I haven’t written much about this — I hate to get involved in this sort of thing, and prefer to focus on matters of genuine significance — but I must come out and say that it’s downright weird that the great big noisy fuss about the circumstances of President Obama’s birth hasn’t gone away. It must be a terrible, nagging annoyance for Mr. Obama, and there is simply no good explanation for why he hasn’t simply put the matter to rest, because it ought to be trivially easy to do. To see a fop like Donald Trump swaggering about making political hay with it must be unspeakably irritating.
Anticipating objections, let me reduce the question to a few essential points.
There are those who say: “The President has released an official document from the state of Hawaii. Case closed.”
Well, not quite. The document that has been made public is something called a ‘Certification of Live Birth’. This form, often referred to as a COLB, is a secondary, post-hoc document usually issued when, for example, a person’s original birth certificate is in a foreign language. It refers to, and derives its authority from, the underlying primary document, which in Hawaii would have had been called by a confusingly similar name: a long-form ‘Certificate of Live Birth’, or more commonly, a ‘birth certificate’. This is the official record made at the time of birth, with detailed information including the attending physician’s name, and so forth.
Did whoever issued the COLB have the actual birth certificate to refer to? If so, then why not just release that? It’s a mere triviality, presumably, and yet Mr. Obama doesn’t do it. Why on Earth not? You or I, or anybody else, would get it out there in a heartbeat; it would immediately put an end to all of this nonsense, just like that. It makes no sense not to do so.
Did the issuing party not have the original in hand? Then on what authority was the COLB issued? (There are also various other questions about its authenticity.)
There are contemporaneous newspaper announcements, which indeed add circumstantial support. But if, as others have suggested, there may be other complexities to the details of Mr. Obama’s arrival, the announcements may have been placed, by a family in awkward circumstances, in order to obscure questions of timing or legitimacy. They certainly are not legal documents; anyone can place an ad.
Again — all of this is terribly tiresome, and I have — seriously! — no agenda here. While I would of course love to see him gone, I will remind all of you that getting the sitting President tossed out on some technicality would put Joe Biden in the Oval Office. So I want to be clear: as far as I’m concerned, this birther stuff is just a bizarre distraction. My preference is that we rebut and refute Mr. Obama’s destructive ideology in public discourse, confound his grand schemes within the normal political channels, and work toward that happy day in 2012 when we will see the man put out of office in a fair election.
But it sure is odd. Why the heck doesn’t the President just pony up the real birth certificate, and at a single stroke put an end to all this tomfoolery? Until he does, this distraction — which is increasingly a political liability — will never go away. I just don’t understand it. Do you?
33 Comments
Well, since it’s a distraction, I choose not to be distracted. I agree that “public discourse, normal political channels, and a fair election” should be where we focus our attention, desires, and actions. Let politicians lie. (cough)
What does interest me, though, is the upcoming onslaught of loony conspiracy theories that will be spun about Obama after he leaves office. I look forward to being entertained.
I agree Malcolm with the greater portion of your post.
I don’t actually own a TV but recently I spent four days in close proximity to one – and it’s no wonder why Mom’s electric bills are so high – but I kept hearing numerous “theories” advanced about why the hell is The Donald going [and seemingly staying] so far off the reservation?
Just a guess on my part – and the closest I heard anyone get to what I’d guess was Peggy Noonan.
I can’t opinionate where other parts of the Nation are concerned – but down here in the South, there’s a helluva lot of people taking a shine to “that You’re Fired! guy.”
Tactically speaking, should Trump actually be seriously considering a run – shining this sort of light on the subject for the time being, is kinda smart.
I am as puzzled as the next guy, but I do have a speculative explanation:
Obama is the consummate politico. Hence, he must have concluded that it is to his political advantage not to disclose the “long form” evidence — to whit, Obama is playing political poker. He has “the hand” but masquerades that he is bluffing. This puts his opponents in a lose-lose position: (1)if they don’t call his supposed bluff, they are portrayed as “birthers”; (2)if they do call his bluff and take the issue all the way to the Supreme Court, they run the significant risk that he has the long form and was setting that trap all along to make his opponents look foolish.
Political liability? Hardly. In the last month, Obama has been the beneficiary of two extraordinary events: the near unanimous vote of House Republicans for the Ryan budget plan and the resurgence of birther nonsense. Both show how far off the rails the Republican Party and the extremist agenda it represents have gone.
When Paul Ryan presented his plan to eviscerate Medicare in order to lower tax rates for the wealthy at a town hall meeting yesterday in his district, he got booed and shouted down. Recent polling has shown overwhelming public rejection of cutting Medicare (with one poll yesterday showing that even Tea Party members were against it by 75%). Any Republican Congressman from a swing district who saw Ryan’s town hall meeting probably didn’t sleep very well last night.
No serious person thinks that Obama was born outside the US. His citizenship has been proven by his certificate of live birth, his passport, the state of Hawaii, and circumstantially by contemporary newspapers, all of which are universally accepted as bona fide proof of citizenship. As George Will correctly noted, if Trump runs he will make a “shambles” of the debates as the Serious candidates are forced to debate loony conspiracy theories with the Totally Wacko candidates. Anyone who thinks Obama was born elsewhere won’t vote for him any way, and independent voters seeing Obama solving problems and acting like an adult on one side of their screen and his opponents spouting or refuting crackpot theories on the other have a pretty easy choice to make.
Nobody has produced a shred of evidence to suggest he was born anywhere else, and nobody has produced a shred of evidence to suggest that any of the documents which prove his citizenship are false. So I leave you to ponder why Obama is the only Presidential candidate in history where a noisy minority demanded to see multiple documents proving something which has never been in doubt, while, for example, John McCain (who actually was born outside the US) never got this request. After the farce being spun by Trump and the other fabulists causes havoc in the Republican primaries, independent voters in the general election who can recognize crackpot theories for what they are will contribute to Obama’s second landslide election, and Obama will have Paul Ryan and Donald Trump to thank.
“No serious person thinks that Obama was born outside the US” is a patently false assertion. Moreover, a passport, for example, is not proof of natural-born citizenship, because naturalized citizens can have passports too.
John McCain is a natural-born citizen by virtue of the fact that both his parents were citizens at the time of his birth. And if anyone had doubted that fact, I am confident McCain would have produced the necessary evidence.
A passport is proof of natural born citizenship if the person in question has not been naturalized as an immigrant.
A certificate of live birth is no better or no worse than the original certificate, the sworn document by ths state of Hawaii, or a passport in proving natural born citizenship. They are all bona fide proof of citizenship.
The reason McCan was not questioned about his citizenship is that it is not in doubt. Neither is Obama’s. You miss my point entirely. Why should Obama be held to a different standard than anybody else?
You don’t have to think too hard about this one. It’s a pretty easy question.
Yaaaaaawn…
Perhaps you and Peter are right, Henry, and the President is deliberately gaming this. But it is hard to see why he would have thought to do so in this way early on, before it all got so het up.
It’s either that, though, or that there actually is something awkward here that he would prefer to hide. Given that any ordinary, rational person without something to conceal would have produced the primary form ages ago, silenced the debate, and moved on, I’ll confess that my suspicions incline toward the latter. I’ll say no more about it.
(Peter, being in a sociable mood I shall pass over your characterization of the President’s shameful eat-the-rich class-warfare demagoguery as “acting like an adult” and “solving problems”, as well as your wearily familiar Democrat-talking-point-checklist reference to Republicans as “extremists”.)
Well said, Bob. I probably shouldn’t have bothered with this post.
I will say this, though, in response to Ryan’s being booed and shouted down (I’ll take your word for that, not having bothered to verify it): it is certainly true that the blame for our disastrous fiscal predicament lies not only with politicians on both sides of the aisle, but with the voters of all parties as well. Their representatives have just been giving them what they want — more and more government goodies, and damn the expense. When we do go over the cliff, we’ll really have nobody but ourselves to blame.
As Ben Franklin (I think it was he) said:
Or if you prefer, here’s H.L. Mencken:
I can take a hint, Malcolm. But I think your original question was interesting, before it was hijacked into the tired birther back and forth.
There’s really no need to even mention McCain in this trifling – his Dad was US Navy, Mom was a citizen, and the Canal District was still under lease by the US.
Peter and/or TheBigHenry, all you need do is ask a military brat who was born on any of the too numerous to mention US military bases located on foreign soil.
Because every time, every person, every presidency, every age is a unique set of circumstances, and people are going to ask different questions, and pay attention to different things.
This birther stuff’s really fascinating, but the more I read, the less I know, so I’m gonna stop reading and try to forget what I’ve learned so I’ll know as much as I did before I started.
Jeffery Hodges
* * *
Obama is not being held to a different standard than anybody else, because, unlike everybody else and despite assertions to the contrary, Obama’s natural-born citizenship status is in doubt.
Possibly the dullest and most pointless post-and-thread ever.
Let’s stop. Apologies to all.
The donald will set thangs right
What seems crazy to me is the fact that such a trivial issue as Obama’s birth certificate has taken priority over a number of much more important issues that the country has to deal with in the area of economy or national security.
trivial issue? What’s trivial about it? It happens to be a Constitutional issue, concerning the qualifications for President of the United States.taken priority? How so? What resources and/or time and/or effort have been diverted from your presumed “much more important issues that the country has to deal with”, by anybody who has any influence on such issues as the economy or national security?
Making assertions about what is or isn’t trivial, what is or isn’t a priority, and any other such opinions masquerading as facts, is a superficial way of analyzing policy and events of national importance.
TBH – On the other hand, if somebody thinks X is “trivial,” then they would pretty obviously dispute your opinion/judgment that X is “of national importance.” Opinions masquerading as facts? Superficial? Hoisted by one’s own petard?
I think not, bk. Constitutional issues are of national importance by definition, and so are the national economy and national security.
But you are entitled to your own superficial opinions, too.
When things are “important by definition,” it’s a clear sign that we’ve entered the realm of the trivial. It’s easy to raise all manner of silly questions and generate all manner of silly controversies that by definition implicate the constitution. Constitutional issues are a dime a dozen, and the vast majority of them aren’t worth even that. We don’t need to refer to the constitution to know what things are important, things like freedom and justice (neither of which, incidentally, is important by definition). What of similar import is imagined to hang on the question of the circumstnces of Obama’s birth?
bk, I take it all back; you are a person of Deep Thoughts ~ Important things can only be defined as those things that can not be defined.
Far out, dude.
Now that the birthers’ slanders have been revealed — yet again — to be preposterous, malicious, and racist nonsense, we also know that the meme “just show them the long form certificate and it will all be over” is also untrue.
http://bltwy.msnbc.msn.com/politics/the-birthers-who-still-dont-believe-1686898.story
Donald Trump is now demanding to see Obama’s academic records. What is he going to ask for next? His dental records?
Nah. His psychiatric records are more appropriate.
Henry, there’s no reason to be overcome by guilt and shame because of your pederasty. Why not go to the park and find your next catamite? Live a little!
“Racist” nonsense?
Nobody likes you, Peter. You are a vulgar angry fool who makes patently false assertions.
And your mama wears combat boots.
OK, you guys. There’s the bell; back to your corners.
Of course it’s racist. Do you seriously think that a white Presidential candidate born in similar circumstances — mother from Kansas, immigrant father — would have been subjected to this nonsense?
There are plenty of people who cannot abide by the fact that a black man is President. Since we’re no longer living in the days of Orville Faubus, you can’t run as a white supremacist. However, the incessant questioning of his basic authenticity as an American is a proxy appeal to racism. In addition to portraying him as a fraud and a liar, it denies his basic American-ness. He’s so different than you and me, he can’t possibly be a real American. There’s no reason in the world to doubt his citizenship, yet he is the only Presidentlal candidate in our history to have his legitimacy as an American questioned. How could that not be racist?
It’s no different than Trump’s insistence to see his academic records. The subtext: how could a black guy be smart enough to do so well at school? Must be affirmative action. Being editor of the Harvard Law Review is the pinnacle of legal education. You don’t get to be editor unless you are really, really smart. Trump cannot accept this simple fact and instead casts aspersions on Obama’s legitimacy as a legal scholar. Do you think he would do this to a white guy?
(You could say that he was niggled and spooked that Obama was so niggardly in calling a spade a spade.)
It’s Swift Boating all over again. To cast doubt on the fact that John Kerry was a genuine war hero, the right wing spewed a lot of lies and slander, which then became a controversy which Kerry was forced to address. To cast doubt on the fact that Barack Obama is as American as you and me, the right wing spewed out a lot of lies and slander, which then became a controversy which Obama was forced to address. It’s disgusting. With the honorable exception of Mitt Romney, there has not been a single leading politician or opinion leader from the right wing who said that they may disagree with Obama on policy, but his legitimacy to be President is not in doubt. Shame on them all.
Let’s review. There has not been a shred of evidence to suggest that Obama was born anywhere except Honolulu. Nada. Zip. There has been plenty of evidence proving that he was, in fact, born there. However, if you’re going to believe that his parents would plant a birth announcement in the local papers on the off-chance that their son might be President some day, you’ll believe anything. Yet there has been this incessant drumbeat, over and over, which insists that Obama is dishonest, illegitimate, and alien. Based on absolutely nothing. That’s not racism?
Obama is the Jackie Robinson of American politics, and you would expect him to take some knocks. Many on the Right like to talk about American exceptionalism, although they confuse it with the notion that we’re better than other peoples and hence have the right to invade their countries if we see fit to do so. The rise of Barack Obama from humble circumstances to be President of the United States is, in fact, proof of American exceptionalism. The notion that we are all created equal, and anybody can be President some day, is a core American principle, and the fact that a black man has been able to achieve this is truly exceptional. How many other countries have a leader who is not from the dominant ethic group? Outside of France, I can’t think of one.
You can’t imagine a more inspiring biography than Obama’s: raised by a single mother on food stamps, studied hard, rose to the pinnacle of Harvard Law School, gave up lucrative corporate work to be in the public sector, and eventually became President. You don’t have to agree with his policies to accept the fact that his ascent is bona fide proof of what makes America great, yet not only has this been denied by the birthers, it’s been relentlessly attacked. It’s regrettable that there are those who cannot recognize American exceptionalism when it is staring them in the face.
Oh please. “Racism, racism, racism.” That’s all we ever hear about from the Left these days (except, of course, when Black Panthers intimidate voters at the polling place, and we hear Eric Holder talking about “my people” , and calling white folks a “nation of cowards”).
Anyway, as regards this issue, you are spouting utter nonsense. There’s nothing racist about it. The circumstances of Obama’s origins were very much out of the ordinary, and rather than make a simple phone call to produce an easily available document and put the question to rest, he bizarrely milked and prolonged this issue (for years!) for no apparent reason other than to make political hay. (Andrew McCarthy comments pointedly, here.)
I agree with your point about Obama’s election proving American exceptionalism. So why turn right around and start spewing more garbage about racism?
Oh, and by the way: if your memory weren’t so selective, you’d remember that there WAS a similar kerfuffle about the birth circumstances and Constitutional qualifications of Mr. Obama’s opponent in the very last election: John McCain, who is… wait for it… white.
Last word to you; readers have probably had enough of this awful thread.
There was nothing “out of the ordinary” regarding Obama’s birth. He was born in a Hawaii hospital to an American mother and an immigrant father. What’s out of the ordinary about that?
Nor was there any issue to “milk and prolong.” He produced bona fide proof of citizenship years ago. Proof good enough for the State Department to issue a passport and the Federal Election Commission to certify citizenship. It should have been case closed, except it wasn’t. Now Obama is being criticized for “prolonging” a totally phony “controversy” which he had no role in starting, and which was so ludicrous that it was a low point in American politics that he had to confront it.
Regarding McCain: there was no serious controversy about his citizenship. Obama never challenged it, nor did any other serious person.
That is all I have to say about the subject. It is obvious racism. There simply is no other explanation for questioning Obama’s legitimacy and integrity except as an appeal to cast him as alien and different. Res ipsa loquitur.