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Behind the Screwy Obama Birth Certificate Controversy
American Chronicle ^
| November 30, 2008
| Earl Ofari Hutchinson
Posted on 11/30/2008 9:56:49 PM PST by ckilmer
Behind the Screwy Obama Birth Certificate Controversy
by Earl Ofari Hutchinson
November 30, 2008
At first glance it defied credulity that the staid, respected Chicago Tribune would do something as screwball as giving any credence to the issue of whether President-elect Barack Obama is really a U.S. citizen or not. But the Tribune will run not one but two big splashy ads paid for by a quasi libertarian outfit named www.wethepeoplefoundation.org based in Queensbury, New York. The group demands that Obama produce his original birth certificate with all the official markings and proper affixed signatures on it. The one that the Hawaii Department of Health officials made public last June was an electronic copy of the certificate.
Unfortunately, Hawaii officials left just enough room for the Obama birth certificate hounders to wiggle through when they correctly noted that privacy laws forbade them from releasing original documents without the authorization of the individual for which the documents are requested; in this case that individual being Obama.
Obama at the time and since then has also correctly declined to give any more ammunition to the birth certificate hounders. His campaign simply issued a statement that the document released by Hawaii officials is authentic. But that just emboldened the Obama hounders even more. Nearly a million have taken a gander at a You Tube clip on the controversy, dozens of websites fuel the rumor mill about his certificate, and a pile of articles have rehashed the issue of whether the birth certificate that Hawaii produced is legit. Nearly two dozen lawsuits or petitions have been filed in various state courts contesting Obama´s U.S. citizenship (one of them was filed by political gadfly Alan Keyes).
The Tribune ads won´t help matters. But it probably wouldn´t have made much difference if the paper had refused the ad. The online mill would still crank away about the certificate. Wagging tongues fan a controversy and that´s always good for website looks and business. As for We the People, it has used the controversy as a fund raising chip (gimmick).
But that´s less important for some than finding any issue no matter how farfetched to further stoke the paranoid suspicions of more than a few about Obama. Those suspicions were deeply implanted the moment that he declared his presidential candidacy in 2007. They rumbled above and underneath the surface throughout the campaign, and never stopped when he won.
He was not black enough. He was too black. He was not patriotic enough. He was too liberal, too effete, too untested. He was a Muslim, terrorist fellow traveler, and a closet black radical. The shock of an Obama in the White House is simply too much for many to bear. Obama defies the stereotypical textbook look and definition of what an American president is supposed to look like, and be like; namely a wooden image middle-aged, or older, white male.
Obama said as much during a campaign stop in late July when he quipped that he did not look like all those other presidents on the dollar bills. Obama got torched for saying the obvious and that is that his candidacy was different. Obama later admitted that it was a racial reference. The off the cuff remark simply reinforced the point that he and his candidacy marked a turning point in U.S. presidential politics and by extension race relations.
The Obama birth certificate hounders have kept the issue alive with some mainstream papers by crudely cloaking their motives. They depict themselves as public spirited citizens and legal experts with no personal, political, let alone racial, ax to grind. Their sole goal is to insure electoral truth and accuracy, to make sure that all the legal requirements for holding a presidential office are met, and to head off a constitutional crisis. They claim they want to put the matter to rest for good before his January 20 inauguration.
Their fantasy is that the U.S. Supreme Court will help them out and demand that Obama produce his supposed "real" birth certificate and if not declare the election null and void. The Supreme Court hasn´t made any demand on Obama to pony up his birth certificate, and likely won´t. Even if a justice or two had a stray thought about taking a peek at the issue, the memory of the fury over the court´s meddle in the 2000 election that ultimately tipped the White House to Bush is still too fresh in their and the public´s mind to butt in on such a wacky issue.
The bad thing about the controversy over Obama´s birth certificate is not that some print publications have dignified the issue by running paid hit ads on it, but that the ads were even conjured up in the first place. And even worse that so many millions are still willing to believe that it´s an issue at all.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. His forthcoming book is How Obama Won (Middle Passage Press, January 2009).
TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Foreign Affairs; Government; US: Hawaii
KEYWORDS: birthcertificate; certifigate; obama; obamabirth; stbc
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To: El Gato
What document did the Hawaii officials release? IIRC, they specifically said they could *not* release any birth documents, for anyone. You're exactly right. Earl Ofari Hutchinson does not have even this basic fact straight. And since that's the sole "documentation" on which he rests his agenda-driven ridicule, the entire screed is worth exactly zero, except as propaganda.
Hutchinson either knowingly misrepresents the COLB or erroneously believes the State of Hawaii released it to the public and couldn't be bothered to check his assumptions against the facts. Either way, he discredits himself, and does not even meet the standards for a high school newspaper.
61
posted on
12/01/2008 5:53:31 AM PST
by
Eroteme
To: rollo tomasi; Heavy Fuel; freeangel; LibLieSlayer; American in Israel; Bon mots; ApplegateRanch; ...
62
posted on
12/01/2008 5:56:31 AM PST
by
CaraM
(Faithless is he who quits when the road darkens.)
To: Blogger
If he’s already shown everything necessary,
why spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to keep it “private”?
63
posted on
12/01/2008 5:57:57 AM PST
by
MrB
(The 0bamanation: Marxism, Infanticide, Appeasement, Depression, Thuggery, and Censorship)
To: syriacus
He apparently don’t need no stinking Constitution getting in his way.
To: ckilmer
One thing that we do know for sure, from even that forged COLB on Obama’s Factcheck website, is that his father was not an American citizen, and thus on that issue alone, with or without his birthplace, Obama is not qualified to be President. Senate Resolution 511 that Obama even voted for is testimony against him.
65
posted on
12/01/2008 6:15:19 AM PST
by
Uncle Chip
(TRUTH : Ignore it. Deride it. Allegorize it. Interpret it. But you can't ESCAPE it.)
To: American in Israel
If I was him I’d be looking for the best forger in the world. Then I’d want every expert to examine it for any flaws.
Of course the next step would be to elimate the orginal forger.
To: Blogger
Show the real (vault copy) certificate proving that he was born in the US and everyone will shut up.Well, even if they show that he was born in the US, how are they going to show that his father was a US citizen??? And if both parents were not US citizens then Obama cannot be a "natural born" American. They have no way to silence this issue --
67
posted on
12/01/2008 6:21:48 AM PST
by
Uncle Chip
(TRUTH : Ignore it. Deride it. Allegorize it. Interpret it. But you can't ESCAPE it.)
To: CaraM
The Certification is a forgery to start with. So the voters in this country have seen absolutely nothing.
And, if a forgery, then also a felony. So, if a forgery, then they've already seen Obama, through his campaign, commit a felony.
68
posted on
12/01/2008 7:14:53 AM PST
by
aruanan
To: rollo tomasi
Section 301(a)(1) will either be found to have been unconstitutional to begin with or to be inapplicable for some reason. The Supreme Court
definitely follows the election returns. The idea that the majority party should be deprived of its victory because it's candidate's mother, as a teenager, didn't comply with an obscure law just isn't going to fly.
Granted, if Obama was a nobody, and especially a Republican nobody, it might very well be different. But he isn't.
69
posted on
12/01/2008 8:14:51 AM PST
by
Grut
To: Lord_Baltar
That is insane. He has spent over $1mm fighting this. You don’t spend a million to handle what 20 bucks could prevent.
70
posted on
12/01/2008 8:24:44 AM PST
by
ImaGraftedBranch
(...And we, poor fools, demand truth's noon, who scarce can bear its crescent moon.)
To: hattend
It solves that one problemAlso if it has some questionable information he doesn't want us to know???
71
posted on
12/01/2008 9:51:35 AM PST
by
danamco
To: rollo tomasi
The child of an American citizen is an American citizen: it's that simple.Please wake up before you yell and high light this statement!
Most everyone can become a CITIZEN, even I from Denmark!!
However, like me and Hussein, WE are NOT "natural" born citizen, and both of us are NOT eligible to run for President, it's that simple!!!
72
posted on
12/01/2008 10:01:56 AM PST
by
danamco
To: danamco
Instead of getting insulted for being questioned maybe you should have actually read the law.
If Obama was born in Kenya (I doubt it) he would not have been an American citizen and of course naturalized. He would have been a Kenyan CITIZEN, mother would need to register Obama for US citizenship due to her age and the father being a foreigner. So thus "The child of an American citizen is an American citizen" is wrong when looking at the law in 1961.
Also the law would presumably kill any questions arising regarding “...or a Citizen of the United States...” clause since Obama would have been a Kenyan by birth. Also I am sure if found to be born in Kenya, prosecuted for fraud.
It is simple really, Obama has “proof” he was born in Hawaii and thus a natural born citizen.
73
posted on
12/01/2008 12:05:59 PM PST
by
rollo tomasi
(Working hard to pay for deadbeats and corrupt politicians.)
Comment #74 Removed by Moderator
To: Bon mots
Obamas sister Maya Soetero-Ng was born in Indonesia and has a Hawaii issued COLB just like Obambis. That's very interesting. Any more details?
75
posted on
12/01/2008 12:48:48 PM PST
by
Dagnabitt
(What (child) Would Mohammad Do?)
To: Dagnabitt
![](http://imgs.sfgate.com/g/pictures/2008/07/29/ga_mayakonrad.jpg)
The Obamas with the Ngs.
Obama's sister holding her child and with her husband Konrad Ng.
Maya Soetero-Ng was born in Indonesia and also has a Hawaiian issued Certificate of Live Birth.
76
posted on
12/01/2008 1:12:44 PM PST
by
Bon mots
To: Blogger
Obama’s sister was born in Indonesia. She also has a COLB, Certificate of Live Birth from Hawaii. Just like Barry’s.
77
posted on
12/01/2008 3:19:26 PM PST
by
Paul Ross
(Ronald Reagan-1987:"We are always willing to be trade partners but never trade patsies.")
To: El Gato
Earl Ofari Hutchinson appears to be a big time race baiter or proffessional black. Something in the mold of a hipper, younger, Jesse Jackson, or Charlie Rangel. "Professional black" is a good way of putting it. Ofari is obviously a product of the black separatist/supremacist sub-culture that has been growing in strength in the black community for a long time now.
I've seen members of my own family infected with this illness to one degree or another.
Trust me, people like this Ofari character have NO allegiance to the same USA that you and I do. They hardly even recognize its legitimacy as a nation. Frankly, they hate us. Simple as that.
78
posted on
12/01/2008 3:58:57 PM PST
by
Windflier
(To anger a conservative, tell him a lie. To anger a liberal, tell him the truth.)
To: ckilmer
79
posted on
12/01/2008 4:15:39 PM PST
by
Grampa Dave
(This is the link to Leo Donofrio's new website: http://thenaturalborncitizen.blogspot.com)
To: ckilmer
80
posted on
12/01/2008 4:16:24 PM PST
by
Grampa Dave
(This is the link to Leo Donofrio's new website: http://thenaturalborncitizen.blogspot.com)
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