Birthers will not give up on Obama's birth certificate and the White House does everything to help them out

UPDATE: The president finally released his official birth certificate. The document, his full statement and our commentary is now posted over here.)

Because the question of Barack Hussein Obama's birth certificate and true nationality is such a sensitive and completely embarrassing issue for the Democratic president that just won't go away, the White House Tuesday talked it up again.

Our LATimes.com colleague quoted a White House spokesman as calling it a "settled issue."

Press Secretary Jay Carney, who claims to have been born in Washington on May 22, 1965, reportedly said:

I just think it's a distraction and it's an unfortunate distraction from the issues that I think most Americans care about.

Obama wishes the issue that makes proponents look goofy would go away so badly that he makes smiling references to it in speeches, in case anyone's forgotten.

In 2008, his campaign even gave The Ticket a copy of Obama's so-called birth certificate from Hawaii. We reproduce it here again today; click on the image to enlarge it for closer examination.

Readers will now flock in to eagerly point out that this is not actually....

...Obama's real birth certificate, but a copy of his Certificate of Live Birth. Which is just as good for some purposes.

The viewer-challenged cable news channel known as CNN wants to help the birther issue disappear so badly for the president of the United States that it devoted two evening chunks to examining every conceivable birther angle, except showing the actual birth certificate.

Hilarious presidential non-candidate Donald Trump, who has not run for president several times, thinks the arguments are so ridiculous that he brings up Obama's birth certificate often too, hoping it will prolong his time onstage merely by repetition. So far, that's worked beautifully.

Trump even produced his own birth certificate (Queens, N.Y., June 14, 1946) as proof that copies of such documents can be found and revealed to the public if you have nothing to hide, as Obama has not done.

The birth certificate issue has obvious political ramifications for the 2012 presidential election. If it could be proven that Obama is not a natural-born American citizen, then under the Constitution of the United States, he isn't president of said country.

And we can all forget every single thing the ex-state senator has done or said in these 827 long days that didn't really happen.

The empty promises about creating hundreds of thousands of new, meaningful jobs for Americans simply by spending our unborn grandchildren's income taxes will merely evaporate. All those interminable Obama healthcare town halls with their phony promises of more for less, poof. Gone! President Quixote's endless talk about the wonders of windmills, erased from our national consciousness.

If Obama isn't president, then gasoline prices will no longer be preparing to launch past $5 per gallon. The national debt of $14+ trillion would not be on the verge of soaring past the legal limit. And no one would be wondering why Obama will spend about half a million taxpayer dollars today flying the president's Air Force One to Chicago simply to tape an "Oprah" TV show.

If Obama was not president, Ron Paul would be unsuccessfully seeking the White House again. The Guantanamo Bay detention facility would still be open. We wouldn't have 100,000 sets of boots on the ground in Afghanistan. We wouldn't be bombing three Middle Eastern countries, instead of two.

And the Nobel Peace Prize winner would be freed from the indelible stain of hypocrisy for joining in the civil war of one Muslim country after finding fame and election success by castigating a previous president for doing the very same thing.

To see how politically lethal the birth certificate issue could be next year, just look back at 2008 when the Democratic primary campaign of someone called Hillary Clinton (Illinois, Oct. 26, 1947) brought it up.

Riding that burning issue propelled her all the way to a losing second-place finish.

By their puzzling refusal to prolong the Democrat's invisible birth certificate discussion, Michele Bachmann, John Boehner and now Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer have completely missed the political potential for Obama in continuing the birther debate to the exclusion of other far more significant issues that might actualy matter.

Thank goodness, Claire Shipman's husband is on White House spokesman duty to help if necessary. Or even if not necessary.

-- Andrew Malcolm (DOB N/A)

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Photo Illustration: Andrew Malcolm

Comments

[SnowWolf]

At first I thought the birth certificate was a non-issue...but the more they cling to not releasing the "Long form" the more I believe they are hiding something

[Sam Sewell]

The Three Straws That Break AKA Obama’s Back
(with a little help from Congress)
It isn’t all about the birth certificate. His entire history is a masquerade of deception and obfuscation.
1. There is enough evidence to seek a federal indictment against AKA Obama for Social Security fraud
2. AKA Obama has admitted that he is not a “Natural Born Citizen” which is a requirement for the Office of President under Article 2, Section 1 of the Constitution
3. AKA Obama has never been properly vetted as being born in the United States, and many other aspects of his history have been hidden from the citizens of the United States.
* * * * * * * * * * *

[Miriam]

What is missing from this discussion is why the President has chosen to spend large amounts of money keeping his official birth certificate private. Stubbornness? A desire to hide some detail that is on the official certificate (god knows what)? This is what is prolonging this issue. Why doesn't he just release the d@mn official birth certificate?

[Alfred Brock]

I keep hearing about criticism of the ‘Birthers’. A group of people so-named because they argue that President Barack Obama’s mother gave birth to him outside of the United States.
They are ridiculed for their position. Recently Anderson Cooper went “head-to-head with Texas State Rep. Leo Berman” who reportedly expressed doubt about Obama's birthplace.
Obama’s campaign came up with a copy of his Hawaiian birth certificate and posted it online.
The certificate states Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, on August 4, 1961.
The Constitution states, “No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President…”
The first sentence disqualified Barack Obama with what some say is a technicality.
Obama is a natural born human but not, technically, a natural born American citizen.
He was born a British citizen and then became a citizen of Kenya after it declared its independence. At age 23 Kenyan law reportedly insists you must swear allegiance to Kenya or lose citizenship.
Obama reportedly did not swear allegiance to Kenya.
He apparently didn’t bother to swear allegiance to the United States either – becoming a man without a country.
Just because your home country drops you like a hot potato does not mean you are an American citizen because you live here – just ask the 10 million illegal immigrants here now.
If Obama’s critics are technically correct is Obama technically wrong for what he did?

[Disturbed]

Just wondering....Obama taping an Oprah show....$4 gal of gas, war in Libya (That HE started), war in Iraq, War in Afghanistan (Which his coward ass has never been to visit), $750 Billion spent on bail outs in first 3 days in office, Horrible economy and edge of a socialist regime/recession and once again he's on television. So, my question is he the f*%&^(ng president or a televangelist? The chuch of "You dont see anything".

[John]

You know what I like Obama and we all know we wont see the changes hes made until the next term as it takes time. This is a good smart American man trying to fix what he can in a very tough time. Instead of nailing him to the fence how about we assist him and help him reach his goals of change. If we see a bad proposal we suggest a better one. Lets work together to make America better folks, this isnt Obamas fault - hes doing a job that none of us want.
Stop judging stop pointing and start helping.
Enjoy your day.

[roger barnes]

I guess that makes our President an illegal alien and eligible for deportation to ?Kenya. Do the birthers know that his birth was announced in the Hawaii Star News in 1961 like all births in Hawaii? These idiots hope to continue the doubt. They have nothing else.

[MJ MT]

Classic Andrew. Hilarious! Love your sense of humor as ever.

[rezco]

it doesn't matter if he was born in the Lincoln bedroom his father was a Kenyan that was a British citizen, making him, at BEST a DUAL citizen but never an Article II constitutional "natural born Citizen"

natural born meaning born on US soil to 2 US CITIZEN parents

John Jay wrote to Washington the importance of the President having no other allegences to command US troops would need to be born of 2 citizen parents so his loyalties would not be divided, ergo "natural born" not just a regular citizen

[HonestRob]

Who is crazier:
The birthers who want to see Obama's ACTUAL Birth Certificate
OR
those other folks who want to see Trig Palin's Birth Certificate because they doubt he's Sara's kid?

[Johnny B. O;Brien]

I remain amazed at how you media people write such fallacies. Obama is scared to death of this issue. How is he going to get around the fraudlent ss number he is using from conneticut? The noose is tighting around this frauds neck, it is only time unitl you msm obama minions are humilitated just like the blue dress during the Clinton administration, except this time there will be a constitution crisis. Thanks to idiots just like the one who wrote this article.

[Jaime]

If this is real, why is only a scanned copy available instead of simply providing this for the court case? It's a lot like when I ask a kid, "what are you doing?" and they quickly put their hands behind their back, stand in front of the mess and look you dead in the eye and say "Nothing."

[Marc]

After the news today, can the birthers please STHeckU!!! (somehow I think there will NOT be crickets, as there should be.......)

[oneSTARman]

This was NEVER about Place at Birth – it was about RACE at Birth – This would NEVER have been an issue with a WHITE President – These KKK Wanna-be miscreants will find SOMETHING ELSE to howl about for their masters Pleasure.

[veskebjorn]

My grandmother was born in the late 1800s in a New England State. I have a state-certified copy of her birth certificate issued in the early 1960s. This copy is a piece of paper the size of a credit card. It identifies her by her last name (no first or middle names), the date of her birth, and the municipality in which she was born. The document doesn't list her parents' names; it doesn't even have a place where this information could have been printed. It doese bear a state seal and the signature of an official.

Also note: this document bears the title "Certificate of Live Birth."

My original ("long form" in Birther-speak) birth certificate, issued in the late 40s in a Midwestern state is also titled "Certificate of Live Birth," as are the original birth certificates of my rather younger wive and my three children.

So, "certificate of live birth" equals "birth certificate," the amount and nature of information on a birth certificate is determined by each state, and the Full Faith and Credit clause of the U.S. Constitution (Article IV, Section 1) requires all other states and individuals to shut up and accept Hawaii's certificate as authentic.

[Jen]

It is amazing how this issue just won't go away. I used t0 think it was silly, but the longer it goes on, the more I wonder about this man that made it into the White House. This issue could be solved in a day and we could move forward on bigger issues. Like how we elected a president with no experience and no history of ever really holding a job. How did this slick man fool us and the press for so long.

[Jerry]

Finger right on the pulse as usual Mr. Malcolm. sigh

[Donald Pennington]

My goodness, this piece isn't biased at all. I hate Obama for real reasons, not this silly birth certificate garbage. I'd love Trump to be our next president. What does have me curious is how the message said Obamalamadingdong is producing the long form, but this hit piece only skirts the topic. Yellow journalism, anyone?

[Erlampo]

As well he should keep mentioning it. Americans need to be reminded that a large percentage of the electorate consists of these incredibly pathetic, moronic Flat Earther to whom facts mean absolutely nothing.

[Thomas]

So much for your arguments....6 hours later we now have proof that Obama was born in the US. Talk about much to do about NOTHING.

[shutupalready]

DOB N/A LOL!!

[SamIamTwo]

Ah it was a good plan...played out well. Birthers gave themselves a black eye. The man's mother is/was a US citizen...that did it for me years ago and I'm a conservative military brat with TWO certs myself.

Yeah, you folks got played and now the tea party is being blamed for the minority who are called birthers. I'm not a birther but I do attend the tea parties.

Way to go...sheesh. You poor folks got caught up in they keyboard cowboy round up and got played.

[Kang]

Long form birth certificate released this morning. Ron Paul announces he's forming a campaign exploratory committee for his next unsuccessful run for president.

NEXT!

[Susan Grant]

The so-called 'NEW' Certificate of Live Birth is just another INVALID piece of identification, and our faux president has had more than enought time to alter, forge and create anything to once again distract, distort and decieve. Since he is such an accomplished prefabricator this is just one more arrow from his quiver. All VALID Birth Certificates, Certificates of Live Birth or what ever you want to call them are ALWAYS stamped on the front with a raised seal. His doesn't!! This new revelation does NOTHING to quell the questions and does NOTHING to prove he is eligible to serve as our president, faux or otherwise. He has done mote to damage this country from within in his first term in office, are there really enough uninformed, uneducated voters left that would be so stupid to vote for him a second time????I'm thinking, not NO, but HELL NO!!!

[Snexas]

"Because the question of Barack Hussein Obama's birth certificate and true nationality is such a sensitive and completely embarrassing issue for the Democratic president that just won't go away"

Really? I don't find the issue either sensitive or embarrassing and neither do millions upon millions of other Americans. Birthers are a small faction of crazy people and the media just likes to keep the issue alive to avoid doing their real job, journalism.

[doubting thomas]

This will change nothing. Those people are certifiably insane, and need to be institutionalized.

[John Q. Public]

Birthers? Bunch of dumb rednecks. talk about obfuscating. He's a US citizen. GET OVER IT!!

Please be creative on something REAL; like how to solve our budge crisis! Or get help for your various prejudices.

[Prasad]

Mr. Obama did very well i hope now Donald Trump will calm up i think this matter will ends with this action (Release of Obama's birth certificate).

[Stentor]

Snow Wolf: The length of an issue has no bearing on its credibility or veracity as anything. They just released the long form, you are not paying attention.

Sam Sewell: That is your opinion only, I could point out more deceptions on the part of George Bush, Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon, or any other president. If there's enough evidence of SSN fraud, why hasn't it been pursued. Obama never admitted any such thing, that is wishful thinking on your part. Obama was vetted before he ever started running, nothing has been hidden that is necessary and proper.

Miriam: He just released the official birth certificate, you are not paying attention.

Alfred Brock: Obama is a natural born citizen because he was born within the boundaries of the United States. Secondly, he is a natural born citizen because his mother is a citizen. The fact that his father was Kenyan has nothing to do with Obama's status as a citizen, dual citizenship is not an issue either.

Disturbed: You are conveniently ignoring what George Bush did during his presidency, which is far worse than anything Obama has ever done.

Rezco: Natural born citizen does not imply both parents have to be citizens, if that were the case, there would be several presidents who would not have been eligible. Obama's status as a citizen has nothing to do with his father's British citizenship, nor does Obama have dual citizenship. You are being obtuse, just like the previous people I have taken to task.

Johnny B. O'Brien: You have no proof of anything you say. Until such time, you are dismissed.

Jaime: You are conveniently ignoring the fact that most original documents have to stay in the repositories where they are kept, only copies are available for anyone. Why is the president a special case? Because you won't believe anything that's produced?

Jen: The chronological existential length of an issue has no bearing whatsoever on its credibility or veracity. See earlier response to Snow Wolf. Obama has more experience and credibility than his predecessor so the slick one was George Bush, not Obama.

Donald Pennington: You may hate Obama for all the wrong reasons, but Donald Trump would be a horrible president. How many businesses has he managed to drive into the ground? He's been divorced, he cheated on his wife, he's declared bankruptcy numerous times. You don't know anything about what it takes to be a good president.

Susan Grant: All of those things you just said about Obama? Take his name out and insert George Bush there, and you will have all of my feelings exactly about his predecessor. Your opinions are uninformed and ignorant. Stop watching Beck, O'Reilly, and Hannity, they're poisoning your mind.