Thursday, July 23, 2009
President Obama: An Old Issue Arises Again
I note on HotAir.com (a site I only recently started checking again) that the issue of President Obama's birth certificate has come up again.
As I understand it, President Obama must authorize the release of his birth certificate from the Hawaii authorities, and he's never done so. (No big surprise here; he hasn't authorized the release of his Columbia student transcript either, along with a lot of other documents that would tell us about his earlier days.)
We have seen a Certificate of Live Birth, issued by Hawaii, which is basically a summary of his birth certificate... or have we seen only a photocopy of it? We've also seen a birth announcement in a Hawaii newspaper.
Frankly, my opinion on the matter is what I just said: he doesn't like to release personal documents, and the non-release of his birth certificate is just part of a lot of other information we'd like to see (and that other candidates, and Presidents, have released as a matter of course).
People pressing this issue seem to think that President Obama's birth certificate has information he's trying to hide. I disagree. If it were that important, I feel sure that someone would have forged a birth certificate for him long since.
I do feel that the press should do a better job than it's done, in getting President Obama to be forthcoming on these issues. (Then again, I also think John Kerry should have published his complete military records, as he once promised to do... and that the press should have held his feet to the fire there as well.)
But I would be very surprised indeed if it turned out that President Obama was born anywhere but Hawaii.
