Obama Birth Certificate Mystery Grows: Is the Answer All in the Name?

Former City and County of Honolulu Elections Division temporary employee Timothy Adams signed an affidavit Thursday attesting that supervisors in his former job told him no long form birth certificate exists in Hawaii for President Barack Obama. World News Daily reported on the existence of the affidavit as well as the intricacies of laws governing birth certificates in Hawaii in the 1960s.

Adams attested in the affidavit:

"During the course of my employment, I came to understand that for political reasons, various officials in the government of Hawaii, including then-Governor Linda Lingle and various officials of the Hawaii Department of Health, including Dr. Chiyome Fukino, the director of the Hawaii Department of Health, were making representations that Senator Obama was born in Hawaii, even though no government official in Hawaii could find a long-form birth certificate for Senator Obama that had been issued by a Hawaii hospital at the time of his birth."

WND said that Certifications of Live Birth, the short form birth certificate Obama produced during the 2008 election cycle, were given to people born at home and people brought to the island from overseas. Obama represents that he was born in Kapi'olani Medical Center in Honolulu. The short form birth certificate he released publicly does not state a precise birth location, providing only the city and island names. Adams claimed in June that his supervisor at the elections office confirmed that neither the hospital at which Obama claims to have been born or one previously identified as his birthplace had a birth certificate or form signed by a doctor stating that Obama was born there.

Unlike many so-called "birthers" who contend that Obama is not an American, Adams believes that Obama is an American citizen, just not one born in Hawaii.

While suspicious-minded folks have pointed to the absence of a publicly disclosed long form birth certificate as alleged proof that Obama is not an American citizen, others envision a different likely explanation.

Hillbuzz speculates that when Obama was adopted his original birth certificate was replaced with one containing the name of his adoptive father.

But that pesky short-form birth certificate that generated so much controversy during the election bears the name Barack Hussein Obama II, not Barry Soetero, the name given him upon adoption by his step-father. This does not necessarily mean that the birth certificate is illegitimate if Obama's birth certificate read Barry Soetero prior to 2008: It costs a mere $50 to file for an administrative name change in Hawaii via petition to the lieutenant governor. Such a name change must be published in a general circulation newspaper of the petitioner's choice, however, and to date no such evidence has surfaced that Obama filed such a petition or published a name change intention in any newspaper. Is proof out there? Could the birthers have missed it? It's a logical possibility, but so far there is no evidence to support it as fact.

And the reason Hillbuzz offers for Obama not releasing the birth certificate- that it would show Obama lied about his name and cause Americans to wonder what else he lied about- is less than compelling. It's not like the American public never heard of the use of the name Barry Soetoro associated with Barack Obama.

But Hillbuzz's theory does create another interesting logical possibility. Obama filed the FEC 2 form authorizing his presidential run with the Federal Election Commission listing his name as Barack Obama. If he displayed a birth certificate displaying his name as Barry Soetero, the discrepancy likely would have been challenged in the contentious electoral climate. No court procedure is required for a legal name change in Illinois under common law under Reinken v. Reinken, 184 N.E. 639, 640 (Ill. 1933), which hypothetically could have allowed Obama to legally represent himself as Barack Obama regardless of the name on his birth certificate.

But even if a discrepancy between Obama's FEC 2 and birth certificate names were legal, would Obama have risked a challenge to the legitimacy of his election filing papers and hassles of potential lawsuits contesting the authenticity of his candidacy if indeed his FEC 2 and birth certificate names differed?

Then again, if the President's birth certificate actually reads "Barry Soetero," where did that short form version with the name Barack Obama come from? Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie, a supporter of Obama, decided to put an end to the controversy, then decided he couldn't after all due to Obama's right to privacy. His promise and its retraction fueled more speculation as to the legitimacy of Obama's citizenship among those inclined to dispute it.