I've never read that before. You'll have to link me to a post that makes that argument so I can read the original.
I thought that would be your response. You’re on these threads far more often than I am, and I saw it scores and scores of times. It hasn’t been around lately only because, afaik, the Obot finally got the zot. He was all over the place with that ‘theory’ for a while though.
You have no trouble spotting anti-Obama crackpotism. You need me to point you to pro-Obama crackpotism, though. Says it all, doesn’t it?
You're right to want to read the theory in the original, as birthers are notoriously unreliable sources. As you will be able to verify for yourself, the birther with whom you were interacting failed to describe the theory accurately:
http://www.obamaconspiracy.org/2011/02/typographical-error/
In a nutshell, the theory is that Obama's SSN begins with an 042 because the typist who entered his zip code into a computer mistyped a "9" as a zero.
You see, SSN's are assigned based on the zip code of the mailing address indicated on the application. Bascially, a clerk types the zip code into a computer, and the computer generates a SSN. It turns out that if you mistype the leading "9" as a "0" in the Honolulu zip code at which Obama was residing when a teenager, you'll get a Connecticut zip code.
Furthermore, since the Social Security Administration does not attach any importance to the leading 3 digits of the SSN, using it only as a bookkeeping device, there would be no reason to assign Obama a new SSN once the error was discovered.
Given that government bureaucrats committ typographical with some frequency, I believe this is the only plausible explanation for him having a SSN beginning with 042 that I've seen anyone come up with.
Thoughts?