Here’s Why President Obama Can’t Show His Birth Certificate

With all the new Birther attention drummed up by Donald Trump, one would be wise to ask the obvious question; why wouldn’t President Obama just hand over his birth certificate and stop all this nonsense.

Well, although that may well be the best thing to do, it seems that even the president of the United States doesn’t have the authority to get a copy of his own birth record. The law in Hawaii prohibits any vital records from being transferred or even photocopied. This report complements of MSNBC.

Joshua Wisch, the spokesman for the attorney general’s office, said state law does not in fact permit the release of “vital records,” including an original “record of live birth” — even to the individual whose birth it records.

“It’s a Department of Health record and it can’t be released to anybody,” he said. Nor do state laws have any provision that authorizes such records to be photocopied, Wisch said. If Obama wanted to personally visit the state health department, he would be permitted to inspect his birth record, Wisch said.

But if he or anybody else wanted a copy of their birth records, they would be told to fill out the appropriate state form and receive back the same computer generated “certification of live birth” form that everybody else gets — which is exactly what Obama did four years ago.

So although the best way to stop this bogus conspiracy by the Birthers would be to get a copy of the president’s birth certificate, he will be breaking the law if he tries.

What a position this president finds himself in. He supplied all he could legally, and still, it is not good enough. If he breaks the law, these same folks will demand impeachment and possible jail time.

He can’t win. They won’t allow it!

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Ezra Grant

I'm just tired of the lies and nonsense coming from the GOP, so this is my little contribution to combat the nonsense!

39 thoughts on “Here’s Why President Obama Can’t Show His Birth Certificate

  1. i don't really care where he was born – it wasn't his choice – the provision about "natural born" was really put in to keep Hamilton out. BUT – either he (Barry) is or is not – if he is – then he wasn't when he applied to school as foreign born, or he isn't and he is not legally president. Either way – he's not going away – and we'll have to hope the next person in office can clean up the mess he's creating. But if we vote in a Hillary – well, then – thats who we deserve.

  2. Obama would have needed a Birth Certificate to be senator. Most people have their BC either at home or in a safety deposit box. It amazes me that Obama needs other people to obtain a BC for him.

  3. Not talking about a "Birth Record", we are talking about a BIRTH CERTIFICATE. For the State of Hawaii to state "prohibits any vital records to be transferred or even photocopied" just might be true – to someone OTHER THAN THE PERSON WHOSE NAME IS ON THE BIRTH CERTIFICATE. So let's cut down thru the fraudulent babble and just ask Obama to produce an original BIRTH CERTIFICATE with the STATE SEAL OF HAWAII on it before he runs for President of the USA. This is typical double-speak from MSNBC because the only thing Ob has to do is fill out the form, write a check for whatever amount and mail both to the St of Hawaii and they will send him an original copy of his BIRTH CERTIFICATE with a beautiful Seal of the State of Hawaii on it. That is, if it exists.

  4. Sorry, what you refer to is a Certificate of Live Birth and that is NOT the same as a Birth Certificate. The pictured copy you refer to is NOT a Birth Certificate. If you can read English, go back and look at the photo again, blow it up, and it reads across the top: Certificate of Live Birth. Not the original Birth Certificate.

    Nice try at passing along false and misleading information.

  5. A copy of the birth certificate IS online, and has been for ages. Either birthers are too stupid to look for it, or they don’t want to see it, so they can continue acting the fool. I put birthers in the same catagory as “Flat earthers”. They believe what they want to believe regardless of facts.

  6. He might want to do it because a significant number of his constituents question whether our president was legitimately elected. They are his constituents whether they voted for him or not.

  7. I have heard this excuse before, claiming that Obama can’t get his birth certificate. However, it is Federal law that states a president must be born in the United States. Funny how that doesn’t “Trumph” state law in this case. I’m sure in the interest of the country, this could be overlooked or over ruled.

  8. @Mr. Max

    Your so-called facts are just that… so-called.

    a) The certificate of Live Birth is a document acceptable by all national and international government and non-governmental agencies to prove the birth of a Hawaii citizen. That’s a fact.

    b) You cannot photocopy the actual vital record of an Hawaii citizen. IT’S THE LAW. What is allowed is – after the proper request is made, digital copies… ie, taking a picture – which was already done by factcheck.org and posted online for the unbelievers.

    But then, an unbeliever will always find a reason to not believe – like birthers do.

  9. FACTS
    a) the document on the web is not a Birth Certificate. It is Certificate of Live Birth. Yes, it sounds the same, but it is not the same. A Birth Certificate has a Doctors signature on it testifying he or she was present at the birth. A Certificate of Live Birth is simply a government birth announcement which can be issued upon request by any interested party with no signatures, verification or birth witness.
    b) Copies of actual birth certificates from Hawaii are available and easily obtained when requested by the person whose birth is recorded. This is true in any state.

    It is a sad day when Americans make up stories to defend a politician of their liking to cover up impropriety. But, it has happened many, many times in both parties. The longer our current President continues to act like former President Richard Nixon, the greater the damage will be to the country when the truth comes out. What is the truth? The issue is not really where he was born, but more that he is obviously hiding something from the American people that they have a right to know. It will eventually catch up to him and as the old saying goes, “your sin will find you out.” Unfortunately a lot of people around him are going to get hurt.

  10. J: you say that Obama could “get a copy of his birth certificate.” In fact, HE ALREADY DID THAT during the election campaign.

    During the 2008 election campaign, candidate Obama presented a CERTIFIED, OFFICIAL “Certificate of Live Birth” from the government of Hawaii and which is valid for ANY AND ALL official business that an “original”/”long form” birth certificate is valid for. The “original”/”long form” birth certificate that the “birthers” keep demanding to see may be AN official birth certificate but SO IS the “Certificate of Live Birth” that Obama presented during the 2008 campaign and which is the EXACT SAME form that ANY Hawaiian receives when they fill out the form requesting their “birth certificate”.

    According to Josh Wisch (spokesman for the Hawaii attorney general’s office), state law does not permit the release of the original of ANY “vital record” (including an original “record of live birth”/”long form” birth certificate) — even to the individual whose birth it records.

    “It’s a Department of Health record and it can’t be released to anybody,” he said. Nor does state law authorize such records to be photocopied. If Obama wanted to personally visit the state health department, he would be permitted to inspect his birth record, according to the spokesman.

    But if he or anybody else wanted a copy of their birth records, they would be told to fill out the appropriate state form and receive back the same computer generated “certification of live birth” form that everybody else gets — which is exactly what Obama did four years ago.

    Besides, if Obama was faking his American birth and there was a birth certificate that could satisfy the whacko birthers, don’t you think he would have come up with one, EVEN IF IT WAS FAKE? After all, according to the birthers he has an “army” of lawyers and has spent MILLIONS perpetuating the lie, so why wouldn’t he have the best fake documents that money could buy? Almost anyone can go online or to any number of “back alley” shops in any big city in America and, for a few hundred (maybe a few thousand) dollars get all the fake documents (including BCs) one can think of. So why didn’t Barrack (or at least someone in his “army”) do that?

    That’s a tough one to get around, isn’t it? Anyway, keep it up, because every time you come with this stupid lie it makes you look the fool and devalues everything you say. In other words, you are helping Obama, so I say again, keep it up.

    Furthermore, according to FactCheck.org:

    “In June [2008], the Obama campaign released a digitally scanned image of his birth certificate to quell speculative charges that he might not be a natural-born citizen. But the image prompted more blog-based skepticism about the document’s authenticity.”

    We beg to differ. FactCheck.org staffers have now seen, touched, examined and photographed the original birth certificate. We conclude that it meets all of the requirements from the State Department for proving U.S. citizenship. Claims that the document lacks a raised seal or a signature are false. We have posted high-resolution photographs of the document as “supporting documents” to this article. Our conclusion: Obama was born in the U.S.A. just as he has always said.

    Update, Nov. 1, 2008: The director of Hawaii’s Department of Health confirmed Oct. 31 that Obama was born in Honolulu.”

  11. @We » LOLOL. It seems like you need a good mystery. Go read a Dean Koontz book!!!

  12. I think you are right and it is fun to make fun of birthers.

    They remind me of a friend of mine, who walked into an outhouse with a loaded gun stuffed down his pants. He unzipped his trousers, the gun fell out and went off severing one of his nuts. He had forgotten how dangerous a loaded pistol is with a hair trigger.

    The upside, he only lost one and fathered a son a few year later.
    True story, Back Rock Desert, Nevada, circa 1976

    Now if only that would happen to birthers, but instead of one, taking them both out. The upside, it would most certainly improve the gene pool.

  13. First it was Kenya, then it was Nigeria, now he’s a Brit, when are you crazy birthers going to ever get your lies straight?

  14. How did his birth announcement get in two Hawaii newspapers at the time of his birth?

    How is it that there have been people, of authority, who have examined the vital records and say the original birth certificate is 100% authentic?

    How is it, 4 years ago Obama sent away, received the legal document stating his was born in Hawaii, the same one any Hawaii citizen can get, yet his is not accepted, but everyone else’s is?

    I know your dishonestly and your rewriting of history makes you feel powerful, along with all the web sites that are doing the same all while ignoring fundamental questions and evidence – has drawn me to one conclusion. This is not about Obama and his birth certificate, it is about his race. You just can’t stand that a black man can be honest, that he can be important, that he can be president. You will use any means whatsoever to railroad him out of office.

    Now back to the questions I gave above, what are your answers, and please, don’t depend on Glen Beck, Donald Trump or Sarah Palin to give you an honest answer, you need to depend on the people who are closest to this, that would lose their jobs if they were caught.

  15. How did his birth announcement get in two papers at the time of his birth?

    How is it that there have been people, of authority, who have examined the vital records and says the original birth certificate is 100% authentic?

    How is it, 4 years ago Obama sent away, received the legal document stating his was born in Hawaii, the same one any Hawaii citizen can get, yet his is not accepted, but everyone else’s is?

    I know your dishonestly and your rewriting of history makes you feel powerful, along with all the web sites that are doing the same all while ignoring fundamental questions and evidence – has drawn me to one conclusion. This is not about Obama and his birth certificate, it is about his race. You just can’t stand that a black man can be honest, that he can be important, that he can be president. You will use any means whatsoever to railroad him out of office.

    Now back to the questions I gave above, what are your answers, and please, don’t depend on Glen Beck, Donald Trump or Sarah Palin to give you an honest answer, you need to depend on the people who are closest to this, that would lose their jobs if they were caught.

  16. Obama did indeed inherit a huge mess.

    What I see is a lot of finger pointing from Obama haters, but no solutions. It’s as if, when their side gets in power, that everything will be magically fixed, and when it is not, they will scream bloody murder that it will take time and the other side is playing political games.

    Bluntly, partisans, regardless of political affiliation have the attention span of a gnat.

    Sometimes I wish we had a king for a year that had ultimate authority who could either fix this mess pronto, or get us into a worse one. The same partisan mess has been going on for decades and it just gets worse. Why not give that a try? Obama certainly isn’t the answer, his hands are so tied and his mind twisted into a pretzel trying to make it work, that it’s more like diarrhea rather then a good solid brick.

  17. “There is NO Obama Birth Certificate, HI Governor Abercrombie says ”

    A very good friend of Hawaii Governor Neil Abercrombie — who by the way is a great admirer of Barack Obama — was told by the governor that there is no birth certificate he can find for Obama.

  18. Yes let’s get rid of him-this is the way.It doesn’t matter where he was born he is ineligible he doesn’t meet the constitutional requirements. He must be a ‘Natural Born Citizen” he isn’t.His father was a Foreigner -Kenyan/British Subject so was Obama.He’s a usurper and he had lots of help hiding facts from the people.We Have to start demanding our congress address this and remove him. Because he is everything he has done gets wiped out.Unconstitutional Means Un-Lawful, his signature is only equal to FRAUD.That’s an Automatic Repeal Of Everything He has Done To Us…

    BHObama Quote: “The Only People Who Don’t Want To Disclose The Truth Are People With Something To Hide.” ?2 Million dollars..?

    NBC: “Citizenship at birth alone is insufficient to determine natural-born citizenship. It alone is not sufficient to be born of citizen parents.Natural-born citizens are those who are citizens of the United States from birth (born in the USA-Native Born) and whose Parents Are Citizens of the United States At The Time Of Their Birth”

    Constitutional Requirement: The President – All Candidates Must Be A ” Natural Born Citizen” Of The USA.

    1) “Born” Citizen = Citizen From Birth = Native Born
    2) “Natural” born = Born of Citizen Parents = Natural Born
    +_________________
    = Natural Born Citizen

    Obama IS NOT A Natural Born Citizen, He Must Be Removed! Obama > Born A Brit- Not Legit!

  19. WELL I’M A MOM AND IF i HAD MY CHILD IN A FOREIGN COUNTRY/YES I’D HAVE HAD MY MOTHER REGISTER MY CHILD AND PLACE THOSE ADDS BECAUSE I’D WANT MY CHILD TO HAVE CITIZENSHIP IN MY HOME COUNTRY SO BOTH WE’D BE ABLE TO COME & GO LEGALLY WITHOUT WORRYING ABOUT FOREIGN VISAS OR WHAT EVER ELSE THEY DO…

    THAT’S WHAT I’D HAVE DOME

    THAT’S MOST LIKELY THE SAME REASON AND ACTIONS HIS MOTHER TOOK..

  20. Hawaii Officials need to arrested and charged with fraud,Treason and subversion of our Constitutional Government.They Lied, they covered up evidence and went as far as to change illegally laws to cover-up their crimes. What was stated about Obama can’t get his long form birth certificate wasn’t true.They just recently did that -Again- To cover their crimes. Want some proof? Go to thois web page and take a look at what a Real Short form looks like And What The Real Long Form looks like.This one was requested and received last month “MARCH 2011-!” But of course it wasn’t Obama’s. See these pages …

    Notice the differences between them…

    Obama’s posted > http://bit.ly/hl4sKt

    Real HI Short Form> http://bit.ly/hyZKlj

    The Real Long Form Hi BC 03/2011 > http://bit.ly/eYmIla

    The Stories:

    COLB Image Removed from Factcheck.org Website. Why?
    http://www.thepostemail.com/2011/04/03/colb-image-removed-from-factcheck-org-website/

    Update: Breaking from Hawaii: No More Long-Form Birth Certificates!
    http://www.thepostemail.com/2011/04/12/breaking-from-hawaii-no-more-long-form-birth-certificates/

    Hawaii Official and Ex-Official Lie to Cover Their Tracks
    http://www.thepostemail.com/2011/04/10/hawaii-official-and-ex-official-lie-to-cover-their-tracks/

  21. @ Jim Em: Jim, its as if irishpat just woke up from a long sleep in 2008 and now wants to blame the present administration for the all the damage left unchecked by the administration before Obama got the job. No excuses for Obama, but there’s a lot of mess to clean before he can even get to his program.

  22. The state of Hawaii has a law in place that does not allow the original birth certificate, that is in a bound volume in the states archives, to be copied by anyone. Not even Obama can get a copy of that, or the governor of Hawaii, or the FBI or any other entity. What Obama got 4 years ago is what everyone else gets when requesting their birth certificate. It is an amended form that is recognized as legal. The Birthers want to have someone break the law of Hawaii.

    The person above you is a prime example of how little they really know.

    The governor of Hawaii wants to have a law passed that makes an exception to Obama’s BC, but he has also stated, now knowing how nuts birthers are, that it won’t do much good.

    I have come to the conclusion, it is not about the BC, it is because Obama is black and they would like nothing better than to have him booted out of office for lying and using “fake” papers to get elected. That would probably assure that no Black or dark skinned person hold the office for another 100 years. That is why I believe that the underlying reason they hold onto this, despite the overwhelming proof that he is a citizen, is because they are racists.

  23. And here I thought the damage of the Bush administration was going to be undone.

    Do you want everything to be fixed overnight? How long did it take us to get in this economic mess? Who are the people responsible? Where are they now? How is it to be fixed? Again, will it be fixed overnight? Have you seen any improvements? Heard of any? Or is it going to take time, a lot of time? What are the forces that make this different than the great depression?

    And do tell, what good is the next administration going to do? Don’t you think it will be more of the same? Or is a real difference going to be made?

  24. Who cares, I am tired of the distractions that take our focus away from the facts of how incompetant this administration is. I don’t care if he was born in Kenya or Hawaii, once we get the right people in office, we can repeal the damaging policies of this President.

  25. There have been people, of authority, who have seen his official birth certificate and say it exist and is authentic. The other thing the birthers can not explain, how did the birth announcement end up in two newspapers in Hawaii at the time of his birth?

    The governor of Hawaii has seen it and wants to get a law passed that will make an exception to Obama’s birth record. But he also understands the birthers are so crazy that no matter how much proof, they will believe what they want.

    As one person put it, it is a lose-lose situation.

    My conclusion, if Obama was white, this would have long been forgotten, but he’s black and it won’t be forgotten. Therefore, I consider the birthers racist.

    I consider Palen, Beck, Trump and millions of others to be part of that racist clan.

    And here I thought the civil war was supposed to help put and end to that kind of hatred. How histories 150 years of racist history has proven me wrong.

  26. I don’t care if he has one or not, he’s still a FOOL! Lets concentrate more on getting rid of Obozo than his goofy birth certificate. Goofy carton caracters don’t have birth certificates!

  27. The Attorney General is telling you what the law of his state is, but you’re choosing the words on a website instead! You’re such a….. birther!

  28. @J: Please don’t come on here with unsub­stan­ti­ated bull.
    You wrote: “The Gov­er­nor of Hawaii tried and said it does not exist.” Prove it! We’re ask­ing for some polit­i­cal valid­ity start­ing now! Don’t keep regur­gi­tat­ing the vomit you’re still tun­ing into Fox for or wait­ing to hear the next belch from Trump try­ing to pass itself off as intel­lec­tual discourse.

    The arti­cle above states,and I quote:
    “It’s a Depart­ment of Health record and it can’t be released to any­body,” he said. Nor do state laws have any pro­vi­sion that autho­rizes such records to be pho­to­copied, Wisch said. If Obama wanted to per­son­ally visit the state health depart­ment, he would be per­mit­ted to inspect his birth record, Wisch said.”

    Disprove this– if that’s the intent of your comment–or please just shut up already!

  29. @Keman:
    Once again, the article states, and I quote:
    “But if he (Obama) or any­body else wanted a copy of their birth records, they would be told to fill out the appro­pri­ate state form and receive back the same com­puter gen­er­ated “cer­ti­fi­ca­tion of live birth” form that every­body else gets — which is exactly what Obama did four years ago.”

    The first thing I see when I go to your supplied link:
    How to Apply for Certified Copies of Vital Records –in other words COPIES of certified birth records! Which is what Obama has supplied and has been all over the internet for the last three plus years and which just proves Ezra’s point.

    Yes–why aren’t intelligent people questioning this article?

  30. Read the whole article. The point is, anyone can order a certified copy of a document that contains certain details about birth, what people generally call a birth certificate. What people can’t get is a direct photocopy of the certificate of birth. It’s a subtle but important difference. Obama has already produced his “birth certificate,” but that’s not good enough for the Birthers.

  31. BS. The Governor of Hawaii tried and said it does not exist. There was no mention of any law prohibiting full disclosure. The pres hussein can completely sidestep the constitution, I think he could also get a copy of his birth certificate.

  32. Why would Obama want to release his Birth Certificate? None of the people worried about it are even close to potential Obama voters. If the Birth Certificate issue was resolved it would do nothing to help Obama. They would hate for a different reason.

    But on the flip side he gets to make the right look like looney’s. Someone like Trump may have been a concern but now is marginalize to the extremist aka Tea Party.

    Obama is smart and is happy this is a controversy.

  33. His DNA?!? What will that resolve other than the fact of who his biological parents are and that–yes!–he’s a human…wait…don’t tell me!…those facts are in question too?! Are you assuming that his DNA will tell the Birthers what country he was born in? C’mon…you got a computer…Google shit b4 you post!

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