Native son
Posted in Jefferson D.C. by R Lee Wrights on August 3rd, 2009 by Peter Orvetti
Barack Hussein Obama, Jr., was born 48 years ago tomorrow. In the United States.
There has recently been an uptick in the new coverage of rumors, which first arose during Obama’s bid for the Democratic presidential nomination last year, that Obama was actually born in Kenya. The tale got fresh legs when Republican Rep. Mike Castle of Delaware was confronted at a town hall meeting by a woman claiming Obama was “not an American citizen.” The woman was later identified as a frequent caller to a local radio station known as “Crazy Eileen” for her assertions that Obama is “the Antichrist” and her comments about aliens. But the so-called “birther” theory has also been taken seriously by Lou Dobbs, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, and other media commentators with hefty anti-Obama audiences.
The document released by the state of Hawaii in 2007 is not a copy of the original 1961 document, which, it is true, Obama has declined to request from the state. But the document made public, a Certification of Live Birth, is acceptable to prove citizenship to the federal government to obtain a passport and for other purposes. In addition, Hawaii officials said last week that they have examined the original document and confirmed its legitimacy.
The conservative National Review, no friend to Obama politically, recently wrote, “President Obama was born on August 4, 1961, at 7:24 p.m., in Honolulu County, Hawaii, on the island of Oahu. The serial number on his birth certificate is 010641. … The document that Obama has made available is the document that Hawaiian authorities issue when they are asked for a birth certificate. There is no secondary document cloaked in darkness, only the state records that are used to generate birth certificates when they are requested.”
On July 28, the state’s health director made a blunt statement: “I, Dr. Chiyome Fukino, director of the Hawaii State Department of Health, have seen the original vital records maintained on file by the Hawaii State Department of Health verifying Barack Hussein Obama was born in Hawaii and is a natural-born American citizen.” Hawaii’s Republican governor has also said Obama was born in the state.
But the health department’s communications director, Janice Okubo, does not think any of that will satisfy the conspiracy theorists. “It’s crazy,” she said. “I don’t think anything is ever going to satisfy them.” Indeed, as political psychology expert Jerrold Post of The George Washington University said of birthers, “They are not searching for the truth. … It doesn’t soothe people to tell them it’s not legitimate. That makes them angry.”
A Research 2000 poll conducted last week found that one in nine Americans - and more than one in four Republicans - think Obama was not born in the United States. An additional 30 percent of Republicans are unsure. The birther movement stokes such doubts with dubious evidence. A tape distributed online contains a birther supporter asking Obama’s Kenyan grandmother, “Was she present when he was born in Kenya?” A translator replies, “She says yes she was. She was present when Obama was born.” But a longer version of the tape contains a forceful clarification. After talking with the woman, the translator says, “Obama was not born in Mombasa. He was born in America.” The interviewer replies, “I thought he was born in Kenya.” The reply: “He was born in America, not in Mombasa. … She says he was born in Hawaii.”
Obama is not the first president to face such challenges. The enemies of Chester Arthur, one of the more underrated of the bearded presidents, claimed he was secretly born in Canada. Past GOP presidential aspirants George Romney and Lowell Weicker were born in Mexico and France, respectively. Arizona’s two GOP presidential nominees were both born on U.S. territory that was not part of a state - Barry Goldwater in the then-Arizona Territory, and John McCain in the Panama Canal Zone.
While if Obama had been born in Kenya he would not have been eligible to serve as president, those pressing the story seem to be acting from political, not constitutional, motives. It is not likely that the same group would be as worked up if, say, it had been rumored that Sarah Palin had really been born in Russia’s Komandorski Islands, where she could see Alaska from her house.
As the National Review wrote, “The hallmark of a conspiracy theory is that a lack of evidence for the theory is taken as yet more evidence for the theory. … Barack Obama may prefer European-style socialized health care. He may consider himself a citizen of the Earth and sometimes address his audiences as ‘people of the world, as though he were born not in another country but on another planet. Like Bruce Springsteen, he has a lot of bad political ideas; but he was born in the U.S.A.”
Peter Orvetti was an early political blogger in the United States, running his Orvetti.com political news report from 1997 through 2002. He is a past editorial writer for the Cato Institute, served as Deputy Director of Communications for the Libertarian Party in the lead-up to the 2000 party convention, and has published commentaries in several major newspapers. Contact Mr. Orvetti at peterjorvetti@gmail.com.
Posts about Rush Limbaugh as of August 3, 2009 » The Daily Parr said,
August 3, 2009 @ 4:43 am
[...] Tom, or chopped-off arms that grow back or slimy, tentacled creatures don’t disturb my sleep. Native son - libertyforall.net 08/03/2009 by Peter Orvetti Barack Hussein Obama, Jr., was born 48 years ago [...]