White House releases Obama's birth certificate
(CNN) - President Obama released his original birth certificate Wednesday, saying the controversy surrounding the issue had become a "sideshow."
“We do not have time for this kind of silliness. We’ve got better stuff to do," said Obama.
The surprise release follows recent and sustained remarks by businessman Donald Trump, among others, that raised doubts as to whether the president was born in the United States.
“Over the last two and half years, I have watched with amusement. I have been puzzled with the degree with which this thing just kept going,” Obama told reporters Wednesday.
Responding to the development, Trump said, "I have accomplished something nobody else has accomplished."
"I want to look at it, but I hope it’s true," he told reporters in New Hampshire. "He should have done it a long time ago. I am really honored to have played such a big role in hopefully getting rid of this issue."
Earlier Wednesday, White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer said the debate has been "really bad for the Republican Party."
The so-called "birther" debate is "good politics" but "bad for the country," said Pfeiffer.
In an interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper Monday, Trump repeated his doubts and said he had been told the certificate was "missing."
A new CNN investigation revealed earlier this week what most analysts have been saying since the "birther" controversy erupted during the 2008 presidential campaign: Obama was born in Hawaii on August 4, 1961.
While the president has made light of the controversy, the question remained political red meat for some of his critics. A recent CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll showed that nearly 75% of Americans believe Obama was definitely or probably born in the United States. More than four in 10 Republicans, however, believe he probably or definitely was not born in America.
See Obama's Certification of Live Birth
The U.S. Constitution says only "natural born" citizens can become president - a vague clause that some members of the birther movement contend disqualifies Obama because, they insist, he was born outside the United States.
Skeptics contend, among other things, that Obama was born in his father's home country of Kenya.
I guess the president played his "Trump" card!
Finally! Now the left can quit trying to coin pejoratives, like 'birther' and go back to slinging the mud they are familiar with, calling opponents 'racist'.
it's a copy, and a bad one at that. what's up with the right hand boarder? where's the notary stamp? if they showed the libtards a cracker with the name Obama on it, they would go running off saying it was real.
Great! Now we can get on to the business of talking about the real issues that divide us. Let stop the goverment from printing an endless supply of dollars through QE2. Then we can talk about raising taxes on the wealth makers (anyone working) to fund the dubious schemes of politicians to BUY the votes of the wealth takers (those who sit on their arses and collect goodies from the goverment).
The birthers are gonna say it was just printed on an HP inkjet printer. No stopping conspiracy whack jobs.
What a shame. This country has fallen into that great big hole of insanity. Anyone should be happy to be born some-where else.
Doesn't matter. The ultra right wing freaks are too stupid to read.
Im really hoping that we can finally put an end to this... While the birthers are annoying, there are so few of them they can be ignored... the antibirthers are plenty and equally annoying. Lets move on. Can we children?
John McCain DID show his birth certificate when asked to do so. Being born on a US military base in a foreign country is the same as being born in the US. Now, why wait years and spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to prevent the simple showing of Obamas document? Will he now open up his educational records in this new spirit of cooperation and openess? Will he now produce people that remember him from college? Will he explain why he and his wife are no longer lawyers?
I am surprised he did this. Now this means that his political record will be in the forefront, which will doom him for re-election. He should have kept the birther movement going as a distraction to get people off of his failures. Now hopefully people can debate actual issues and policies that are affecting us everyday Americans. I am not worried about if Obama was born here, I am worried about things like the strength of the dollar, jobs, the economy, the deficit, etc.
I wonder what took so long. Were they fabricating it or what. If Obama had produced this 4 years ago this would not even be an issue. No one has to wonder what else he is hiding.
Well Well Birther's get that a BC so now u all can go back home now with your heads between your legs and figure out what u can come up with next its a shame that he had to do it at all, I find it rude and a total invasion of ones Privacy Rights to demand something that isn't yours to demand if it were ur persona life u would be all up in arms about it, now hush lets move on with the real issues in life and don't forget to pull the stone back over your heads when u crawl back into the ground and as for the GOP guess what THE BALL IS IN OUR COURT NOW WHAT MORE ARE U GONNA TRY AND PULL OUT WITHOUT IT GETTING THROWN BACK IN UR FACE!!
I've always thought if this was a real issue, Hillary would have taken advantage of it in 2008. But why the heck did Obama wait so long on this when he could have done this before the election and had it out of the way?
If it's not one thing it's another....what are they gonna come up with next...hummmmm let's check his DNA to see if he's human
Thank god...maybe now these clowns will STFU.
Nothing new, still not a full birth certificate. This is only the same old "Certificate of Live Birth". Why does he continue to hide his full birth certificate?
Well, if it's real, why did he take 2 years to release it? If it's real, good–it's a step in the right direction. Now: grades, please, and university papers (just as we saw for Bush)
This is not a birth certificate but a certificate of live birth. In either case morons, you lose with this guy because he is destroying the jobs and the economy and yet you don't care.
I can not help but ask myself, what new stupid, ridiculous, sneaky, tactics the Republicans and the so called Tea Party are going to come up with next.
Obama could have put all this to rest at the beginning but waited until now. Why?
This whole affair has been nothing but a game on Obama's part. His poll numbers have dropped below a level his handlers are comfortable with and now they've pulled a 'gotcha' to get the numbers headed back up. Not a coincidence that it corresponds with the beginning of his re-election campaign.
The bump will be brief. People have an issue with the direction Obama is taking the country; this 'gotcha' stuff is nonsense straight out of a high school popularity contest.
i'm printing this on a tshirt and wearing it everywhere
Fiinally someone with gonads made BO produce his birth certificate.
Linda B, shut up. YOu do NOT speak for everyone. SPeak for YOURSELF. That is what YOU want people to do against Obama.
Anyone else read the image provided? Mother's full name is Stanley Ann Dunham? Stanley?
Amazing!!! – The reason this was never produced (according to Obama and all his sheep) was supposed to be because the "long form" never existed... That Hawaii didn't use them.
Now all of a sudden it DOES exist??? Either Obama is a liar or someone decided they better print one up real quick.
Way to go!!! if it doesn't exist, just print one up!!! (something Obama has learned to do – if we don't have enough money to run the country – just print some more!!!)