Obama’s birth cert released to quell critics
The certificate says Obama was born in Hawaii, which makes him eligible to hold the office of president.
Obama later declared: “We do not have time for this kind of silliness.”
Obama had earlier released a standard short form, but requested copies of his original birth certificate from Hawaii officials this week in hopes of quieting the ongoing controversy.
White House spokesman Jay Carney says Obama felt the debate over his birthplace had become a “side- show” that was bad for the country and political debate.
White House officials have said the issue was settled long ago. But so-called “birthers” opposed to Obama have kept the issue alive. Potential Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump recently began questioning why Obama hadn’t ensured the long form was released.
The “birther” conspiracy held that Obama was born in Kenya or in Indonesia, where he lived as a child, or that the birth certificate revealed other unwholesome information about the president.
By going on national TV from the White House, Obama portrayed himself as a voice of reason amid a loud, lingering debate on his birth status. Though his personal attention to the issue elevated it as never before, Obama said to his critics and the media, it is time to move on to bigger issues.
Citing huge budget decisions in Washington, Obama said: “I am confident that the American people and America’s political leaders can come together in a bipartisan way and solve these problems. We always have. But we’re not going to be able to do it if we are distracted.”
White House spokesman Carney said: “The president feels this was bad for the country, that it’s not healthy for our political debate.”
Dan Pfeiffer, White House communications director, wrote on the White House’s blog: “It may have been good politics and good TV, but it was bad for the American people and distracting from the many challenges we face as a country.”
Hawaii has faced a regular barrage of requests for information about Obama’s birth, but privacy rules barred them from releasing the full birth certificate.
The White House said the state granted this exception “in part because of the tremendous volume of requests they had been getting”.
Yesterday, Trump addressed reporters in New Hampshire to take credit. “Today I’m very proud of myself because I’ve accomplished something that nobody else has been able to accomplish,” he said.
“He should have done it a long time ago. I am really honoured to play such a big role in hopefully, hopefully getting rid of this issue,” he added.
The document lists Obama’s birthplace and birthdate as “Honolulu, Oahu, Hawaii” on August 4, 1961, at 7.24 pm.
Earlier this week, Trump suggested President Obama had been a poor student who did not deserve to be admitted to the Ivy League universities he attended. Trump offered no proof for his claim but said he would continue to press the issue.
“I heard he was a terrible student, terrible. How does a bad student go to Columbia and then to Harvard?” Trump said.
“I’m thinking about it, I’m certainly looking into it. Let him show his records.”
Obama graduated from Columbia University in New York in 1983 with a degree in political science after transferring from Occidental College in California. He went on to Harvard Law School, where he graduated magna cum laude (with great honour) in 1991 and was the first black president of the Harvard Law Review.
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