The Obama Birth Certificate Conspiracy

One of the nuttier arguments during this election campaign has been over Barack Obama’s birth certificate. Even after the birth certificate was released to the public, some right wingers and Clintonistas, which might be redundant, continued to deny this. (This reminds me of the manner in which many right wing sites continue to claim that John Kerry has never released his military records, even though they were both posted on line and inspected by the news media.)

David Weigel of the libertarian magazine Reason has been tracking the nonsense over Obama’s birth certificate, reporting that ironilly some key evidence was obtained by someone who’s working on an anti-Obama documentary for pro-Clinton PUMAs. (See the previous post for comments on the PUMAs.)

The new evidence consists of a birth announcement from a 1961 issue of the Honolulu Advertiser which does provide evidence that Obama was really born in Hawaii. The image actually comes from Obama conspiracy theorist TexasDarlin who manages to still come up with a number of arguments questioning whether Obama is really eligible to legally become president. Weigel clearly enjoys the discussion among the conspiracy theorists:

Seriously, if you like conspiracy theories, the comments at this site are a festival of chuckles. The idea of Obama’s family collaborating to create a false biography for him is, in itself, hilarious. How did those 1961 dinner table conversations go, do they think? “If we don’t create a false story, and fast, our half-African son of an 18-year old mother will have no chance at becoming president!”

The arguments include items such as asking “have you noticed that there are no photos of Obama as an infant?” I’ll top that. Has anyone, Lois Lane included, ever noticed that nobody has ever seen both Barack Obama and Superman in the same place?

4 Comments

  1. 1
    Richard says:

    I have to believe that Mr. Obama is well aware of the current cloud of suspicion that hangs over the image of what his campaign claims is his authentic Hawaiian birth certificate posted on his official campaign website. Interestingly enough, it is in a section dedicated to “fight the smears”. But if anything, it has created more rumors than its defeated.
    It’s too bad that you feel that this is one of the “nuttier arguments” of this election because that is actually not what it is. It’s not an “argument”. To be more accurate, it’s a search for truth. And one would think that given the type of transparency Mr. Obama claims to aspire to, he would send the required $10 to the State of Hawaii and request that they release a paper copy that has an official state seal, signature and certificate number and be done with it.   But he’s not doing that.
    Why is his birth certificate an issue? Well, the Obama campaign opened this can of worms themselves by posting what they claim is an authentic copy of his birth certificate.  As I’m sure you’re well aware, a number of people with high end graphics experience have claimed this document to be forgery.   But whether or not you believe that, the document is invalid on it’s face because it has been altered.  You’ll note that at the bottom of the document and written on the border it states: “ANY ALTERATIONS INVALIDATE THIS CERTIFICATE. Therefore, by virtue of this fact alone, the document is invalid because the certificate number has been blacked out. The very proof Obama offers us (the Certificate of Live Birth (COLB) he’s posted on BarackObama.com) essentially  informs us that we are NOT viewing a valid certificate.

    So what’s preventing him from releasing another copy ON PAPER that has an official seal and signature? Except for the seal and signature, shouldn’t all the information printed on an authenticated copy be identical to what he posted already on the website? Hasn’t he already waived his right to privacy by claiming to have already released this document?

    I believe that there are two possible reasons why he’s not releasing a clearly signed, seal with certificate number birth certificate:

    1.  He has a real COLB that he can produce.  But he wants to play with “right winged” bloggers and give them something to chew on that will distract them.   In the end, he’ll produce a real COLB.  This has the benefit of minimizing other future attacks as being silly.

    2.  He’s hiding something that is either embarrassing or that technically makes him ineligible to serve as President of the United States.
    Perhaps Mr. Chusid, you might wish to consider that there are actually some of us who feel it is our right as American citizens to demand that anyone wishing to serve as President of the United States be actually eligible to do so.

  2. 3
    zac says:

    PUMAs. What a bunch of whack jobs.

  3. 4
    Ron Chusid says:

    Richard,

    The Obama campaign is clearly aware of what you call a cloud of suspicion, but which is really the paranoid rantings of a handful of kooks. The campaign responded and there is evidence as to his eligibility to be president which has been satisfactory to everyone not wearing tin foil hats, who will undoubtedly never be satisfied by any amount of evidence.

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