Undoubtedly influenced by my recent post on the birther controversy, President Obama asked the State of Hawaii to waive its normal policy and release his "long form" birth certificate. (The short form certificate was released in 2008.) Hawaii obliged, and you can now see the request for release here, and the birth certificate itself here.
Makes you wonder why he waited so long.
Also makes you wonder how the birthers are going to keep the controversy alive. (Conspiracy theories NEVER die.) The most obvious avenue is to question the authenticity of the document that's just been released...
Footnote: Here are some of the issues that are likely to be raised.
The Birther thing is garbage but the timing of the releasing was not. That they happened to pick in a slow news week but release it during the same day as the first Fed Board press conference wasn't an accident. I am not claiming conspiracy theory but the Fed is something poli-wonks, like you, understand but the general public frankly doesn't. Without some event like the certificate release that day the press conference would have been the lead story and far more people would be trying to understand it and learn of it's lack of independent audits. The certificate took the air out of the debate, left it a minor story, and any Republican admin would have done the same thing in this political climate. A powder keg issue politicians simply don't want attention given to it.
Posted by: Thomas | April 29, 2011 at 08:57 PM