Alan Keyes stokes Obama birth certificate controversy
The controversy over the validity of Barack Obama's birth certificate is back on a burner with firebrand conservative Alan Keyes making serious new charges.
In a video (see below) released Friday, Keyes, who lost to Obama in the 2004 U.S. Senate race in Illinois that launched the new president's national political career, calls Obama a communist and usurper and says he refuses to acknowledge the validity of Obama's inauguration over lingering questions in the minds of many conspiracists about the 44th president's birthplace.
The U.S. Constitution requires any president be born an American citizen.
In June, the Obama campaign released to The Ticket a copy of the then-senator's Hawaiian birth certificate (see the jump below and also here). But stubbornly persistent critics demand to see the original, which the state has refused to provide, citing personal privacy reasons.
And the critics, including Keyes explaining here, cite Obama relatives in Kenya as saying he was actually born there in his father's native land when his American mother was too young to pass on her U.S. citizenship.
In December, as The Ticket reported here, the Supreme Court dismissed without comment a New Jersey lawsuit seeking to bar Obama's inauguration due to questions over his actual citizenship. The Obama camp has proceeded normally as if there was no controversy.
Obviously, the inauguration proceeded, although on the advice of White House counsel as a precaution against a verbal muff during the noontime Jan. 20 public ceremony, Obama did take the presidential oath again that night in private with Chief Justice John Roberts. His White House lawyer feared igniting another simmering legal controversy if there was any doubt about the oath's validity, although the Constitution stipulates the new president takes office at noon no matter what.
However, the dispute over his birthplace continues. Listen here to Keyes' rather strong language.
This simmering dispute, occurring online and in e-mails coursing daily across the Internet, seems unlikely to evaporate any time soon.
-- Andrew Malcolm
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Click on the Obama birth certificate image to enlarge.
Quite obviously, Keyes is a psychotic. But in the vision of the party elders, he is the perfect black Republican. Just as Palin is the perfect female Republican. In both cases, of course they are utter whack jobs.
Posted by: Martin L. | February 21, 2009 at 03:20 AM
Andrew Malcolm writes "The Obama camp has proceeded normally as if there was no controversy." Yet Obama has a phalanx of lawyers suppressing access to his early records and has reported spent over $1M in doing so. Is this "proceeding normally?" As an historian it is clear that while Obama may have two creative autobiographies, he will never have an authoritative biography until he allows access to his records. And by the way that Certificate of Live Birth you post above is not authoritative and is not a vault "birth certificate." I have the latter and will gladly show Obama mine if I could see his. In fact I think concerned Americans should laminate theirs and have such a birth certificate rally in Layfayette Park in DC!
Posted by: ipsler | February 21, 2009 at 03:39 AM
Wow. Obama is not just a Communist, but a "radical Communist" (if he were a moderate Commie it would be okay). The Manchurian Candidate! And if we don't stop him he will destroy (not just harm) the country. If some people made statements like that they'd be investigated by the Secret Service. Sure, no proof about the birth certificate thing, but if Obama is a Commie (probably getting orders from Beijing and Havana daily), one needs to try anything they can. Keyes craves attention. Fox News, of course, loves the guy (and would never criticize even such statements-- they did have a Chicago radio host on a year ago who also called Obama a Communist, and no one at all criticized the guy). Poor Keyes. A real nut case, but still getting press coverage.
Posted by: Steve | February 21, 2009 at 03:43 AM
Why is this man on the LATIMES web site? Why not grant the UNA bomber an interview, or a member of the US NAZI party? Or your cousins poodle? Is this paper becoming a freak show?
Posted by: Daniel Lion | February 21, 2009 at 03:49 AM
I'm glad to see one man in CA has a backbone.
Get liberty.
Stop the insanity.
The solution is simple, get rid of the lifers in the fed.
Get out the constitution, read it and stick with it.
Back the currency with gold.
Listen to Ron Paul and the Austrian school of economics.
Posted by: ace | February 21, 2009 at 03:57 AM
Come on L.A. Times! You had a couple of years to investigate the citizenship question haunting our new president. This story is nothing new. The only thing new is the Times asking questions about the issue instead of stone-walling it as the Times and liberal media did before the election. Why now?
Posted by: J.M. | February 21, 2009 at 03:59 AM
Keyes and other nut-ball republicans are, justifiably, scared to death. The public is laughing at them -- no longer listening to their rantings. All they have left are people like Mr. Keyes, the idiot Palin, the angry old McCain, and the small sea of ignorant, ill-informed and hateful true believers at the base of the party.
They have driven our beloved country into the ground. If they won't shut up, they should at least congregate in the deep south where they can all rant to each other, harmlessly, until death.
Mr. Keyes himself should probably be investigated for treason and incitement to violence. If anyone is stupid enough to believe his lying slanderous idiotic remarks, that could lead to attacks on the greatest president we have seen since FDR.
Posted by: Casey | February 21, 2009 at 04:03 AM
Alan Keyes charges are about as credible as this quote from Joseph Mccarthy:
'Joseph Mccarthy' Quote
"I have here in my hand a list of two
hundred and five [people] that were
known to the Secretary of State as
being members of the Communist Party
and who nevertheless are still working
and shaping the policy
of the State Department."
Posted by: puciret | February 21, 2009 at 04:32 AM
Talk about sore losers.
Posted by: puciret | February 21, 2009 at 04:36 AM
Our country has been falling fast ever since we first outsourced, and now we have technically outsourced our president. Now look what he's doing to further destroy this country.
Posted by: Walter Graff | February 21, 2009 at 04:52 AM
WHAT AN IDIOT...THERE IS AN OBVIOUS REASON HE LOST HIS SENATE BID..HE HAS SOME EMOTIONAL AND MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES, AND HE IS JUST LOOKING FOR HIS 15 MINUTES....DONE...
Posted by: tw | February 21, 2009 at 05:32 AM
Alan Keyes is a loon. The only controversy is the one occurring in the barren wasteland known as his mind.
Posted by: Jose Arribas | February 21, 2009 at 05:58 AM
This certificate means nothing!!
I know how the public service in Hawaii works and with a couple dollars under the table you get anything you want.
Posted by: Befree | February 21, 2009 at 06:14 AM
No, YOU'RE trying to stoke a meaningless "controversy" by giving platform to this nut. We've got hard work ahead to put the US back on track. As a nation we're nearly on life support. Nonsense like this helps nobody. Let's push forward with SOLUTIONS please, not misguided rants.
Posted by: jerry | February 21, 2009 at 06:18 AM
Why does a newspaper of your stature even give a NUT JOB like Alan Keyes the time of day?
On Janurary 4th the United States Senate certified the election of Barack Obama. All it would have taken is for ONE Republican Senator to stand up challengin the election on this issue. Had this occured there would have been a full blown hearing on the matter before the election was certified. Not one Republican senator stood up.
These claims about Obama's birth certificate have been investigated by the Republican Annenberg Fact check. They were given access to the long form birth certificate. They said it is legit.
There are also newspaper birth announcements in both of Hawaii's papers from August of 1961 that can be seen at any number of web sites.
Alan Keyes is a certifiable NUT. Not even the Obama hating Limbaugh and Hannity will touch this birth certificate nonsense.
Posted by: Daniel T. | February 21, 2009 at 06:21 AM
This Birth Certificate is obviously a forgery. Who put down "African" as the race back in 1961. The Obama political machine is as dumb as he is - but probably not as dumb as the FBI or the American people.
What a disgrace this country is.
Posted by: Timbo33 | February 21, 2009 at 06:31 AM
Oh please.
The regurgitated grumblings of a sore loser does not a "simmering dispute" make.
Seems to me that the supposedly reputable L.A. Times running this non-story is what helps with the "stoking".
Posted by: SamBrown | February 21, 2009 at 06:38 AM
Alan Keyes is an also-ran political narcisist who can't stand to be out of the spotlight. Just one more futile attempt to tarnish Obama's name.
Posted by: Brutus | February 21, 2009 at 06:42 AM
Those charges are pretty scary. Why cant the democrats clear his name. this needs to be pursued until it is clear.
Posted by: Santi | February 21, 2009 at 06:47 AM
Hello?
Why do you invite comment on an article but fail to provide access to a comments section?
Same logic that compelled you to put up a video of this kook Keyes, I guess.
Posted by: SamBrown | February 21, 2009 at 06:50 AM
Why do people give this man any attention? He is incapable of winning anything, including love from his family. His ideations seem so far removed from reality as to make him a danger to himself and others.
Posted by: E | February 21, 2009 at 06:50 AM
Wasn't it Joseph Goebbelswho perfected the "Big Lie" technique of political maneuvering? You've fallen RIGHT into the trap, Mr. Malcolm: "Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Alan Keyes stokes Obama birth certificate controversy" -- the more people hear or see something, no matter HOW untrue it might be, the more they're likely to believe it (cf. Saddam Hussein and 9/11, specious, but widely believed). Shame, shame, shame!
Posted by: Dave in Northridge | February 21, 2009 at 06:53 AM
Why do the media persist in pretending that nutcases like Keyes are legitimate and credible and responsible by reporting on their wackiness as if has some truth?
That is NOT responsible journalism and the so-called 'presenting all sides.'
That is reporting as if there might be legitimacy to someone's claim that the world is flat and they say it msut be true because someone else told them so.
Ignore the nut jobs who screech and scream and make claims with no evidence to support them - and when they have been tossed out of every court around, it is quite clear that they are loopy - and so is the LAT for reporting their craziness as if it has anything to do with reality.
Posted by: Ann | February 21, 2009 at 07:00 AM
As a student in Indonesia, He is registered as an Indonesian citizen. This makes sense, as indonesia requires citizenship to go to school there, and does not allow dual citizenship. Obama has refused/failed to show he naturalized in the US as an adult. If he hasn't his childhood citizenship was relinquished, he is an indonesian citizen, and any certificate he waves around is as good as Confederate money.
Posted by: yerbrojoe | February 21, 2009 at 07:00 AM
Sour Grapes
Posted by: Joe6Pac | February 21, 2009 at 07:00 AM