Was Obama's "Birth Certificate" Photoshopped?

The Patriot Room ^ | June 19, 2008 | Bill Dupray

[Bill Dupray]

Daily Kos posted a copy of Obama's "Birth Certificate." A blogger with experience in graphics and printing shows that the document was clearly produced using a graphics program.

Why doesn't Obama tell Hawaii to give one directly to Fox News and put this issue to bed? It would take 5 minutes.

[RockinRight]

I ordered a copy of my birth certificate from the State of Ohio. The one they sent looks different and “just printed” off a PC, and it’s different than the ones my parents have. However, it’s fully legit, so I can’t say whether or not Obama’s was actually photoshopped.

[ClearCase_guy]

Check the other threads. The issue isn’t that it’s a document containing data generated from a government database (there’d be nothing wrong with that). The issue is that this is an artisitic creation wholly generated by a photoshop artist. It’s fishy.

[NoKoolAidforMe]

Wouldn’t a birth certificate from the 1960s have the father’s race as “Negroid” or “Black”, not “African”? I mean, the mother’s race is listed as “Caucasian”.

[mnehring]

I’m sure old Barry O is loving our side spending so much time drooling over this instead of focusing on his gaffs and issue differences.

[highball]

It’s fishy.

No, it's paranoia run amok. Our version of Bush Derangement Syndrome in action.

Worse yet, it's a distraction from the issues. By making conservatives who oppose him look like raving conspiracy kooks, it plays right into his hands.

[mnehring]

That would be if he were a US Citizen, but he was from Kenya.

[Dilbert San Diego]

I also ordered a copy of my birth certificate from the state of Pennsylvania. It also looks like a computerized form, and not the same as the yellowed certificate my parents had. Is it common for states to have computer databases of all their vital records nowadays? And just print off a statement if someone needs it?

[taraytarah]

Have you read this thread:

"Was Obama's "Certificate of Birth" manufactured?"

[Soliton]

Obama’s birth certificats is a fake.

Larry Sinclair is believable

Michelle’s “whitey” video will insure a President McCain

[deport]

I’m sure old Barry O is loving our side spending so much time drooling over this instead of focusing on his gaffs and issue differences.

---

What.......... You mean this isn’t the most important issue of the campaign for the opposition to Obama to focus on? Tin foil stocks are down due to the crude situation so maybe this will help bring them back.

[KarlInOhio]

This was brought up on Free Republic a few days ago. Was Obama's "Certificate of Birth" manufactured?

I said the following about the full size images that were linked:

Barak's is compressed a lot more in the jpeg format than yours.

Barak:
1024x1000=1,024,000
compressed size: 113118
ratio: 9.05

yours:
1021x851=868,871 pixels
compressed size: 296015
ratio: 2.94

Also, your image has large white areas which are almost infinitely compressable, so the compression ratio of the "interesting" sections is probably closer to 2.7.

Additionally, yours is a black&white image, so no color information has to be saved. Barak's is full color, so three times the data has to be saved.

Go back and compres yours to about 90,000 bytes and then compare the images. That still won't handle the color difference, but it will start showing what you lose in compression.

Compress the two images at a similar ratio and then compare them.

[KarlInOhio]

Wouldn’t a birth certificate from the 1960s have the father’s race as “Negroid” or “Black”, not “African”? I mean, the mother’s race is listed as “Caucasian”.

This is a modern print from the Hawaii birth records. I wouldn't be surprised if they did a global replace for all the various term for blacks into one PC term.

[ncfool]

The only real way anybody could tell if it was a photoshop fake is for Obama to either release it to the public which I don’t think would be a very big deal to kill all the speculation or for a HAWAII resident born in 1961 to white out portions of their birth certificate from that year and post it.

Now the copy that has been photo shopped is a certificate that was produced in 2007. The 2007 version was alledged to be from the State of Hawaii vitial records division. We need to get a current copy of a Hawaii certificate to verify if the Obama one was a fake.

So if there are any Hawaian born Freepers Please go to work and clarify this whole issue once and for all.

[dblshot]

A senator, lawyer, and world traveler does not have a copy of his birth cetificate? Heck I got mine, my fathers, and bunch of other ID docs in a fire proof file cabinet and I’m just a Joe Six Pack. You ever try to get a passport without a birth certificate? How about a social security card? My mother had to show my birth certificate to get me in to kindergarten. If this is a red herring he’ll have to show something sometime soon or the rumor will grow legs.

[andy58-in-nh]

You're absolutely right. There are enough real concerns with Obama to waste time on nonsense like this.

The birth certificate issue has already been fully researched and it is perfectly legitimate. The state of Hawaii issued a registered and certified copy of the original certificate on a new form designed in 2001. The copy in question was requested by someone (likely Obama himself) and was delivered in July 2007. That's it.

Now let's move on to real issues: like how much his published platform would cost the American taxpayer.

[ncfool]

Each state is different .... Ohio would not be the same. Different paper,format and ink or printer.

[dforest]

Welcome to FR. It may be photoshopped. If it is......who is going to say anything about it, or report on it?

I would suggest, no one.

[NoKoolAidforMe]

Race is not the same as nationality. The terms are not consistent—”Caucasian” and “African”.

[Polyxene]

However, a certified copy of an official document should have a “raised seal” embossed on it showing that it is an original, certified copy.