Trump Flushes Obama's Birth Certificate

After three years of nonsense,and finally the demand made by Donald Trump making it politically impossible tostonewall any longer, President Obama has coughed up the birthcertificate.  There is only one reasonablerationale for not providing this information years ago and that was to providea sacrificial goat when the stonewalling had to end.

It is much easier to claim thatyour candidate is the smartest guy in the room if you never release histranscripts.  The reality is that themajority of degrees are produced by C’s and D’s for a lot of great reasonsnothing to do with the wits of the student and plenty to do with how mucheffort the student is prepared to spend and the quality of the teacher. 

The problem those who understandall this are in the minority.  It is mucheasier to remove it from the debate and simply repeat the mantra of how cleverhe is.

The fact is that withholding thisinformation was impossible. But dragging it out forced all energy to be focusedon that fight alone.  Withholding therest is not impossible at all and we will never see those transcripts.

C's an D's get Degrees! Affirmative action opens grad school.  Surprise me.

Obama Releases Birth Form, Decries 'Silliness'

By JULIE PACE Associated Press

WASHINGTON April 27, 2011 (AP)

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=13468045

Responding to critics' relentless claims, President Barack Obama onWednesday produced a detailed Hawaiibirth certificate in an extraordinary attempt to bury the issue of where he wasborn and confirm his legitimacy to hold office. He declared, "We do nothave time for this kind of silliness."

By going on national TV from the White House, Obama portrayed himselfas a voice of reason amid a loud, lingering debate on his birth status. Thoughhis personal attention to the issue elevated it as never before, Obama said toRepublican detractors and the media, it is time to move on to bigger issues.

Citing huge budget decisions in Washington,Obama said, "I am confident that the American people and America's political leaders cancome together in a bipartisan way and solve these problems. We always have. Butwe're not going to be able to do it if we are distracted."

Obama spoke shortly after the White House released a copy of the longform of his birth certificate, which contains more extensive data than aversion released earlier.

The certificate says Obama was born to an American mother and Kenyanfather, in Hawaii,which makes him eligible to hold the office of president. Obama released astandard short form before he was elected in 2008 but requested copies of hisoriginal birth certificate from Hawaiiofficials this week in hopes of quieting the controversy.

This handout image provided by the White House shows a copy of the longform of President Barack Obama's birth certificate from Hawaii. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Until Wednesday, the White House had insisted that the short formcertificate was the appropriate legal document confirming Obama's birth and nofurther proof was needed.

But so-called "birthers" opposed to Obama have kept the issuealive. Potential Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump recently beganquestioning why Obama hadn't ensured the long form was released.

From New Hampshire,Trump took credit for getting Obama to act.

"He should have done it a long time ago. I am really honored toplay such a big role in hopefully, hopefully getting rid of this issue,"Trump said.

Polls show large numbers of Republicans have continued to doubt Obamais a natural born citizen eligible to be president. Trump has seized on theissue as he weighs a GOP candidacy.

While Obama and White House officials avoided mentioning Trump by name,officials said they released the birth certificate partially because the issuehad moved beyond fringe discussion, and Obama criticized a media culture thathad not let the story go.

"This issue has been going on for two, two and a half years now. Ithink it started during the campaign," Obama said. "I have watchedwith bemusement, I've been puzzled at the degree at which this thing just kepton going."

"We're not going to be able to solve our problems if we getdistracted by sideshows and carnival barkers," the president said.

He did not take any questions and did not say why the document had not beenreleased earlier.

Many Republican leaders have sought to distance themselves from the"birther" theory as a discredited notion not worthy of nationalpublic debate.

In a statement after Obama spoke, Republican National CommitteeChairman Reince Priebus called the issue a distraction — and yet blamed Obamafor playing campaign politics by addressing it.

"The president ought to spend his time getting serious aboutrepairing our economy," Priebus said. "Unfortunately his campaignpolitics and talk about birth certificates is distracting him from our numberone priority — our economy."

The newly released certificate is signed by the delivery doctor,Obama's mother and the local registrar. His mother, then 18, signed her name (Stanley) Ann Dunham Obama.

The form says Barack Hussein Obama II was born at 7:24 p.m. on Aug. 4,1961, at Kapiolani Maternity and GynecologicalHospital, within the city limits of Honolulu.

There's no mention of religion. It says his father, Barack HusseinObama, age 25, was African and born in Kenya and his mother was Caucasian andborn in Wichita, Kan. Obama's mother and the doctor signed the certificate onAug. 7 and 8.

This handout image provided by the White House shows a copy ofPresident Barack Obama's birth certificate from Hawaii. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Hawaii's registrar certified the new photocopy ofthe document provided to the White House on April 25, 2011.

The White House also released a letter from the president on April 22requesting two certified copies of his original certificate of live birth. Alsoreleased was a letter from Loretta Fuddy, Hawaii's director of health, approving therequest.

The president's personal counsel, Judith Corley, traveled to Hawaii to pick up the documents and carried them back to Washington on a plane.The documents arrived at the White House around 5 p.m. Tuesday.

AP White House Correspondent Ben Feller contributed to this story.