# What exactly don't the birthers like about Obama's birth certificate? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 11, 2009, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-dont-the-birthers-like-about-obamas-birth-certificate/499410 "2009-06-11T02:48:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2009, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-dont-the-birthers-like-about-obamas-birth-certificate/499410/41 "2009-06-11T17:35:38Z")
Children can (or could) travel on their parent’s U.S. passport until they are 14 years old. ---
**Author:** ![anson2995](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c77e96/32.png) [@anson2995](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anson2995)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2009, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-dont-the-birthers-like-about-obamas-birth-certificate/499410/42 "2009-06-11T17:50:45Z")
> [@Walloon](#): > > Why the Department of Health hasn’t given Obama a photocopy of the original, and not a computer-generated transcript, to end these stupid rumors, is a mystery. We don’t know that they haven’t, and if Obama released the original, it wouldn’t end any of this kookery. Facts never get in the way of a good conspiracy theory. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2009, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-dont-the-birthers-like-about-obamas-birth-certificate/499410/43 "2009-06-11T17:53:03Z")
> [@Captain\_Carrot](#): > > The governor of Hawaii is a Republican, not that that would make any difference. I assume that he’s known as a “RHINO”: Republican In Name Only. Same as McCain or, until recently, Arlen Specter. Has anyone found out WHY his paternal grandmother has said he was born in Kenya? Passport; if I recall, didn’t Obama go to Kenya after college? ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2009, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-dont-the-birthers-like-about-obamas-birth-certificate/499410/44 "2009-06-11T17:54:47Z")
BTW, the Hawaii governor is a woman. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2009, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-dont-the-birthers-like-about-obamas-birth-certificate/499410/45 "2009-06-11T18:32:01Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > Has anyone found out WHY his paternal grandmother has said he was born in Kenya? As I said above, the full tape apparently shows that she didn’t understand the question. When the translator repeated it the translator was emphatic that it didn’t happen that way. [Here’s the article from Slate](http://www.slate.com/id/2206033/pagenum/2) that covers this. > [@](#): > > None of that stopped Berg from stoking the conspiracy theorists. On Oct. 16, an Anabaptist minister named Ron McRae called Sarah Hussein Obama, the president-elect’s 86-year-old paternal step-grandmother, at her home in Kenya. Two translators were on the line when McRae asked if the elder Obama was “present” when the president-elect was born. One of the translators says “yes.” McRae contacted Berg and gave him a partial transcript of the call with a signed affidavit. He opted not to include the rest of the call, in which he asks the question more directly—“Was he born in Mombassa?”—and the translators, finally understanding him, tell him repeatedly that the president-elect was born in Hawaii. Of course, if you search for the tape you can find it on YouTube. Where it is cut off the moment before the correction is made. [Here’s one version](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlFc4wCpvSo). [Here’s another](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OirvxsUsxb0). Note that the cut-off points are identical. To listen to the tape after that point, go to the link on [this blog](http://www.obamaconspiracy.org/2008/12/obamas-grandmother-says-he-was-born/). The grandson translator obviously has great difficulty with the English throughout, but once the question is clear he repeats over and over, in various ways, that Obama was born in America, specifically in Hawaii. You can hear the grandmother saying Hawaii in the background at one point, although she is mostly unheard. The Slate claim differs from the one in [official affidavits](http://www.slate.com/discuss/forums/post/2738576.aspx) given to the Supreme Court. > [@](#): > > Bishop McRae asked Ms. Obama specifically, “Were you present when your grandson Barack Obama was born in Kenya?” This was asked to her in translation twice, and both times she specifically replied, “Yes”. It appeared Ms. Obama’s relatives and her grandson, handling the translating, had obviously been versed to counter such facts with the purported information from the American news media that Obama was born in Hawaii. Despite this, Ms. Sarah Hussein Obama was very adamant that her grandson, Senator Barack Hussein Obama, was born in Kenya, and that she was present and witnessed his birth in Kenya, not the United States. When Ms. Obama’s grandson attempted to counter his grandmother’s clear responses to the question, verifying the birth of Senator Obama in Kenya, Bishop McRae asked her grandson, how she could be present at Barack Obama’s birth if the Senator was born in Hawaii, but the grandson would not answer the question, instead he repeatedly tried to insert that, “No, No, No. He was born in the United States!” But during the conversation, Ms. Sarah Hussein Obama never changed her reply that she was in deed present when Senator Barack Obama was born in Kenya. A copy of the Tape transcript is attached hereto as EXHIBIT “A”. This is technically true since most everything we hear is from the grandson. I hear her saying Hawaii, though. The tape needs to be clarified by one of the magic CSI programs that cleans everything perfectly. A good newspaper article on the subject can be found [here](http://www.hawaiifreepress.com/main/ArticlesMain/tabid/56/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/92/Barack-Obama-Born-in-Hawaii.aspx). ---
**Author:** ![Gorsnak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gorsnak/32/7587_2.png) [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2009, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-dont-the-birthers-like-about-obamas-birth-certificate/499410/46 "2009-06-11T18:41:25Z")
> [@Gus\_Gusterson](#): > > When exactly was Obama’s birth certificate supposed to be forged? He must have produced a copy of it many times in his life. To get a driver’s license, to get a passport, hell, my kids had to produce a birth certificate to play little league baseball. So someone forged Obama’s birth certificate many years before he ever considered running for high school president, much less running for President of the United States. Who did it and why? Presumably the same person who ran a false birth announcement in the Honolulu paper. This conspiracy has been long in the making. Do I need a winky smiley to indicate I’m not serious? ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2009, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-dont-the-birthers-like-about-obamas-birth-certificate/499410/47 "2009-06-11T19:16:16Z")
They had herds of repub workers trying to root out anything Obama ever did. He is spectacularly clean. ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2009, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-dont-the-birthers-like-about-obamas-birth-certificate/499410/48 "2009-06-12T05:03:20Z")
You cannot get an “actually” birth certificate in Hawaii for a couple of reasons. One, everything has been digitized over the past few years. Although the state hasn’t said it explicitly, they do imply that the originally records have either been destroyed or are in storage in such a way that retrieval means a long prolonged manual search. These new records do not contain the extraneous information that the originally contained such as the attending physician or hospital. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2009, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-dont-the-birthers-like-about-obamas-birth-certificate/499410/49 "2009-06-12T05:26:11Z")
The Director of the Hawaii Department of Health said he personally examined the original 1961 certificate. The original certificates have definitely _not_ been destroyed. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2009, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-dont-the-birthers-like-about-obamas-birth-certificate/499410/50 "2009-06-12T05:38:53Z")
So basically, the man was asking her leading questions through a translator? WTF? ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2009, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-dont-the-birthers-like-about-obamas-birth-certificate/499410/51 "2009-06-12T13:08:58Z")
> [@Revtim](#): > > What they really don’t like about it is that it’s the birth certificate of Democrat or a black guy or both. My understanding is that we have had both a grandmother of Obama and the Kenyan Ambassador both stating that he was born in Kenya. Or have I missed something? I haven’t really been following this. ---
**Author:** ![Early\_Out](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Early\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Early_Out)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2009, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-dont-the-birthers-like-about-obamas-birth-certificate/499410/52 "2009-06-12T13:15:32Z")
…not just a river in Egypt. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Carrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@Captain\_Carrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Carrot)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2009, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-dont-the-birthers-like-about-obamas-birth-certificate/499410/53 "2009-06-12T13:52:44Z")
> [@Clothahump](#): > > I haven’t really been following this. Yeah, right. ---
**Author:** ![Telperien](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/65b543/32.png) [@Telperien](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telperien)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2009, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-dont-the-birthers-like-about-obamas-birth-certificate/499410/54 "2009-06-12T14:08:39Z")
> [@Balthisar](#): > > Hey, I hate Obama as much as any sane person does, but I had no idea this “birther” movement existed. What a bunch of loonies; all they do is discredit the normal regressives such as myself. Which means you don’t hate him at all, right? ---
**Author:** ![ctnguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@ctnguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ctnguy)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2009, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-dont-the-birthers-like-about-obamas-birth-certificate/499410/55 "2009-06-12T14:23:26Z")
Seriously, which are you going to believe, an old woman through a layer of translation over the telephone who was being asked leading questions (and denied it immediately afterwards), or a document that has been authenticated by multiple senior officials of the government of the State of Hawaii? Because I can tell you, I know right now what any federal court would say. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2009, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-dont-the-birthers-like-about-obamas-birth-certificate/499410/56 "2009-06-12T14:26:09Z")
> [@Clothahump](#): > > My understanding is that we have had both a grandmother of Obama and the Kenyan Ambassador both stating that he was born in Kenya. Or have I missed something? I haven’t really been following this. Sarah Obama, the President’s Kenyan paternal grandmother, was present at his birth, and said so in an interview. An edited clip of that interview is being circulated by the “Obama was born in Kenya” brigade as alleged proof of their claim. In the full clip, though, she corrects the interviewer’s misapprehension that she meant “in Kenya” – she was in Hawaii for her grandson’s birth, as she makes quite clear. What the Kenyan ambassador’s opinion has to do with anything, I don’t know. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2009, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-dont-the-birthers-like-about-obamas-birth-certificate/499410/57 "2009-06-12T14:43:52Z")
> [@Clothahump](#): > > My understanding is that we have had both a grandmother of Obama and the Kenyan Ambassador both stating that he was born in Kenya. Or have I missed something? I haven’t really been following this. The Kenyan ambassador is _alleged_ to have said Obama was born in Mombasa, and that his birthplace is well-known to Kenyans. However, immediately after the interview aired, he accused the radio show of editing the interview to make it sound like he was talking about Obama, when in fact he was talking about his dad. Either way, I hardly think we can take him at his word since he’s the representative of an economy which relies heavily on tourism, and which stands to benefit a great deal from visitors to (either) Obama’s birthplace. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2009, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-dont-the-birthers-like-about-obamas-birth-certificate/499410/58 "2009-06-12T17:53:59Z")
> [@Clothahump](#): > > My understanding is that we have had both a grandmother of Obama and the Kenyan Ambassador both stating that he was born in Kenya. Or have I missed something? I haven’t really been following this. Have you missed something? How about my long post with cites just six posts above yours? I posted the claims, the counterclaims, the objective analysis, and a link to the actual tape itself. Please read them. ---
**Author:** ![anson2995](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c77e96/32.png) [@anson2995](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anson2995)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2009, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-dont-the-birthers-like-about-obamas-birth-certificate/499410/59 "2009-06-12T19:00:51Z")
> [@ctnguy](#): > > Seriously, which are you going to believe, an old woman through a layer of translation over the telephone who was being asked leading questions (and denied it immediately afterwards), or a document that has been authenticated by multiple senior officials of the government of the State of Hawaii? Because I can tell you, I know right now what any federal court would say. Of course, federal courts in at least three states (not to mention SCOTUS) have already weighed in on this nuttery. ---
**Author:** ![Bookkeeper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bookkeeper/32/281_2.png) [@Bookkeeper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bookkeeper)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2009, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-dont-the-birthers-like-about-obamas-birth-certificate/499410/60 "2009-06-12T19:59:12Z")
If you look at the supposed Hawaiian “[Certification of Live Birth](http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/images/2008-06-12_obama_birth_certificate.jpg)”, it is very clear -Barack Hussein Obama was \*\*NOT \*\*born in Hawaii. The Hawaiian-born child is clearly identified as Barack Hussein Obama **II**! Barack Hussein Obama was his father!!! Obviously the current POTUS is an imposter elected under a false name!!1!! Impeach him!!!1!!1!!! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-dont-the-birthers-like-about-obamas-birth-certificate/499410.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-exactly-dont-the-birthers-like-about-obamas-birth-certificate/499410.md?page=4)