Barack Obama's Birth Certificate

Is the Obama Campaign Hiding Something?

Mark Whittington, Yahoo! Contributor Network
Jun 10, 2008 "Share your voice on Yahoo! websites. Start Here."

The Barack Obama Campaign has so far refused to release Senator Obama's birth certificate. This refusal has struck a lot of observers of the political scene as rather odd. Unlike tax or medical records, a birth certificate should not have anything embarrassing.

Speculation, naturally, is somewhat rife.

National Review political analyst Jim Geraghty suggests a number of unlikely reasons:

One would be that Barack Obama was not born in the United States, but in Kenya, his father's country of birth. This scenario is very unlikely as it would require all of Obama's family and friends to lie consistently about the circumstances of Obama's birth. However, if true, it could mean that Obama is not a natural born American citizen and is therefore ineligible for election to the Presidency.

The scenario of Obama being born in a foreign country reminds one of the kerfuffle that occurred when some suggested that John McCain was not a real native born citizen for having been born in the then Panama Canal Zone, The media huffing and puffing became such a distraction that the US Senate had to vote to confirm Senator McCain's citizenship just to quite it.

The other scenario Geraghty comes up with is some kind of embarrassing name change. Say Obama's middle name was changed from Mohammed to Hussein or his first name from Barry to Barack. The problem is that in the first instance the new middle name would be no more or less unsettling than the old one and in the second instance it is a non issue. Gary Hart, who ran for President in 1984 and 1988, had changed his name from Hartpence to Hart. It was the subject of some humor, but did not affect his runs for the Presidency.

Wilder speculation will no doubt ensue, at least until the birth certificate is released. Maybe the people that Obama claims as his parents are not listed as his parents on the document? Unlikely again, but who knows?

So the question remains, why not release the birth certificate? Political candidates are required, by custom if not be law, to release far more intrusive information about their private persons. Stacks and stacks of financial and medical information are regularly poured over by the media and a candidate's political opponents to find some kernel of information that can be used as a weapon.

What could possibly be politically embarrassing about a document that lists when and where one was born, what ones name was at birth, and who ones parents were? By not releasing the birth certificate, the Obama Campaign risks at best being tarred for being overly secretive and at worse as having something horrible to hide. Considering the gaffes and unfortunate associations that have so far plagued the Obama campaign, either possibility is not good.

Source: Obama Could Debunk Some Rumors By Releasing His Birth Certificate, Jim Geraghty, Campaign Spot - National Review Online, June 9th, 2008

Published by Mark Whittington

Mark R. Whittington is a writer residing in Houston, Texas. He is the author of The Last Moonwalker, Children of Apollo, Dark Sanction, and Nocturne. He has written numerous articles, some for the Washington... View profile

Barack Obama's Birth Certificate

Is the Obama Campaign Hiding Something?

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