I believe your reading comprehension needs a bit of work as well. If you viewed the image I posted, you would see that it was not issued in 1961. It was a reprint from (presumably) microfiche in 1966. One might expect a recently issued copy to look identical, as it would be prepared from the same microfiche.
I too had to send away for a certified copy of my birth certificate twenty years ago. The State of Maryland sent me a photocopy of the original long-form certificate with an embossed seal. I have it in an envelope here somewhere.
Maybe Obama was born in Hawaii and maybe he wasn’t. I used to think he was born in Hawaii—now, after months of stonewalling by Obama’s attorneys, I’m not so sure. Now I want to know what Obama is hiding! At a minimum, Obama should be subjected to the same standard of proof applied to McCain during the Senate’s investigation of his eligibility.
If you are unwilling to apply the same standard of proof to Obama, then I respectfully submit that you are not an impartial observer to this slowly unfolding drama.
The standard of proof that seems reasonable to me is the standard set by the Department of Homeland Security (and when this standard applied to Obama and McCain, it was the Bush administration’s Department of Homeland Security).
That standard is as follows:
The Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004, Section 7211, mandated that minimum standards be set for birth certificates acceptable for federal purposes. The Department of Health and Human Services (of which the National Center for Health Statistics is a part) was tasked with issuing the standard. The statute defined a “birth certificate” as follows:
(a) DEFINITION- In this section, the term `birth certificate’ means a certificate of birth–
(1) for an individual (regardless of where born)–
(A) who is a citizen or national of the United States at birth; and
(B) whose birth is registered in the United States; and
(2) that–
(A) is issued by a Federal, State, or local government agency or authorized custodian of record and produced from birth records maintained by such agency or custodian of record; or
(B) is an authenticated copy, issued by a Federal, State, or local government agency or authorized custodian of record, of an original certificate of birth issued by such agency or custodian of record.
The Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 specifically mandates three categories of minimum standards for vital registration, including standards on (1) the certification of birth certificates and the use of safety paper, (2) proof and verification of identity as a condition of issuance of a birth certificate, and (3) processing of birth certificate applications to prevent fraud.”
If a birth certificate meets the standards listed above, it should be good enough to qualify the person named as being eligible for the presidency. A birth certificate contains two pieces of information that are relevant to qualifying as natural born under Article 2, Section 1 of the Constitution: place of birth and date of birth.
The standard of proof which seems reasonable to you is not the one which applied to McCain’s eligibility hearing. McCain provided his long-form certificate to the Senate. There is no legitimate reason Obama should not do the same.
I wish I could see your IP address. You’re probably posting from inside the White House...Rahm, is that you?