[M. Dodge Thomas]

"You are quite right about that, but if Obama had taken some positive action to confirm that new citizenship after attaining his majority, such as applying for a passport, then a taint might have fallen over his citizenship."

I'm unclear why there would be a question of a "new citizenship" - not trying to be difficult, just to understand what "new" means in this context?

[centurion316]

I should have been more clear. By “new citizenship”, I mean his boyhood Indonesian citizenship. If Obama, for some reason, had found it advantageous to assert his Indonesian citizenship after becoming an adult, then this would pose a political problem for his Presidential ambitions. The birther debate would have been unleased in full cry and he would have been unlikely to survive the primaries, much less the general election.

I’m just offering this up as a reason why Obama would go to such great lengths to cover his early years paper trail.