# Would producing a birth certificate do any good? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [February 12, 2011, 9:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-producing-a-birth-certificate-do-any-good/571117 "2011-02-12T09:56:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![TravisFromOR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cc9497/32.png) [@TravisFromOR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TravisFromOR)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2011, 9:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-producing-a-birth-certificate-do-any-good/571117/1 "2011-02-12T09:56:36Z")
Would producing a birth certificate do any good? Or, would the shit-for-brains birthers just claim it was a fake? ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2011, 10:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-producing-a-birth-certificate-do-any-good/571117/2 "2011-02-12T10:08:53Z")
> [@TravisFromOR](#): > > Would producing a birth certificate do any good? > > Or, would the shit-for-brains birthers just claim it was a fake? Since he has produced a birth certificate, evidence suggests that the answers to your questions are, in order, no and yes. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2011, 10:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-producing-a-birth-certificate-do-any-good/571117/3 "2011-02-12T10:16:20Z")
Even if they conceded birth in Hawaii, the fuckwits still have other pseudo-legal theories lined up and ready to go, such as that having one non-citizen parent makes him not a natural born citizen, or that the fact that he was entitled to claim British and/or Kenyan citizenship at some point in his life makes him not a natural born citizen. The [bill](http://www.azleg.gov/FormatDocument.asp?inDoc=/legtext/50leg/1r/bills/hb2544p.htm) that seems poised to pass at least one house of the Arizona legislature even touches on this, by requiring presidential candidates to submit an affidavit swearing that they never held multiple citizenship. ---
**Author:** ![Sevastopol](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cdc98d/32.png) [@Sevastopol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sevastopol)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2011, 10:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-producing-a-birth-certificate-do-any-good/571117/4 "2011-02-12T10:28:12Z")
Every birther without exception is in a state of adamant certainty that President Obama is a natural born citizen of the United States. You will never see people quicker to engage in fisticuffs to assert a pov. Since Reagan’s time, it is not only normal, but prestigious for your homegrown conservative to put a position in public that they know not to be true. Hence the propensity for the abovementioned fisticuffs. Assert that they believe this stuff and you are calling them fools. Worse, you are denying them the accolade and prestige they are earning in their social circle. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2011, 10:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-producing-a-birth-certificate-do-any-good/571117/5 "2011-02-12T10:31:14Z")
Basically, they just don’t like having a black president. Nothing is going to change that. ---
**Author:** ![Capitaine\_Zombie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e95f7d/32.png) [@Capitaine\_Zombie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capitaine_Zombie)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2011, 10:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-producing-a-birth-certificate-do-any-good/571117/6 "2011-02-12T10:37:33Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > Basically, they just don’t like having a black president. Nothing is going to change that. Oh come on, he could wear Whiteface to placate them. But no, Mr Smug likes to rub so much in their face that he has won the elections. He truly detests real Americans, otherwise he’d make such a gesture of goodwill. ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2011, 10:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-producing-a-birth-certificate-do-any-good/571117/7 "2011-02-12T10:50:01Z")
You can’t use facts and reason to change someone’s mind on a topic unless they used facts and reason to come up with their initial conclusion. ---
**Author:** ![Sevastopol](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cdc98d/32.png) [@Sevastopol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sevastopol)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2011, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-producing-a-birth-certificate-do-any-good/571117/8 "2011-02-12T11:09:50Z")
The thrill is when anyone affords a moment of contemplation to their argument, which is false with premeditated malice. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2011, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-producing-a-birth-certificate-do-any-good/571117/9 "2011-02-12T13:39:36Z")
Good Lord, two Pit threads regarding **Numbnuts-of-Truthiness** , in addition to the couple of threads he’s currently filling with his shit. Please please please stop feeding it, for cryin’ out loud. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2011, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-producing-a-birth-certificate-do-any-good/571117/10 "2011-02-12T13:49:23Z")
I daresay “Champion of Doofiness” is a better alternative, if one is needed. ---
**Author:** ![Wallenstein](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b5a626/32.png) [@Wallenstein](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallenstein)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2011, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-producing-a-birth-certificate-do-any-good/571117/11 "2011-02-12T17:43:48Z")
At most they’ve got another 5 years of this… any ideas what the Birthers will do once (and if) Obama completes his second term? Will they continue to persue him, or just move on to the next crackpot theory? I guess they could spend time trying to undo any legislation Obama signed into law as invalid, but that’s much less fun that trying to oust a sitting president. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2011, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-producing-a-birth-certificate-do-any-good/571117/12 "2011-02-12T18:30:21Z")
There is no documentary evidence to produce that would not be “examined” and judged to be a forgery. Birthers have concluded what the truth is, ergo, anything contradicting that conclusion will be automatically disregarded. They have hermetically sealed themselves in the tomb of their own racist fantasy. Playtime will never end, though all the brighter kids have grown up and moved on to more mature pasttimes. ---
**Author:** ![Kozmik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8dc957/32.png) [@Kozmik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kozmik)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2011, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-producing-a-birth-certificate-do-any-good/571117/13 "2011-02-12T18:55:32Z")
Champion-of-Goofiness would probably discount the birth certificate as “made up” (Goofiness does not understand the concept of primary source) and would then scream “Cite!! Cite!!”. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2011, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-producing-a-birth-certificate-do-any-good/571117/14 "2011-02-12T19:23:09Z")
We can only pray that Anderson Cooper is not even tangentially involved, or **Truthy** will be seized by paroxysms of girlish giggles from which he may never recover. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2011, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-producing-a-birth-certificate-do-any-good/571117/15 "2011-02-12T20:19:47Z")
> [@Wallenstein](#): > > At most they’ve got another 5 years of this… any ideas what the Birthers will do once (and if) Obama completes his second term? Will they continue to persue him, or just move on to the next crackpot theory? > > I guess they could spend time trying to undo any legislation Obama signed into law as invalid, but that’s much less fun that trying to oust a sitting president. I imagine they’ll start working on a Terminator they can send back in time, to bump off his mother before he’s born. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Plastic\_Ninja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f07891/32.png) [@Little\_Plastic\_Ninja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Plastic_Ninja)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2011, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-producing-a-birth-certificate-do-any-good/571117/16 "2011-02-12T20:28:36Z")
> [@Cheesesteak](#): > > You can’t use facts and reason to change someone’s mind on a topic unless they used facts and reason to come up with their initial conclusion. It’s a useful thing to know – you can’t reason someone out of a position they didn’t reason themselves into. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![DMC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dmc/32/18049_2.png) [@DMC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMC)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2011, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-producing-a-birth-certificate-do-any-good/571117/17 "2011-02-12T21:13:28Z")
> [@El\_Kabong](#): > > I imagine they’ll start working on a Terminator they can send back in time, to bump off his mother before he’s born. But since they’ll be sending the Terminator to Kenya, they might have a bit of trouble locating her. Oops. To answer the OP, no, it would not. “It’s a FAKE. Prove me wrong!!!” “Oooh, shiny” ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2011, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-producing-a-birth-certificate-do-any-good/571117/18 "2011-02-12T21:16:59Z")
> [@Little\_Plastic\_Ninja](#): > > It’s a useful thing to know – you can’t reason someone out of a position they didn’t reason themselves into. 🙂 I don’t think reason enters into this. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2011, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-producing-a-birth-certificate-do-any-good/571117/19 "2011-02-12T21:28:35Z")
> [@Sevastopol](#): > > Every birther without exception is in a state of adamant certainty that President Obama is a natural born citizen of the United States. Methinks you’ve dropped a small, yet important, word from this sentence. ---
**Author:** ![thirdwarning](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecccb3/32.png) [@thirdwarning](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thirdwarning)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2011, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-producing-a-birth-certificate-do-any-good/571117/20 "2011-02-12T23:37:53Z")
> [@Sevastopol](#): > > Every birther without exception is in a state of adamant certainty that President Obama is a natural born citizen of the United States. You will never see people quicker to engage in fisticuffs to assert a pov. > > Since Reagan’s time, it is not only normal, but prestigious for your homegrown conservative to put a position in public that they know not to be true. **Monty** , I think this second paragraph indicates that he didn’t forget anything. He’s just convinced of the inherent dishonesty of conservatives, and can’t fathom that anybody could really hold such a position. Now, obviously birthers are wrong, and many of them are willfully ignorant, but that doesn’t mean they are all, without exception, intentionally lying. It’s just a somewhat sneaky way of saying that conservatives are slime. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-producing-a-birth-certificate-do-any-good/571117.md?page=2)