27 Apr 2011

Obama publishes full US birth certificate

President Barack Obama tells US public to avoid the “silliness” over his birth certificate and focus on much more important issues like the economy, unemployment and the budget deficit.

At a press conference President Barack Obama has confronted ongoing conspiracy theories over his eligibility to be US President by calling on the American people to avoid such “silliness” and concentrate on the much more pressing issues created by the budget deficit.

Questions over whether he is a natural born US citizen have dogged Mr Obama since he became President two and a half years ago, frustrating White House efforts to answer the doubters.

Speaking from the Whitehouse, Mr Obama told reporters: “We have had every official in Hawaii, Democrat and Republican, every news outlet that has investigated this confirm that, yes, in fact I was born in Hawaii, August 4 1961 at Kapiolani Hospital. We have posted the certification that is given by the state of Hawaii on the internet for everyone to see. People have provided affidavits that they in fact have seen this birth certificate and yet this thing just keeps on going.”

President Obama's official birth certificate.

President Obama then went on to accuse the press of focusing on the issue of his birth rather than his plans and the plans of the Republicans to reduce the budget deficit. He called upon the nation to avoid listening “to this silliness” and on more pressing issues:

“There are going to be some fierce disagreements and I am confident that the american people and political leaders can come together in a bi-partisan way and solve these problems, we always have. But we are not going to be able to do this if we are distracted, we are not going to be able to do this if we vilify each other, were not going to be able to do it if we just make stuff up and pretend that facts are not facts we are not going to be able to solve our problems if we get distracted by sideshows and carnival barkers.”

In a rallying call to the American people, President Obama resolutely swept aside the question of his birth:

“We have the potential to deal with the issues we confront that will make our kids and our grandkids proud. I know there will be a segment of people for which this issue will not be put to rest. We do not have time for this kind of silliness, we have better things to do, I have better things to do.”

No person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President. Section One, Article Two of the United States Constitution

Within minutes of the statement and call for the issue to be put behind him, Danald Trump, prospective Republican presidential candidate, was claiming credit for forcing Barack Obama to prove his right to be President:

“I am really honored, frankly, to have played such a big role in hopefully, hopefully, getting rid of this issue.”

Trump is on the first day of his campaign trail in the vital stae of New Hamshire. Only a day before he had questioned President Obama’s education, before attacking his policy on Libya, citing his belief that U.S. involvement should have been dependent on obtaining the country’s oil.

Conspiracies theories have circulated since Mr Obama became a frontrunner in the race for the presidency, that he was actually born in Kenya, the birthplace of his father, or in Indonesia where he lived as a child and even that an earlier released photocopy of the birth certificate was actually a fake.

Before Wednesday’s release of the original signed certificate, with all of the applicable details including hospital of birth and familial home address, the only official document that had been released lacked enough evidence for those who questioned his eligibility under the Natural Born Citizen Clause of the constitution.

Section 1 of Article Two of the United States Consitution outlines the eligibility requirements for President:

“No person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty-five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.”