Donald Trump joins calls to see Obama birth certificate

I’m a faither on President Obama’s birthplace. As sure as I believe anything, I believe he was born in Hawaii. But I’d still like to see his original birth certificate, out of simple human curiosity.

Donald Trump is a shallow megalomaniac, but he’s right to want to see that original birth certificate, and not settle for the birth certification that a Hawaiian government computer spit out in 2007. Open government isn’t about hiding things, especially things as basic as a U.S. president’s birth certificate.

Unfortunately, Trump is such a pompous goofball he probably set back the cause of seeing the Obama certificate when he appeared on "The View" today.

Obama's choice. Some people don’t accept their government on faith. Some people lose faith when they see evidence their government is hiding things. In this case, I’ve yet to hear anyone explain coherently why the president doesn’t authorize the release of his original birth certificate.

Remember, it was a Pennsylvania Democrat, Philip Berg, who sued to have that original birth certificate made public in 2008. The courts shot him down in 2009 because Hawaiian officials said Obama was born there, and because an Hawaiian law doesn’t allow him to see the original document without Obama's consent.

Remember, too, that a Hawaiian Democrat, Gov. Neil Abercrombie, this year promised he’d do all he could to let us see that birth certificate, and then he discovered the president had no interest in releasing it and it was possible the original birth certificate no longer exists. It might have been lost or replaced with official notes here and there.

Snopes cover-up. Let’s just see it for the sake of seeing it. And Snopes.com, stop changing the subject with false questions like “Is a Certification of Live Birth document provided by the Obama campaign a forgery?” Of course it’s not a forgery, but it’s not the original certificate.

The real question is, “Has the public seen President Obama’s original birth certificate, and why not?”

Blessed are those who believe and have not seen, but they’re the zealot faithers. I’m a curious faither. When a paper probably exists to document a basic fact of American history, I want to see it. If it is hidden, I want to know why. If it doesn’t exist, I want to know why.

Frank Warner

Comments

[CJW]

I think we've all had quite enough of Obama's transparency.

[Neo]

In the 1982 movie, "The Verdict", Paul Newman plays a lawyer who sees the chance to salvage his career and self-respect by taking a medical malpractice case. In one particular point in the movie, there is a legal ruling in regard to a hospital admitting document. The Judge, who seems to be siding with the defendant hospital, rules that a copy of the document can not be admissible when the origin exists.
Yes, Snopes.com should stop changing the subject with false questions like “Is a Certification of Live Birth document provided by the Obama campaign a forgery?” Of course it’s not a forgery, but it’s not the original certificate.

[jj mollo]

After November 2008, there was no possibility than any benefit could be provided by the display or even discussion of Obama's birth certificate. The issue is OBE.

Trump is a contemptible opportunist who is hoping to take advantage, in one way or another, of the current political turmoil within the GOP. I really doubt that he genuinely cares one way or the other about Obama's citizenship.

[CJW]

It’s not really just about his birth certificate, at least to me. It’s about all his records to see whether he misrepresented himself fraudulently as something other than reality, like saying he was foreign born person to get a Fulbright scholarship to go to college or something like that. All of the documents taken as a whole will be more telling than a single document.

[Frank Warner]

There's a benefit to seeing any historical document. The original Gettysburg address doesn't change the outcome of the Civil War, but I still want access to it. It will tell us something of the times, if only the kind of pen or pencil they used.

[Joseph]

I'm not a big fan or strong political supporter of Donald Trump but his raising the issue concerning President Obama's birth certificate is a disturbing one. At a time when many have suspicions or even serious mistrust of their government and it's truthfulness, it makes one even more suspicious that the President doesn't release the records just to put the issue to rest. It would be very simple for a man in his position to authorize it's release. I tend to believe that there's nothing to the accusation but the failure to publish the original birth certificate is strange to me.