After much consideration, this Republican is (mostly) convinced Obama's birth cert is legit

I'm no 'birther,' but before today I was somewhat suspicious that Obama was lying about his birth certificate. Today I'm mostly convinced he's not. This morning, the White House released Obama's long form birth certificate today (finally!).
[link to www.whitehouse.gov]

Almost immediately, accusations began to surface that it's a forgery. If it were proven to be a fake, impeachment would certainly follow. Obama took quite a risk puting his certificate out there, but a number of people demanded it; only 38% of Americans were completely convinced he was born in America.

Having a black President is cool and progressive, even if I don't agree with most of his policies. Having an illegal President is totally unacceptable. There are definitely racists out there but I'm not one of them. I know there are others who feel the same way (such as pastor John Piper).

This is a legitimate controversy, and it is not necessarily racially-driven. Some of us just want to know if our President has lied.

Here's how I've weighed things.

WHY DID IT TAKE SO LONG?
One has to wonder why such a simple request had taken so long to produce. Three years and $1.7 million in court costs?? Was it that difficult to find some college students who knew Photochop? (Just kidding.) Showing this document should have placed the controversy to rest a long time ago.

This in itself is not proof, but it certainly is suspicious.

LAYERS IN THE PDF
I don't buy the 'Adobe Illustrator layers' conspiracy because two of the layers are completely pointless; there's a little dot at the top and bottom. What purpose would these serve?
[link to theelephantgraveyard.com]

Also it would be a very dumb mistake to leave layers visible.
[link to deathby1000papercuts.com]

Several graphical-savvy people claimed they see these layers on most any scanned document. They say that they're generated by OCR software.
[link to www.nationalreview.com]
[link to thepaperlessoffice.org]

So all things considered, I don't buy this conspiracy.

KENYA WASN'T A COUNTRY WHEN HE WAS BORN
Some said that Kenya wasn't a country yet when he was born, that it had another name. This has weight because it became officially known as Kenya two years after he was born.

But a map produced one year before his birth showed the name "Kenya." It was likely the unofficial common name at the time.
Thread: *** Obama's Birth Certificate Debunked Already ***Proof*** (Page 3)

Anyway, when I was in the hospital for the birth of my kids, I was asked directly for details. If his dad said 'Kenya,' that's what they would have put. If he'd said 'Mars,' that's what they would have put.

So I don't buy this conspiracy.

PHOTOCHOP ARTIFACTS?
Parts of the cert do look Photochopped.. you can see some artifacts when zoomed. Check out the neat square around the date, and difference in saturation:
[link to market-ticker.org]

Also see this:
[link to bryankeithnixon.com]

Photochop fakery is indeed a real problem. We mustn't forget Bush's supposed 'dishonorable discharge' papers:
[link to en.wikipedia.org]

But I'm still not 100% convinced on this one. The line between Photochop artifact and dust on the scanner is too narrow. What if the artifacts came from the blogger's copy of Photochop?

I'll have to wait for more details.

The sad thing about the Internet age is it's getting more and more difficult to tell anymore what's real and what's fake. Hence, I think I'll give up trying to figure out the Photochop technical details, and will just wait and see.

HOSPITAL NAME IS WRONG?
I'm curious about the hospital name. Supposedly the hospital didn't carry that name at the time he was born.
[link to www.letsrun.com]
Thread: *** Obama's Birth Certificate Debunked Already ***Proof***

On the other hand, a woman born in the same hospital a day later bears the same name. The picture of her document was released about a year ago, well before Obama's hospital name was known, so I doubt hers was also faked.
[link to www.wnd.com]

I think this conspiracy is junk but a word from the hospital itself could turn this around. The hospital's website is vague.

DOCUMENT NUMBERING IS OFF?
The same woman who was born in the same hospital a day later, had her certificate arrive at the registrar's office three days after his, yet she has a lower record number.
Thread: Wrong Hospital Name On Obama's New Birth Certificate

This is suspicious because it's likely the registrars would have used a sequential ordering scheme, but we won't know for sure until we hear it from the registrar's office.

SPIRIT OF THE LAW
One important consideration is why the founding fathers thought it important to prevent foreign-born presidents; they didn't want men (or women) who were more loyal to their own country than these United States.

At times I doubt Obama's loyalty due to his actions but on the whole I think he's doing what he thinks is right.

As a Republican voter and a Christian, I reserve the right to disagree with what he thinks is right! :)

CONCLUSION
You've got to admit, his new certificate raises more questions than it answers. Only the strongly biased will either disregard it all or blindly accept it all.

All things considered, I'm about 80% sure it's a legit certificate, satisfying the letter of the law, and about 80% sure he's loyal, satisfying the spirit of the law.

That's good enough for me. I say let him remain as President, until something more solid can be offered.

But don't stop the 'birthers' from pursuing the truth!

Last Edited by SlowBro on 04/28/2011 03:45 AM