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President Obama posted a copy of his “long form” birth certificate from the state of Hawaii, hoping to finally end a long-simmering conspiracy theory among some conservatives who asserted falsely that he was not born in the United States and was not a legitimate president.

The birth certificate, which is posted online at the White House website, shows conclusively that Mr. Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii and is signed by state officials and his mother.

“The President believed the distraction over his birth certificate wasn’t good for the country,” Dan Pfeiffer, the White House communications director, wrote on the website Wednesday morning. “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.”

Mr. Obama is expected to address questions about the birth certificate in a briefing with reporters Wednesday morning at 9: 45 a.m.

The contention that Mr. Obama was not born in the United States, and therefore did not meet the Constitutional requirement for election as president, has been around for years and has long been refuted, but has recently gained public attention after Donald Trump, the real estate mogul, repeatedly raised questions as he explores whether to run for president.

Mr. Pfeiffer said in the statement on the website that the president authorized officials in Hawaii to release the document broadly.

The article on the white house web site is here: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/04/27/president-obamas-long-form-birth-certificate

Maybe this will shut the likes of Donald Trump and the other birthers up? Or will they just say it's faked?  Are there just some conspiracies that are too attractive to let something as trivial as evidence or facts to get in the way? How many times after all have the "Fake Apollo moon landings"  or "The Twin Towers weren't brought down by planes" conspiracy theories been debunked?

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Yup, already the blogosphere is full of ppl saying it's photoshopped. I like this comment tho:

http://twitter.com/#!/daveweigel/status/63225973063172096

:-)

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Originally Posted by Kieran Colfer:
Yup, already the blogosphere is full of ppl saying it's photoshopped. I like this comment tho:

http://twitter.com/#!/daveweigel/status/63225973063172096

:-)

Funny! LOL!

Don't know if you heard this or not.... Donald Frump was also saying crap about Obama's college years, etc.  He may as well have come out and say, "How did a black guy who didn't come from a very wealthy family get into Harvard?"  He said that he heard Obama was a terrible student.  I hope they will stop showing him on TV now.  I CAN'T STAND HIM!  (with his red face, multi-combover and teeny-tiny mouth!)

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I thought it was interesting that Obama finally released the Birth certificate.  I also think Trump is a bomb thrower himself.  And I dont think he'd be a good president.  While I must be honest that he does talk about things (like the way China treats us) that a lot of us do in private, you simply cannot be so undiplomatic in public like he is and be an effective president.  And to contemplate seizing territory in a war is not gonna win him an election.  I know he says he may run, but I'm still not convinced.

However...no one is talking about Sarah Palin anymore are they?   Coincidence?  

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I still dont know why it took Obama so long to release his birth certificate.  I would have thought ALL candidates had to do this to qualify to run.  Guess not huh?

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here's my take on all this. WHAT TOOK SO LONG MR. PRESIDENT??? the only reason it was ever an issue is because of the mystery surrounding the birth cert, and i think this was by design. so long as it was beneficial for obama to leave it a mystery, he was perfectly content to use it as a means to portray republicans as unreasonable assholes. i mean what racists and conspiracy theorists we are. and now that the timing was right, he tried to use it to shut up the donald.

now, on the subject of the donald, i like him, and passively support him for one reason. he is the ONLY person who's been taking it to obama. and his rise in the poles can be attributed to this one thing. it's not his name recognition, it's the fact that he's the ONLY person going on the offensive. the rest of the republican party seems leaderless. they're all content to play nice and work with the democraps, as if this will curry them favor with independents. they're afraid of their own shadow, terrified of the media painting them as "extremists" which the media will do regardless. the republican voters however, don't want to play the democrats game anymore. they want the same kind of passion and assertiveness that the dems display in fighting for what they believe in. it's like we're starving for someone to step up to the plate and take on the democrats' failed policies, rather than playing politics 101. the time for that has come to an end. and so far, we're stuck with trump to take it to obama. i don't want him as president, but if someone else doesn't grow a pair, then he may be.

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Originally Posted by Sarah Skinner:

Originally Posted by Kieran Colfer:
Yup, already the blogosphere is full of ppl saying it's photoshopped. I like this comment tho:

http://twitter.com/#!/daveweigel/status/63225973063172096

:-)

Funny! LOL!

Don't know if you heard this or not.... Donald Frump was also saying crap about Obama's college years, etc.  He may as well have come out and say, "How did a black guy who didn't come from a very wealthy family get into Harvard?"  He said that he heard Obama was a terrible student.  I hope they will stop showing him on TV now.  I CAN'T STAND HIM!  (with his red face, multi-combover and teeny-tiny mouth!)

well why hasn't he released his college records? and more importantly, why hasn't the media pushed for them? almost every other modern president has, but obama gets a pass from such scrutiny. why? because he was never properly vetted in the first place.

again, i think this is by design. a lack of transparency leads to speculation, and when he does release the info, it's used to make those who speculate look foolish. i am so tired of these games. if obama put half the energy into actually fixing this broken country as he does into campaigning, maybe we'd be better off right now.