April 28, 2011. Washington. The White House released an image of President Obama’s official Birth Certificate yesterday. In a five minute speech, the President said he hoped his capitulation would bring an end to more than two years of public speculation and doubt concerning his Constitutional right to hold the highest office in the land.
What had once been the fodder for right-wing activists and conspiracy buffs, the issue simply wouldn’t die. One reason was President Obama’s insistence that it be kept secret. Some reports claim the Obamas, and possibly the White House, have spent millions of dollars on legal fees to keep from disclosing the document. In reality, the President’s two-year battle to keep from making the details of his birth public have done more to fuel the conspiracy theorists than anything else.
But the issue reached new heights in recent weeks when possible Presidential candidate Donald Trump repeatedly demanded the President release the document and satisfy his Constitutional obligations once and for all. It was apparent to President Obama’s re-election team that this issue was going to be a major distraction during the President’s upcoming 2012 re-election bid. Therefore, the President decided the time to act was now.
While those on the left continue to argue that the President shouldn’t have to release his Birth Certificate, some have even gone on the offensive. In an article from The Ticket, Rachel Rose Hartman quotes Tufts University professor Peniel Joseph saying, “There is a real deep-seated and vicious racism at work here in terms of trying to de-legitimate the president”. “This is more than just a conspiracy” he added, “I think this is fundamentally connected to white supremacism in this country”. The same article quotes Miami Herald columnist Leonard Pitts Jr. saying, “So it is time to call this birther nonsense what it is–not just claptrap, but profoundly racist claptrap”.
The Ticket article demonstrates even further with their quote from columnist Michael Tomasky. “If you think race isn’t what this is about at its core, ask yourself if there would even be a birther conspiracy if Barack Obama were white and named Bart Oberstar?” he questioned, “If you think there would be, you are delusional”.
For the record and in the spirit of full disclosure, Whiteout Press doesn’t agree with either side of the ‘Birther Issue’. On one hand, we can agree that certain segments of America’s political right wing will attempt to persecute President Obama no matter what he does simply because he is Black. On the other hand however, being a natural born citizen is a Constitutional requirement to be the President of the United States of America. It’s not a joke and many do not take Constitutional subversion lightly. Just as they are challenging President Obama to prove his eligibility, so too did they fight just as strongly against “the bending of the rules” for an Austrian-born President Schwarzenegger.
Now that the President has finally released an image of his Birth Certificate, the issue finally seems resolved. Or does it?
Immediately after viewing the image released by the White House, Donald Trump announced, “I feel I’ve accomplished something really, really important and I’m honored by it”. We’re “going to look at it. We have to see if it’s real, if it’s proper” Trump continued, seeming to be giving a glimpse of what might become Round 2 of the ‘birther debate’.
Why would Donald Trump hint at his apparent mistrust of the document the President released yesterday? A quote from today’s Washington Times might sum it up best, “Let’s clear up President Obama’s puzzlement. A birth certificate is a fairly easy document to obtain. We all have one and have had to produce it at one time or another to secure a driver’s license, passport, etc. It’s difficult to understand why it would take the Leader of the Free World three and a half years to come up with a copy of his … given the enormous resources he has at his fingertips.”
We at Whiteout Press have looked at the image released by the White House and we have a few questions of our own. View the actual PDF released by the White House and judge for yourself.
First, did the White House actually release the physical Birth Certificate? If they only released a scan of a document that appears to be a Birth Certificate, absent even an embossed seal used to prove authenticity, that would be the first red flag.
Second, the Birth Certificate is date-stamped August 8, 1961. However, the matching green border is date-stamped April 25, 2011. That means that it was only just created and sent to the President three days ago. Which means – the most powerful man on Earth called one poor guy in Hawaii and told him he needed a copy of his Birth Certificate. Could it be so out of the question to wonder if the President might have also told him what that Birth Certificate needed to say, seeing as it was just created days ago?
Third, we at Whiteout Press would have been put much more at ease if the President released a scan of a Birth Certificate that looked more like yours and mine – creases, smudges, wear and tear, and even the ancient 1960’s type-writer type on 1960’s plain, white paper. Instead, the President’s has the ancient type-face and 1961 date-stamp, only on 2011 paper stock.
Fourth, the 1961 date-stamped Birth Certificate appears to be opened from a binder or book of some kind, bound on the left side. However, it looks like it’s placed into a cut-out frame, made curiously enough, from the exact same paper stock as the 1961 Birth Certificate. It also appears to be placed in a way as to be trying to fool the viewer into thinking its one sheet of paper. In most places, the paper’s printed pattern matches up perfectly, appearing to be one sheet.
The coming days will tell how many more questions are raised about the image released by the White House on Wednesday. What will be even more interesting will be seeing how the mainstream media presents the above questions. Will they go back to labeling ‘birthers’ as kooks, crack-pots and crazies? Or will they pick up where they left off with Donald Trump, giving the ‘birthers’ an air of credibility? At this juncture, the media’s position may just decide the issue once and for all.
