(CNN) - While receiving a formal certificate of Irish heritage at a St. Patrick's Day celebration on Tuesday, President Barack Obama didn't miss a beat in taking a jab at the so-called "birther" movement.
"This will have a special place of honor alongside my birth certificate," he joked, to great laughter.
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Ireland's Taoiseach (prime minister) Enda Kenny presented Obama with the certificate at a White House reception in honor of the president's Irish roots.
The document was to serve, Kenny said, as a "permanent reminder" of Obama's trip last year to the Irish town of Moneygall, where the president's great-great-great grandfather emigrated from during the nineteenth century.
Earlier in the day, Obama and Kenny, along with Vice President Joe Biden, joined House Speaker John Boehner for a lunch on Capitol Hill.
At the reception in the East Room Tuesday night, Obama acknowledged the belated holiday festivity.
"Today is not in fact St. Patrick's Day," he joked. "We just wanted to prove that America considers Ireland a dear and steadfast friend every day of the year."
Also making an appearance at the reception was Democratic Gov. Martin O'Malley of Maryland, whose Irish rock band, "O'Malley's March," performed for the guests, many of them dressed in green.
The White House reception marked an extended celebration of St. Patrick's Day for the president. On Saturday, Obama popped into a popular pub in Washington to have a pint of Guinness with other revelers.
Also see:
Romney can't escape birth control questions in Illinois
From CNN Politics
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Irish people,including me,love this time to toast a great land Ireland and for all who came here to start anew.God Bless Ireland and America,home of the free....
When Irish eyes are smiling.....
Obama has a birth certificate, it's just not from the United States. Indonesia maybe. His radical mother, being raised in Hawaii certainly established his thinking. His wife, 'for once proud to be an american' is a joke.
All these tinfoil hat nutjobs going on about the birth certificate. Did anyone ask Bush? or Reagan? Did Romney present his birth certificate? Romney Sr ran for president with a Mexican birth certificate, yet no one questioned that. Obama was born in Hawaii, a state, remember? McCain was born in Panama, what about his birth certificate? Being as Obama's mother was a US citizen, doesn't that make him a US citizen no matter where he was born, like Romney Sr and McCain? Just asking...
I never really thought to much about Obama's birth certificate until he presented an obvious fake one on line that anyone who has worked with Illustrator and Photoshop could spot in short order.....amazing...
This is classic! This proves he is a man of the people both here and abroad. The birthers just can't believe that he was actually elected. Time for them to get over it.
there are some real ldlots posting comments here. The fact that he is part irish must be burning deep inside your racist souls.
why O' why, are people still talking about this??
@Birther Joke
"Obama has a birth certificate, it's just not from the United States. Indonesia maybe. His radical mother, being raised in Hawaii certainly established his thinking. His wife, 'for once proud to be an american' is a joke."
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This single issue isolates a very unique segment of the American population.... one so filled with hate and bigotry they are absolutely unable to see the truth when it's been shown to them many times and in many ways. In no way can a person like this be a proud American because America has never been about blind hated.
Love the Irish! It is great to see the President embrace his roots and poke fun about his birth certificate. I believe he has a legal Hawaiian birth certificate. Perhaps he knows it will probably come up in the election. I hope not. America has such critical issues at hand. Superpacs will see to it the race is dirty. I do not share SCOTUS opinion that corporations are people.
@Birther Joke: All you birthers are jokes ... I dare you to go to request a certified copy of your birth certificate and then compare it to your original ... or apply for a US passport and see the requirements to get one ... or get a Social Security card and number and again see the requirements involved ... President Obama has all three of these, and if you think the whole world somehow conspired to cover up his "real" birth certificate, you are certifiably insane.
@Jim: "Being as Obama's mother was a US citizen, doesn't that make him a US citizen no matter where he was born, like Romney Sr and McCain? Just asking..."
As I've explained in CNN posts many times before, if President Obama had been born outside the US, the fact that his mother was a US citizen would have granted him at the least dual US citizenship (that's OUR law, not the other country's). As a dual US citizen, his parents would have had to register him as a "foreign birth abroad."
In order to get a Social Security Number and/or US passport (both of which the President possesses), he would have to be a naturalized US citizen. This would have left a paper trail of the foreign birth certificate and naturalization papers. There is no paper trail because the President was born in the US.
How do I know this? Because I was born in Germany of American parents (my dad was in the Army stationed there). I had dual US-German citizenship until I was 12, when I became a naturalized US citizen. When I got my Social Security Number, I had to present the paperwork showing I was a US citizen; ditto for when I got my US passport.
So birthers, give it up. Try creating a life for yourselves that gets beyond blind hatred and stupidity.
Why didn't these people ask for McCain's birth certificate? He wasn't born in any of the states. So, why shouldn't he receive some skepticism? The problem is that McCain is white while Obama is black. I am wondering why these people don't come out as the bigots as they appear to be.
Romney's birth certificate was issued by GM (Guerroro, Mexico)
you know the sad thing about this is that there are some that will take this joke seriously and say "See I TOLD you his birth certificate was fake, he even ADMITS IT" It will go over their heads you watch.
Obama rules...birthers drool!!!!
It makes sense that a traitorous and disloyal race would so enthrall itself with Obama.
I was born in Ohio 43 years ago. My "birth certificate" says "Certificate of Live Birth", and is only half a page long. I guess by the "Birther Math", I was born in Kenya?
"This will have a special place of honor alongside my birth certificate," LOL He's going to hide it and PhotoShop a fake one.
Well I will tell you whar...I hope someone brings up the "birther" issue with Romney...If it's good enough to bring up against Obama...then i's good enough to bring up against RMoney!!!!!!
"Birthers" that just can't get over their fake "issue"...that just can't get over their racism and tea bagger hate...what a bunch of losers. Nov 12 will show them how pathetic they are.
If Obama was born in Indonesia then Romney must have been born in Mexico, Gingrich born on Mars or his own planet, Santorum was born in heaven and Paul...well he is from a different planet all together. lol
Yes we can, yes we should and yes we will re-elect President Obama in November 2012.
"Birthers" are people that can't stomach that a black man could be President of the United States. "Birthers" used to wear white robes and pointy hats. I love when the "birthers" come out of the woodwork. They're fun to watch, kind of like the reality version of Dumb and Dumber.
These people can serve society as an example of what happens when you have a failed education system.
Amusing.
I love it. I didn't think it was possible to make the birthers look any stupider, but somehow Obama managed it. He deserves the last laugh as the world forgets them. I wonder what new lies they will come up with for Obamas second term?