(Obama) Born in the U.S.A. (says National Review)

Pres. Barack Obama has a birthday coming up, a week from Tuesday. We hope he takes the day off—or even the whole week, the briefest of respites from his busy schedule of truncating our liberties while exhausting both the public coffers and our patience. The president’s birthday comes to mind because we recently spent some time looking at a photograph of his birth certificate, being held by Joe Miller of Factcheck.org, who took the time to examine it. President Obama was born on August 4, 1961, at 7:24 p.m, in Honolulu County, Hawaii, on the island of Oahu. The serial number on his birth certificate is 010641. Baby Barack’s birth was not heralded, as some of his partisans have suggested, by a star in the east, but it was heralded by the Honolulu Star, as well as the Honolulu Advertiser, each of which published birth announcements for young Mr. Obama.

Much foolishness has become attached to the question of President Obama’s place of birth, and a few misguided souls among the Right have indulged it. The myth that Barack Obama is ineligible to be president represents the hunt for a magic bullet that will make all the unpleasant complications of his election and presidency disappear. We are used to seeing conspiracy theories from the Left, for instance among the one in three Democrats who believe that 9/11 was an inside job conducted with the foreknowledge of the Bush administration. We’ve seen everything under the sun blamed on Dick Cheney and Halliburton, and Rosie O’Donnell has given us much mirth with her metallurgical expertise, while Andrew Sullivan has beclowned himself and tarnished the good name of The Atlantic with his investigation into the “real” parentage of Trig Palin. Most notable, the Iraq War summoned the craziness in a big way, and there are those who still shudder over their espressos at the mention of the Carlyle Group. And there is a fair amount of crossover between those fixated on Obama’s birth certificate and the 9/11 “truthers” — lawyer Phil Berg, for instance, is a player in both worlds. There is nothing that President Obama’s coterie would enjoy more than to see the responsible Right become a mirror image of the loopy Left circa 2003.

The birth-certificate business is not a uniquely conservative phenomenon; the allegation that Obama was born in Kenya seems to have originated with a Hillary Clinton supporter at a blog called The Blue State. Either way, this fantasy is not particularly widespread within the conservative movement, but it has attracted enough interest that it needs to be addressed.

The fundamental fiction is that Obama has refused to release his “real” birth certificate. This is untrue. The document that Obama has made available is the document that Hawaiian authorities issue when they are asked for a birth certificate. There is no secondary document cloaked in darkness, only the state records that are used to generate birth certificates when they are requested.

If one applies for a United States passport, the passport office will demand a birth certificate. It defines this as an official document bearing “your full name, the full name of your parent(s), date and place of birth, sex, date the birth record was filed, and the seal or other certification of the official custodian of such records.” The Hawaiian birth certificate President Obama has produced—the document is formally known as a “certificate of live birth”—bears that information. It has been inspected by reporters, and several state officials have confirmed that the information in permanent state records is identical to that on the president’s birth certificate—which is precisely what one expects, of course, since the state records are used to generate those documents when they are requested. In other words, what President Obama has produced is the “real” birth certificate of myth and lore. The director of Hawaii’s health department and the registrar of records each has personally verified that the information on Obama’s birth certificate is identical to that in the state’s records, the so-called vault copy. Given that fact, we are loath even to engage the fanciful notion that President Obama was born elsewhere, contrary to the information on his birth certificate, but we note for the record that his mother was a native of Kansas, whose residents have been citizens of the United States for a very long time, and whose children are citizens of the United States as well.

The attention paid to President Obama’s place of birth is not unprecedented. In fact, it may be the only thing President Obama has in common with Pres. Chester Arthur, whose opponents whispered that he had been born in Canada. A number of unsuccessful presidential candidates—George Romney, Barry Goldwater, and Lowell Weicker among them—actually were born outside of the United States (in Mexico, the Arizona Territory, and Paris, respectively) to American parents and thereby into American citizenship. If the conspiracy theorists have evidence that President Obama went through the naturalization process, let them show it. But there is no such evidence, because this theory is based on unreality, as two minutes’ examining the claims of its proponents reveals. The hallmark of a conspiracy theory is that a lack of evidence for the theory is taken as yet more evidence for the theory. Indeed, the maddening thing about dealing with conspiracy hobbyists of this or any sort is the ever-shifting nature of their argument and their alleged evidence: Never mind the birth certificate, his step-grandmother said he was born in Kenya! (No, she didn’t.)

One of the unfortunate consequences of this red-herring discussion is that there are plenty of questions about Obama’s background and history that we would like to have answered. In spite of two books of memoirs, there remain murky areas in his biography. And when it comes to those college transcripts, count us among those who’d love to know whether Dr. Bailout ever took an advanced economics class and how he performed in it.

Barack Obama may prefer European-style socialized health care. He may consider himself a citizen of the Earth and sometimes address his audiences as “people of the world,” as though he were born not in another country but on another planet. Like Bruce Springsteen, he has a lot of bad political ideas; but he was born in the U.S.A.

And to all the birthers who will call me a RINO after reading my post, I'd rather be a RINO than a tin foil hat wearing loser who can't see the forest through the trees.

Don't take it personally because, speaking of Mr. Alinsky, I have no doubt that some of the people shreiking RINO! the loudest around here & furiously trying to stoke paranoia about the BC are working for Rahm & Axelrod & cashing paychecks signed by their patron Soros.

Think about it: if you wanted to destroy America's global political & economic hegemony & remake the eeeeevil US in the image of a third world communist banana-republic while nobody was noticing, isn't that what you'd do? Heck, I know I would. I'd be at FR & every other forum every damn day stoking controversy about the questionable circumstances of Barack Obama's birth & trying to focus everybody's attention like a laser on an issue which will ultimately be proven quaintly irrelevant after my crooked anti-american pals got done with really shredding the US constitution..

Absolutely! If Freepers can't grasp this issue, we have a fundamental problem. We need to enforce our laws or we don't have laws. If the Constitution is no longer valid, then... income taxes are no longer authorized and slave ownership is suddenly legal. Where does it stop? And, where are the lovers of the law?

This foolishness is like letting a burglar continue his trade until the next police chief is appointed. Insanity. Yet, Obama need in to rove he is qualified to serve is glossed over. Of course it looks like a conspiracy! People are p*ssed off and don't trust government now. Why trust any of these jerks if Obama doesn't even have to play by the rules. Why should we???? Free men or exploited tax serfs. Take your pick and take your stand...

"Please explain how some proposed state bill that may or may not ever become law before or after 2012 has any significance on the 2008 election and current presidency?"

I never stated that it would. If you think that you're going to get Obambi kicked out of office before 2012 over a birth certificate, your kidding yourself. Besides, that just gives us Joe Biden as President. Is that any better? Does that advance our cause at all?

Either way really, its a done deal. Obama, for all intents and purposes, is going to be considered a proper natural born citizen. Is that the absolute truth? Only Obama and a few others really know.

While I think its OK is some people persue this, I dont think its something that the conservative movement should obsess about. Obama is on his heels, and the last thing we need is something with which we can be marginalized and ridiculed. Keep it on the "down low". If something comes of it, I'll be the first to eat a big fat plate of crow. I'll keep my eye on this stuff though...

Most of these posters are either trolls or misguided. Either we live in a nation of laws or a nation of thugs. This is very serious stuff. You life, liberty and property are at stake here. Obama and his communist handlers are playing for keeps. They wan us/you to live like happy little Latin American peasants while they cruise around in luxury. You are dirt to these people. Either fight for your rights and your freedom or lay down and die...

I think National Review is almost out of business. The print magazine may no longer exist. Rich ?? forget his name left and Lucianne’s son was running it but he really is not up to the task.

I guess they don’t get the Saudi money like Huff Po or LGF. Maybe they decided to start taking it.

It is sheer stupidity to try to compare this "birth certificate" question to the other conspiracy theories which are quite unprovable.

This is not a conspiracy. This is a real question of qualification.

This "birther" conspiracy can be made to disappear quite easily.

All the president needs to do is to instruct the proper authorities in Hawaii to produce a "copy" of his long form birth certificate for public viewing.

If he is in fact shown to have been "born in the U.S." then he and the democrats can call it a huge victory against the "birthers" and against those loony conspiracy theorists.

My guess is that, Obama won't produce the certificate because it is damaging to his presidency.

The "birthers" can then move along to attacking the president on his polities and politics.

Until the long form birth certificate is produced, the question will remain and rightfully so. Until it is produced, the American people have every right to continue to be suspicious.

NOBODY asked the “Conservative movement” to get involved. They decided to trash us because WE have a plan and WE are advancing and WE are actually doing something other than just posting BS on right wing sites. Easy to sit in a chair and bitch. Harder to actually sue someone for conspiracy, etc... Leave us alone and come up with some grand GOP strategy to actually win a dog catcher race somewhere... (not directed at poster. General rant)

The president’s birthday comes to mind because we recently spent some time looking at a photograph of his birth certificate, being held by Joe Miller of Factcheck.org, who took the time to examine it. President Obama was born on August 4, 1961, at 7:24 p.m, in Honolulu County, Hawaii, on the island of Oahu. The serial number on his birth certificate is 010641.

What hospital? He's claimed two different ones now.

And I agree that they refuse to show their hand because it does serve as a distraction. But it also blows away the smoke they blew up America's collective a** when they said they would have a new openess and transparency in government.

There is no justifiable reason to not release his birth certificate (long form) to the American people.

The conspiracy centers around hiding the truth. Who, in their right mind, wouldn"t release their birth data, transcripts, etc. as an act of good faith. HOW CAN ANYONE TRUST A JERK LIKE OBAMA?????

He doesn't release because he is a product of KGB and American communist activities in the 1960s. He was manufactured and his goal, with other American Communists, is to severely weaken the United Sates so that other economies can emerge. His mission is to hurt the United States. Americans are way to naive and too ignorant to understand geopolitical strategy. Sheep with credit cards...

“There has never been a President who has not had two American citizen parents.”

You said:
“False. “

Would you care to elaborate at all? Are you talking about someone who was grandfathered in at the time of the Adoption of the Constitution? Or can you name me someone who was in the same situation as Obama is?

Yes, of course laws are important, but NR & Ann Coulter & all of the newly-christened RINOs around here aren't discounting that.

What they're saying is that you have to pick your battles intelligently. This WH would dearly love for everybody on the right to focus on that 'possible' illegality & deviously promote the idea that he 'might' be ineligible, because in the process they receive on a silver platter the opportunity to paint all people opposed to any of their agenda as obsessive kooks & they not-so-incoincidentally get to put a dagger straight into the heart of everything American has ever stood for TODAY.

That's what the so-called "RINOs!" are saying: there are far graver threats to the survival of this republic on the cusp of being implemented by these anti-american pigs right now. This has become a very convenient, very effective diversion for Barack Obama & the prospects of success for his nefarious agenda for this nation as we speak!

From my understanding both of Chester Arthur’s parents were American citizens. His eligibility was being questioned because he was said that he was born in either Ireland or Canada but the question was not about his parents citizenship.

The issue as to his birthplace was never resolved.

I won't take it personally, and like you I smell something fishy about all this. Just a few weeks ago hardly anyone was talking about this BC nonsense except for a handful of Alex Jones type kooks, but now that people are on to the horrors of Obama's healthscare plan and we are close to seeing it defeated, this BC stuff has mysteriously risen to a fever pitch.

Even though I despise the likes of Rahm, Axlerod, and Obama, they are not stupid and I think it's foolish for us conservatives to fall for what I see as a plan by Obama and his thugs to distract us and play us like a fiddle.

I want Conservatives and Republicans to win in 2010 and 2012 and I just don't see this BC crap as a winning issue, just as Monica Lewinsky's blue stained dress wasn't the winning issue many conservatives hoped it would be back in the nineties.

I am very curious about the digital conversion of the birth records in HI. All of the information included on long form BCs was not included on COLBs. Would this have required that countless man hours to manually enter the info? If so it seems like a whole lot of people would have been involved, some of whom may have picked up bits and pieces about what in the world they were going to do with all of those boxes of BCs.

I National Review “Editors” smarter than you, come down from on high and ask you to “please move along” nothing to see here citizen. I will not reveal to you that we expended no money or resources, hired no investigative journalist to support the band wagon conclusion that BO is your new official and certified master.

We’ve always been at war with Eastasia. We have always known that Zero was born at Kapi’olani hospital. Whoops I mean we have always known that Zero was born at Queen’s Medical Center. Nor has Zero been known by any other name.

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