It's because the COLB is what the Department of Health normally issues in most places, if not all places.
I went to school, got my drivers license, my passport, and my marriage license with nothing but my COLB. Until this controversy erupted, I had no idea that there even was a "long form" in the vault.
Color me skeptical. In three years of discussing this topic on FR, you're the first person I've ever seen make that claim.
Perhaps you should describe your COLB. It may be very different from the document that Barry produced.
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Did you ever play Little League, or do know friends or relatives who have played Little League?
I don't think Little League accepts short form birth certificates. It only accepts long form certificates with the doctor and hospital names on it.
I played Little League, and I had to present my long form birth certificate.
Have you noticed that Obama did not play Little League while growing up in Hawaii?
As I understand it, Obama was a very good athlete while growing up in Hawaii, and the reason why he was a very good athlete could have been because it seems that he was a little bigger and taller than many of the other children his age.
However, for some mysterious reason, we read nothing about Obama playing Little League in Hawaii, and we don't see pictures of Obama in a Little League uniform.
( As I understand it, Little League has always been very popular in Hawaii. I think that there was Little League in Hawaii in the 1970s. If Obama was born in 1961, then it seems that he would have been the right age in the 1970s to play Little League.)
Why is there no information that Obama played Little League? Could it be that Obama needed a long form birth certificate to register for Little League, but Obama did NOT have one?
You can’t get a passport using a Certification of Live Birth (COLB).
“When applying for a U.S. passport in person, evidence of U.S. citizenship must be submitted with Form DS-11. All documentation submitted as citizenship evidence will be returned to you. These documents will be delivered with your newly issued U.S. passport or in a separate mailing.
*A certified birth certificate has a registrar’s raised, embossed, impressed or multicolored seal, registrar’s signature, and the date the certificate was filed with the registrar’s office, which must be within 1 year of your birth. Please note, some short (abstract) versions of birth certificates may not be acceptable for passport purposes.”
http://travel.state.gov/passport/get/first/first_830.html#step3first