What Birthers Should Object To

[Bad Thoughts]

I've been looking for stories about HOW the White House obtained a copy of Hawaii's records of President Obama's birth. It is not the document that the state releases when pressed with such requests. Even Terrence Lakin received the same "certificate of live birth" that Obama produced in 2008 when he tried to get a birth certificate for his Hawaii-born daughter. There is no special box to check when getting the so-called "long-form", no special fee to pay. Access to the state's original records is simply highly restricted. What the White House showed us is not something that the average person could get: a photograph or scan of the actual archival record.

So how did they get it? Did the President call in some favors? Maybe U Hawaii is now the contender for a Presidential library? Will there be some special fund raising activities to help Pacific Island Dems?

Birthers could raise a whole slew of question that would insinuate that corruption allowed for the release. However, they would have had to admit that citizens are not privy to this information, and that Candidate and President Obama could never normally get copies of this record. They could insinuate that Obama misused the presidency.

Indeed, they would have to admit that THERE IS NO LONG-FORM BIRTH CERTIFICATE that the State of Hawaii offers. The document doesn't exist. Full records of births are something that the state keeps for itself and does not certify publicly.

Actually, Birthers could get craftier and claim that what the White House showed is not a birth certificate at all. And it's not. It's not the document that the state releases to certify births. It's a copy of their archival records. The document released in 2008 is the only certification that Hawaii offers. Calling this new document a long-form birth certificate perpetuates a lie and gives legitimacy to the argument that Obama could have produced it at any time.

Of course, if Birthers make this argument, they'd have to admit they were full of crap all along.