posted Aug 5, 2009 1:02 PM by Amy Curtis-Webber
[
updated Aug 10, 2009 10:00 AM
]
Aaron Benedetti
Yesterday, August 4, was President Barack Obama’s birthday.
I didn’t know this until yesterday, when I came across a
number of news stories reporting the president’s date of birth. But, according
to these reports, a small, stubborn group of Americans do recognize this date as Obama’s birthday-a group that
irrationally clings to the idea that Obama is not an American citizen.
Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii.
I don’t think the issue is much more complicated than that. But, these
detractors are steadfast in their belief that Obama was born, not in Honolulu’s
Kapiolani Hospital,
but rather in Kenya,
or Indonesia.
These “birthers,” as they’re called, claim that Obama has
persistently and methodically hidden his past from America.
They say that the Certification of Live Birth that the Obama camp released in
2007 to quash these rumors of non-citizenship is a fake, or is unsatisfactory.
It is true that the Certification
of Live Birth released by the campaign was created in 2007 and is not a genuine
Certificate of Live Birth, which
would have been created on the day Obama was born (and which, according to
Hawaiian law, cannot be released publicly).
But it is also true that Dr. Chiyome Fukino, Director of the
Hawaii Department of Health, has repeatedly stated that Obama’s birth
certificate is on-file and does, in fact, exist.
The evidence against the birthers seems, to me,
insurmountable. I really can’t understand how these detractors can continually
rationalize their theories.
But, the birthers have another couple of arguments. First,
they claim that various Hawaii
newspaper announcements of Obama’s birth could easily have been planted by his
parents or grandparents, even if Obama himself was born in another part of the
world.
Also, in an editorial posted on FOXNews.com, Tommy De Seno
contends that Obama’s reluctance to release his school admission and financial
aid records show that he has something to hide, and that this reluctance runs
contrary to Obama’s pledge to enhance government transparency (though I fail to
see how Obama’s financial aid records from Occidental College will promote a
more thorough understanding of government activities).
These arguments, if anything, only detract further from the
birthers’ credibility. Why, then, do they stick to their misfiring guns? Is
this a crazed and malformed attempt to discredit Obama?
To me, it’s nothing more than a distraction.
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