Hawaii Verifies Obama’s Birth For Arizona Secretary Of State

Talking Points Memo ^ | May 22, 2012 | Nick Martin

[Beaten Valve]

A Hawaii official announced late Tuesday that the state gave Arizona’s top elections official the verification he wanted showing President Barack Obama was indeed born there in 1961.

The announcement came just hours after Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett backed away from his threats to keep Obama off the November ballot and apologized for embarrassing his own state with a conspiracy theory-fueled investigation into whether the president was really a natural born U.S. citizen.

It also followed weeks of back and forth between Hawaii and Arizona, with Hawaii officials saying they weren’t sure Bennett was qualified to be investigating the matter.

Here’s the full statement Joshua Wisch, the special assistant to the Hawaii attorney general, released at 11:35 p.m. ET:

[Fresh Wind]

How did Hawaii verify his birth?

By handing out a printed copy of the pdf file from the White House web site?

[Flotsam_Jetsome]

"Wisch. You can't make this stuff up."

Actually, the guy's full name makes it even more poignant:

Joshua Wisch.

[Casie]

For years I've been waiting for the big finale where a lady runs out of a smokey government building in HI. She looks into the camera with teary eyes. She has black soot on her dress and lightly wiped across her forehead. Her voice trembles as she sobs the words, “Oh Nooo! The Birth Certificate Records Room mysteriously burst into flames! And... and... and the fire suppression systems were all off-line for their yearly testing! Its all just sooo... tragic!!”

end scene.

[freekitty]

It makes you wonder if this is a set up to keep the public quiet.

[Flotsam_Jetsome]

Whatever they produced, I saw nothing in the statement by Wisch at the TPM article that mentioned birth in Hawaii. Here's the statement in full:

"Regarding the inquiry from the Arizona Secretary of State, Ken Bennett, requesting a verification of birth for President Obama from the State of Hawaii, Department of Health, the matter has been resolved. We have received information from Secretary Bennett that satisfied our requirements, and have therefore provided his office with a verification of birth for President Obama."

These are just more weasely lawyer words.

Maybe the matter was "resolved" when he was shown not proof of an "Obama" birth in Hawaii, but instead photos of his loved ones and their extended families down to the third generation, and made a VERY persuasive offer.

Ah, Rule of Law. We loved ye while it lasted.

[ScottinVA]

“Garbage in, garbage out”

Conception and birth. Yep, that very much sums it up for Obama.

[SuzyQueIN]

Exactly. Since this is what Bennett asked for:

Enclosed please find a request for a verification in lieu of a certified copy for the birth record of Barack Hussein Obama II. In addition to the items to be verified in the attached form, please verify the following items from the record of birth:

Department of Health File #151 61 10641
Time of birth: 7:24 p.m.
Name of hospital: Kapiolani Maternity and Gynecological Hospital
Age of father: 25
Birthplace of Father: Kenya, East Africa
Age of mother: 18
Birthplace of mother: Wichita, Kansas
Date of signature of parent: 8-7-1961
Date of signature of attendant: 8-8-1961
Date accepted by local registrar: August-8 1961

Additionally, please verify that the attached copy of the Certificate of Live Birth for Mr. Obama is a true and accurate representation of the original record in your files.

Thank you for your assistance in this matter.

And this is Hawaii's statement:

Regarding the inquiry from the Arizona Secretary of State, Ken Bennett, requesting a verification of birth for President Obama from the State of Hawaii, Department of Health, the matter has been resolved. We have received information from Secretary Bennett that satisfied our requirements, and have therefore provided his office with a verification of birth for President Obama.

It's clear that Bennett didn't get those points confirmed. And since he'd already stated that an e-mail verification was fine, we know that he hasn't actually seen any kind of document. Once again, Hawaii has merely stated that Obama was born. I could have told him that and saved a whole lot of trouble.

[Smokeyblue]

“The weird metaphor of the carpet and the couch towards the end of the interview”

I’m not able to listen to the radio interview. Can someone repeat the metaphor and it’s meaning here?

[ballplayer]

Hey Folks please tell me what has Chamged. Hawaii has already said on Dozens of occasions that they have a Copy of Obamas birth records that show he was Born In Hawaii,the question is did they SHOW Them to anybody,including the Arizona Sec Of State.
To me the policy at the time for the State Of Hawaii was to let illegal immigrants into Hawaii for the Farming needs,they were issuing Certificates of Live Births By the truck Load to get the workers.So they are accomplises and dont want that information to become common knowledge.
I want to know what the Arizona Sec.Of State saw and if he verified any of it period

[ballplayer]

Hey Folks please tell me what has Chamged. Hawaii has already said on Dozens of occasions that they have a Copy of Obamas birth records that show he was Born In Hawaii,the question is did they SHOW Them to anybody,including the Arizona Sec Of State.
To me the policy at the time for the State Of Hawaii was to let illegal immigrants into Hawaii for the Farming needs,they were issuing Certificates of Live Births By the truck Load to get the workers.So they are accomplises and dont want that information to become common knowledge.
I want to know what the Arizona Sec.Of State saw and if he verified any of it period

[TheCipher]

Exactly. The press reports spin it to say that they confirmed he was born in Hawaii when they didn't say that at all !!!

[trebb]

On second review, there’s no confirmation from Arizona’s Secretay of State, just comments from Hawaii.

And yet, this thread gets hubdreds of replies that ignore the lack of verification. I'll wait until Joe lets us in on it.

[MWFsFreedom]

Hawaii changed their law to accommodate Obama. BC’s were once available to anyone upon request in Hawaii. Not anymore.

Do you have links where we can see what the old law vs new law is, and when it was changed? I hadn't heard about this before, but I'm admittedly an amateur on this topic.

[Triple]

The money quote from the article in #36:

“It’s not immediately clear whether the information will satisfy Bennett. Bennett spokesman Matthew Roberts said the office received the verification and planned to comment Wednesday.
Roberts did not say whether the information would end the flap with Obama’s name on the ballot.” - Article @post 36

Hawaii says they are all set, Bennett has *not yet* said anything on the quality of the verification.

[little jeremiah]

I hope Bennet isn’t finished.

[Jeff Head]

I believe that is very plausible. And sounds exactly like something he would do through that time period as being able to game the system to stick it to the “man.”

[Ronald_Magnus]

“Bennett said the issue is now resolved from his point of view. He has cancelled a planned Wednesday news conference where he was expected to discuss the issue.

“I’m happy that we got what we asked for and that’s what I was expecting all along,” Bennett said Tuesday night.”

http://www.azcentral.com/news/politics/articles/2012/05/22/20120522obama-birth-hawaii-arizona-verification.html

They must have got to Bennett. Pictures of him in a “compromising” position I would imagine.

[llandres]

bfl

[CodeToad]

“Verification”, meaning a false statement, but no birth certificate.

[Smokeyblue]

PING to comment #117 and link.

Bennett cancels press conference.