President Obama's Birth Certificate

It’s time for President Obama to put the question of his birthplace and his right to be president at rest.

Most of the reasonable world feels sure he was born in Hawaii and is, therefore, an American citizen by birth, the test required to be eligible for the office of President of the United States.

But some people, called “birthers,” continue to insist that he was not born on American soil and so has no right to be president. If one puts aside the birthers’ political motives, they have several good points.

First, Mr. Obama has released a “certification of live birth” that does not include the name of the hospital or attending doctor. This information would be included in the official long-form birth certificate. Why did the President choose to do this when he could just as easily have released the official birth certificate and put the whole matter to rest long ago?

If an official birth certificate for Barak Obama exists, why has he not released it? The State of Hawaii says that such a document exists in state storage files, and a legal birth announcement placed in a Hawaiian newspaper days after his birth seems to support this. But, Hawaii law does not authorize the state to release an official birth certificate. Only “persons concerned” can ask for and obtain its release.  

The new Governor of Hawaii was a friend of Obama’s parents, who knew them when they lived in Hawaii and when Obama was born. He would like to publish the official birth certificate, but, by law, he cannot.

Second, Mr. Obama’s continuing refusal breeds all sorts of conspiracy theories.  Some “birthers” say he was born in Kenya, the country of his father, or that he was born in Indonesia. Most serious analysts reject both these claims. But, unless he releases his official birth certificate, such claims will continue to haunt his presidency.

Third, the refusal to release his official birth certificate fits into the pattern of secrecy that Obama has maintained all his life. He has never released the following records which are routinely released by other presidents:

1.      a complete medical file that covers his adult life.

2.      a transcript of his record as a student at Occidental College, Columbia University or Harvard Law School.

3.      his senior dissertation, reportedly on “Soviet Nuclear Disarmament” has disappeared from Columbia University archives.

4.      his client list and fee billing records while he was a private attorney-at-law.

5.      his application to the Illinois State Bar, which reportedly may have been inaccurate.

6.      his papers as an Illinois state legislator, including correspondence and lobbyist contacts.

For a man who has said that he wants to make his presidency the most open and transparent in American history, this is rather strange behavior.

It opens the gates for all sorts of surmises about what facts the President may want to hide: Was Obama born to parents other than those cited? Is his name not the one that he long ago chose to use? Was he born at home and transferred to a hospital afterward? Was he born out of wedlock? Was his religion listed as Muslim on his official birth certificate? Would documents from his early school years present a pattern of leftist or Soviet sympathy? Was he a less gifted student than we are led to believe? Did he do favors for lobbyists that he would not have wanted to be used against his during his presidential campaign?

One could go on and on.

The truth is that only the truth will put this debate to rest.

Nothing that might be revealed could be as corrosive as the taint to his presidency that the refusal to release his official birth certificate engenders.

Mr. President, release the document. We will understand. We will still like you and consider you our president, unless you were not born on American soil. And, we do not believe that. So, put yourself and us at ease.

Mr. President, release your official birth certificate.