[beezdotcom]

I’m wondering, since the Constitution has specific age and national origin requirements, is there an official process that certifies that the candidates meet the requirements? Is anyone in the gubmint authorized to check? Or do we just wing it?

I'm pretty sure that the horrifying but true answer is: "we wing it".

If nothing else comes from this issue, I hope we will at LEAST institute a process for removing these sorts of doubts in the future, especially with the number of illegals in this country.

That being said, here are my bets for how this particular event plays out:
43.28% chance: image is an unprocessed scan of a legitimate document
22.52% chance: image is a 'touched up' scan of a legitimate document (rush job that got tweaked cosmetically)
34.21% chance: Obama is still eligible, but someone decided to cut corners and post a fake instead of waiting to get the real thing:
00.01% chance: It's a complete fake, and the real document would reveal some fact that Obama doesn't want revealed, anything from an extra middle name to an reason for ineligibility.

[cynwoody]

That being said, here are my bets for how this particular event plays out:
43.28% chance: image is an unprocessed scan of a legitimate document
22.52% chance: image is a 'touched up' scan of a legitimate document (rush job that got tweaked cosmetically)
34.21% chance: Obama is still eligible, but someone decided to cut corners and post a fake instead of waiting to get the real thing:
00.01% chance: It's a complete fake, and the real document would reveal some fact that Obama doesn't want revealed, anything from an extra middle name to an reason for ineligibility.

My theory: Reacting to a perceived need for a birth certificate, some doofus at the Obama campaign emailed the Hawaii Health Department and got some fellow commie working there to print off and scan an unofficial copy. They were careful to redact the certificate number, because that would allow bosses at the Health Department to determine who issued the out-of-school document. But they forgot to redact the June 6, 2007 date stamp that bled thru from the back of the paper. Then they published it, not realizing it would be analyzed as a possible forgery.

Now they are shaking a stick at the useless bandwidth wastage we of the VRWC are generating and having a good chuckle.

Sometime in October they will get around to posting an official copy. It will have fold marks and a certificate number and an embossed seal and be signed on the back by Dr. Onaka or one of his successors. And it will have a date other than June 6, 2007. But otherwise it will contain the same information. And they will say, See! Look at all the fuss about nothing those rascally Republicans made!