Probably Too Good To Be True

Probably Too Good To Be True

But since the accusation involves not very competent forgery--and the Texas Air National Guard memo about President Bush turned out to be a not very competent forgery by Democratic operatives--this makes you wonder! There are people claiming that Obama wasn't really born in the U.S., and that the Hawaii birth certificate that Daily Kos put up is a forgery. From Andy McCarthy at National Review Online:

Our Jim Geraghty seemed to pooh-pooh the birth certificate controversy about a week ago, but according to the above cited report (at a site called DougRoss@Journal) and a new one from Israeli Insider, there are new developments, and the Obama campaign appears to be stonewalling. Shouldn't it be a fairly easy matter to prove he was born in Hawaii if he really was? Why wouldn't Obama just end this quickly?

...

My predisposition on the many stories floating around about Obama and his circle is to ignore them on the following theory: If there was really anything to this or that, the Clintons would have found it and gotten their media friends all over it. This story about Obama's eligibility puzzles me because (a) it is so basic, (b) it should be so easy to prove the relevant facts of his birth, (c) the Obama campaign's response to the story is bizarre, and (d) it seems to be getting worse rather than resolved.

Like I said, too good to be true, and I am sure if there was any real question about this, Hillary Clinton's flying monkeys would have driven this story like it was stolen. (Unless, of course, that is who is driving this story, behind the scenes.) But this should be an easy one to resolve. Obama's Fight The Smears website has a completely illegible birth certificate here. The Los Angeles Times has one that is legible--although like Fight the Smears, they have blacked out the certificate number.

Now, I can somewhat understand why you might do that to prevent identity theft--but it isn't like someone is going to successfully do an identity theft on a high profile person like Barack Obama. ("Why, Mr. Obama, from the television news I would never have guessed that you were so short, white, and female.")

I'm more bemused by this than willing to believe it. (Remember when people were raising questions about McCain's eligibility to run because he was born outside the United States?) But I can hope!

UPDATE: It occurred to me that some of you may find the entire notion absurd--how could this guy have reached the U.S. Senate if there was anything questionable about his legal status?

1. If Obama was a naturalized citizen, that would not be a legal obstacle to Illinois state legislature or U.S. Senate. I'm not suggesting that this is likely--just that it isn't completely absurd to think that no one might have checked this before.

2. Who checks to verify that you are a citizen? I don't believe that I have ever been asked to provide proof of citizenship when I have registered to vote--and I am sure that I didn't have to prove citizenship--or even legal residence in my district--to run for Idaho State Senate a few months ago. I don't recall having to provide such proof when I ran for Santa Monica City Council in 1981. A person who was not a legal resident could easily slip through the cracks when running for public office. You have to show more proof of citizenship to get a job washing dishes than to be a member of the government.