignified the issue by running paid hit ads on it, but that the ads were even conjured up in the first place. And even worse that so many millions are still willing to believe that it’s an issue at all.

Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. His forthcoming book is How Obama Won (Middle Passage Press, January 2009).

23 comments:

Anonymous said...

Obama is not a natural born citizen as per the constitution...

You can help him rewrite it HAHAHAHAHAH

SCOTUS will have to rule on this

U write: Even if a justice or two had a stray thought about taking a peek at the issue, the memory of the fury over the court’s meddle in the 2000 election that ultimately tipped the White House to Bush is still too fresh in their and the public’s mind to butt in on such a wacky issue.


You are making a joke of the constitution by your statement...

May be you should live in Communist China

Unknown said...

You have a book coming out in January titled, "How Obama Won."

It is clearly in your monetary self interest to need to make the Obama birth certificate issue to go away.

Good try but your motives are all too clear.

Anonymous said...

I would think Obama wants to clear this up once and for all, right? Seems puzzling to me that Obama would let this issue linger on and on.

Anonymous said...

Obama has spent over $500,000 dodging the lawsuits requesting he produce his birth certificate - a document that cost around $12.00.

If he has a legal birth certificate showing he was born in Hawaii, he could have produced it and saved not only his own money, but the time and taxpayer money our courts will have wasted on a issue he can prove easily.

But no . . . Obama is spending his money and ours by claiming the request to produce his birth certificate means something, ANYTHING other than a request to prove he meets one of the simple requirements to be POTUS.

Something is rotten in Obamaville. No one spends over a half a million dollars to avoid producing something they have that is a benign as a birth certificate.

I don't care what other issue you try to paste over it - if he had a real birth certificate, he would produce it and that would be that.

Anonymous said...

This whole "Show me your real birth certificate," crap is a joke. It's right up there along with talk about Obama being the anti-Christ. What other president do you know had to show the American public (aka non-government officials) such documentation? What's next, his social security card? A urine sample per say? Fingerprints? Let's say that the "real" certificate is produced, proving that he was in fact born in Hawaii. It wouldn't stop there. As long as Obama is in the White House, he will always be required to prove something to those who didn't support him. And he will always be blamed for something. Besides, don't you think that he would have to show authenic information prior to him getting so far in the election? Or perhaps he wouldn't have a choice, authorized officials would simply look it up after telling Obama what they will do. The governement does extensive background checks to the point where they can uncover things that even the elects didn't know about themselves.

I'm sure Obama expected some of this ignorance to get out of hand, but he will handle it with as much dignity and grace as he always has. Rather than looking for something to pin on the man, how about doing your part to see that the U.S. remains the greatest counrty on earth, that our troops are encouraged during this time, and that our citizens are assisted during this recession?

Anonymous said...

Proof that Sam Zell will take anyone's money. The Tribune lost all credibility and quality months ago...

Bro.Scrap said...

They'll do any and everything to discredit his status as President elect. Why don't they just get a life, and except CHANGE!

Anonymous said...

Malika,

McCain had to produce his birth certificate because there was a question as to his eligibility -- he was born on a military base in the Panama Canal Zone. Obama operatives and fellow travelers in the old media were getting ready to knee-cap him and take him out of the game except McCain stepped up and produced his birth certificate and then some (medical records).

Your gratuitous, 'this is a joke' and 'get over it' attitude just proves you have no logical argument on which to rest. Obama's own grandmother is on record saying she was there in Kenya at the hospital when he was born? Is she a liar?

If the Republicans decided to run Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2012 would you similarly dismiss the need for him to prove his eligibility? To ask the question answers it. You would say, "Everyone knows he was born in Austria." And I would say 'prove it' and, of course, you couldn't. You can't prove a negative. He would be obligated to prove his eligibility.

What does Obama have to hide? Why is he spending thousands to dodge this issue when $12 could put it to rest?

Do you think the Constitution means nothing? How is Obama to swear to uphold the very Constitution of which he's attempting to make a mockery.

Anonymous said...

Have you lost all ability to see how ridiculous you sound? If Obama wanted this issue resolved he would produce the long-form vault original birth certificate--YES, IT IS THAT SIMPLE! Unless you have something to hide.

Anonymous said...

Like if you went to a bar you would give them your ID to prove you are qualified to enter. I see no difference here. Let's "card" Obama before he 'moves in' and takes over the nuclear football.

Also, your article is not accurate:

You state:
"The one that the Hawaii Department of Health officials made public last June was an electronic copy of the certificate."

The Hawaiian Dept. of Health didn't make public the certificate of live birth, it was Obama!


Also, read this report confirming it was photoshopped: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2136816/posts

Also, it was revealed that colb's are issued to babies born out of the country!

Anonymous said...

At no time, by no one, has Obama's Certificate of Live Birth (aka Birth Certificate) been made available. What has been made available is a Certification of Live Birth, a document that is / was often provided to those born elsewhere to parents whose home is / was Hawaii at the time of birth. Get your facts straight!

Anonymous said...

And the obfuscation of any questionable activities, relationships, and statements by "The ONE" continues.

That a Black Man was elected POTUS isn't the News - that he was 'placed' there by the self-serving, socialist agenda-pushing, far-left Liberal Media is.

As for "Change" - yeah, that's all we're going to have left in our pockets when Obama and the rest of the Socialist Wacko Democrats are through with this country.

In the words of Obama's personal Spiritual leader, "God Damn America! God Damn America! God Damn America!"

Anonymous said...

With a simple request to the Hawaii Bureau of Vital Statistics he can quash all doubt and get on with being POTUS.

Let's go Obama - unite our Nation!

Anonymous said...

Mr. Hutchinson, you seem to make light of this subject and belittle the people who are merely demanding Obama prove his constitutional legitimacy to serve as President. It appears there is no well defined mechanism in our nomination and election process as it now stands.

The fact that the Supreme Court has accepted a case for conference on this question (Dec. 5th) seems to imply the issue might be of greater gravity than you hope to admit.

As other posters have suggested, why would Mr. Obama withhold this information that is so easily produced (or is it)? I would be more than happy to provide this information to anyone who asked ME...

Anonymous said...

This is so incredibly sad. I completely agree with Malika. This will never end. There will be one scene after another to try and force President Elect Obama out of office. If he humors even this one request, there will be endless additional ones in the future. I'm really saddened by the way people are behaving and trying to degrade the office of the President. Obama hasn't even come into office yet and there's so much vitriolic; yet the same people were suspiciously silent when an obviously damaging President Bush was re-elected to office.

Anonymous said...

http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/david%20axelrod.jpg

http://www.armageddononline.org/image/hitler.jpg

Please note how much Adolph Hitler looks like David Axelrod. I should know- I was born in Berlin.

Ms. Helga

Anonymous said...

The birth certificate shown at the top is not Obama's. The one here is an authentic certificate used in this video to compare why Obama's is a forgery.

The video explains how the hexacode hidden in the image of Obama's internet birth certificate proves it was graphically altered using Adobe photoshop in 2008, which contradicts the 2007 date stamp in the back. You couldn't ask for better evidence of tampering

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIsQJNTvlUE&feature=related

None of the hospitals in Hawaii have record of his mother or Obama.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2141909/posts

Yuri Bezmenov was a defector from Russia to the US and in 1985 warned America in the future should be wary of a covert Socialist who hides his ideology behind smiles and spreads unrealistic promises to disgruntled people.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x32cxf_yuri-bezmenov

PLEASE EMAIL THESE PETITIONS AND ASK YOUR FRIENDS TO DO THE SAME ASAP. IT'S THE LAST WEEK TO TELL THE SUPREME COURT HOW WE FEEL, BUT 150,000 PEOPLE IS NOT ENOUGH WHEN MOST MAINSTREAM MEDIA IS DELINQUENT AND THERE WERE 57 MILLION MCCAIN VOTERS!!!

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?pageId=81550

http://www.rallycongress.com/constitutional-q

Anonymous said...

Tired of people who cannot read. Tired of people who misinterpret what they read. Tired of people who do not do their homework BEFORE they write an article. Tired of bad journalism. Tired of people who are dumber than toast (this is what American education has generated in the last 30 years). Tired of those who do not know their American history. Tired of the sheep who voted for “change” without having the slightest idea what that “change” was going to be. Tired of idiots who swoon at Obama’s empty, blathering speeches. Tired of those in the news who then go on to interpret the nothingness in these empty speeches (”What he was really saying…” or “What he meant to say…” or “What he seemed to say…”).

If Obama has nothing to hide, he should produce his birth certificate and college records. There is an old saying that aptly applies to this: Where there is smoke, there is fire!

Obama, your pants appear to be on fire!

Anonymous said...

I have to agree with you on this. I, like "O" would much rather take it to the Supreme Court, hire three law firms (firms, not lawyers)and spend somewhere in the neighborhood of $1M to make sure that no one gets access to my birth records in Hawaii or my college transcripts from Occidental College and Harvard.

Makes perfect sense to me.

Oh, yeah, remind me... those records Kenya sealed. What records where those again?

Are we being made fun of around the world?

http://willnevergiveup.wordpress.com/2008/12/02/russia/

Anonymous said...

I see the wingnuts have whipped themselves up into a frenzy again. Let them sit & spin.

Anonymous said...

Obama does not have a Hawaiian Birth Certificate; his has a Certificate of Live Birth, which only means he was born alive, unfortunately not in the USA! What's more at least 6 experts have declared that document to be a forgery!! His own Grandmother has stated on camera that she was present at his birth in Kenya.

But beyond that, we need to look at the Constitutional Crisis that will occur if Obama is allowed to take Office. First, if he takes the oath of office he will be committing perjury by swearing to Support and Defend the Constitution, when in fact he will be dishonoring the Constitution and all those who have died to defend and protect the Constitution.

What's more since he is not a US Citizen and can not legally be President anything he signs in to law and anything he does will be invalid and will be met with a barrage of law suits.

The question is: What is more important, one man or The United States Constitution? If we allow a non-citizen to accept the Presidency, we might as well just burn the Constitution, because it will be meaningless from then on and the United States Constitution is the greatest achievement of the human race. I say this because for the first time in human history, a government was founded on the principle that the rights and powers of the individual precede and exceed the rights and powers of government itself. Never before and never again will such a government exist!



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYdk26ezVio

Ted said...

The consequences of the Supreme Court declining to address the US Constitution’s “natural born citizen” clause on the morning of Monday 12/15/08 — thereafter enabling the College of Electors to transform the crisis from “law” to “political and Congressional”, leading to the ‘inauguration’ of Mr. Obama, are nothing less than catastrophic. Lawsuits by members of the military challenging his ‘commander in chief’ status are INEVITABLE. And a military takeover to oust the “usurper” may be inevitable as well. Where is the media? This is no “tin foil hat” joke.

梁爵 said...

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