Dunham had died seven years earlier, but Obama hadn’t sorted through all her things. Now, alone in his old house for just the third night since he’d become president, he started rummaging through the boxes, digging, digging, until suddenly he found it: a small, four-paneled paper booklet the world had never seen before. On the front was an ink drawing of Kapi‘olani Maternity and Gynecological Hospital, in Honolulu. On the back was a picture of a Hawaiian queen. On one inside page were his name, his mother’s name, and his date of birth; on the other were his infant footprints.
The book tells us that Obama, after finding the hospital souvenir booklet, was motivated to release some documentation, and showed the booklet to his chief legal advisor, Robert Bauer. “White House Counsel Bob Bauer took one look at the booklet in Obama’s hand and knew it wasn’t the birth certificate. It was just a commemorative keepsake.” The book details the internal debate over releasing more birth documentation leading to an approach to the State of Hawaii for a copy of his original certificate. Nine days later, Bauer had the official certificate from Hawaii in his hand at the April 27 press conference.
The book has considerable background information, not published before about Obama’s following the right-wing echo chamber. It also has some inside bits about what Donald Trump was thinking. Fascinating stuff.
I will take your advice and ignore you from now on.