By J. Randolph Evans
On April 27, 2011, the White House staff handed out to reporters a
certified copy of the longer form of the Certificate of Live Birth for
President Barack Obama. Shortly thereafter President Obama appeared
before the White House Press corps and confirmed that it was his birth
certificate.
This is not the first time that the birth issue has been addressed by
the Obama team. Indeed, the issue of whether President Obama was born
in the United States has been the topic of much discussion since his
Presidential candidacy began. This stems from a provision of Article
Two of the United States Constitution that provides that “[n]o person
except a natural born Citizen . . . . shall be eligible to the Office of
President.”
The original questions about President Obama’s place of birth actually
started with Democrats during the 2008 Democratic nomination process,
not Republicans. Most of these questions originated with supporters of
then-Democratic Presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton. Entire websites
have been dedicated to the topic.
Of course, the easiest solution in 2008 would have been for President
Obama to release the longer form of his birth certificate. Instead, the
Obama campaign posted the image of the scan of a laser printed document
from the Hawaii Department of Health, commonly referred to as a ‘short
form.’
Interestingly, the Hawaii Department of Health certified the Certificate
of Live Birth short form on June 6, 2007 but the campaign did not
release it until June 12, 2008.
The issue of President Obama’s birthplace has been the subject of court
cases and many investigations by the media and ‘fact checking’ groups.
Commentators of every network and cable news organization (including
Fox) have repeatedly confirmed unequivocally that President Obama was
born in the United States.
Added all together, there has been consensus by government officials
(including specifically Hawaii state officials), news organizations,
independent groups, and the White House that President Obama was born in
the United States. Yet, the issue would not go away and so on April 27,
2011, the White House posted for the first time on its official website
a copy (certified on April 25, 2011) of the long form certificate of
birth of Barack Hussein Obama II.
Why now?
Could it actually be that Donald Trump forced the President’s hand where
Hillary Clinton, cable news, and tireless bloggers had failed?
Certainly, Donald Trump thinks so. His response to the President’s
release of the longer form was pretty unequivocal itself. He said,
“Today, I’m very proud of myself, because I’ve accomplished something
that no one else has been able to accomplish.”
Donald Trump’s dogged pursuit of the issue undoubtedly provided a
convenient backdrop to the President’s publication of the longer form.
After all, the New York City financier could hardly fit the belittling
(and unflattering) Tea Party caricature that the media had tried to
paint. His willingness to stand firm against the women of The View and
morning network anchors made it difficult to completely ignore his
questions.
But, it is hard to imagine that President Obama considers Donald Trump
as a potential Republican challenger in 2012 to be more of a threat than
Senator Hillary Clinton was in Democratic primaries in 2008.
Political insiders suspect that something else was going on – the
President may have just wanted to change the subject. Rocketing gas
prices. High unemployment. Growing deficits. A stalemate in Libya.
Successful constitutional challenges to Obamacare. Continued fatalities
in Afghanistan. Another possible government shutdown.
The beleaguered President (and more importantly his campaign team)
needed something, anything, to talk about other than what is going on
around the country. And it worked.
The President’s release of his birth certificate dominated the news for
a couple of days, and will dominate cable news through the Royal
Wedding. After that, the GOP nomination process starts with Republicans
attacking Republicans about who can best face President Obama. The
President’s well timed release has proven to be an effective bridge from
yesterday’s bad news to the political infighting that is almost certain
to dominate the Republican nomination process.
President Obama played his political ‘get out of jail free’ card and it
worked. The fact that it did says a lot about where things are and who
people believe.
As late as April 26, 2011 (the day before President Obama released the
longer form birth certificate), only 38% of Americans believed that
President Obama was definitely born in the United States. 24% believed
that he was probably or definitely born somewhere else.
So, the media (all the media), the government, and the President say
emphatically and unequivocally that President Obama was definitely born
in the United States. And, only 38% of the American people believed
them. This has become a ‘prove it to me’ electorate. The days of
‘trust me’ are now long gone.