Internet Web Site Wades Into Obama Birth Controversery -- Again

Disclaimer: As with all web logs, this one should be considered as benefiting from the speed of posting made possible by new technology, to wit, the Internet. With this particular posting particularly, I make no claim as to completeness. I have, however, tried to deal with facts. Furthermore, I am not new to this subject and have read quite a bit about the matter, both pro and con. As far as this post goes, I believe it to be both timely and accurate.


Since various lawsuits claiming fraud in the matter of Barack Obama's ascendancy to the Presidency are still alive, I wanted to post a link to the latest < Snopes.com > article on the subject. While there are many serious matters facing our country, moral and fiscal, this one seems to me to continue to merit at least passing attention and probably more.

First, I believe the Snopes article is worth reading. It makes several claims, including a statement by a physician and another health care worker who claims to remember the birth.

Let's examine a few items of this Snopes article one by one. But first, it is apparent to me that Snopes has not actually spent a great deal of time researching this matter. The breezy way they dismiss critics as being "self-proclaimed experts" who "immediately seized the opportunity to pronounce the certificate a forgery", shows disdain for the great amount of time put into examining the alleged forged certificate of live birth by several experts proclaimed to be so by others.

Then there is the matter of a Dr. Chiyome Fukino, director of the Hawaii State Department of Health who says he has seen the original "vital records." Unfortunately, these vital records have not been detailed by Snopes, nor has the press been allowed to examine them or send them to independent experts of their choosing. None of this makes Dr. Fukino out to be a liar, of course. It is simply to say it is the statement of one, albeit credentialed, person. The statement, itself, though, remains uncorroborated (at least in the Snopes article).

It is worth mentioning that Hawaii state law bars release of a certified birth certificate "to anyone who does not have a tangible interest in it." Surely, however, the American people do have a legitimate interest, whether "tangible" or not.

The article details the claim of a certain Barbara Nelson that she spoke with the obstetrician who she says delivered a baby named Barack Hussein Obama. This conversation is said to have occured on August 4, 1961. Now I do not know Ms. Nelson. I have no way of knowing whether or not her memories are accurate. However, in standard journalism practice, statements by one person normally need to be corroborated by other evidence before being declared true. There is no corroborating evidence presented in the Snopes article.

All this is not to pick on Snopes, which I have found to be quite good at evaluating various claims on the Internet. Here, however, I find a woeful lack of due diligence, owing mostly to a lack of time and effort in what is a complex matter.

On another point, that of Mr. Obama not wanting to risk an entire campaign on a matter which could be proven by a simple check of a state health record: This statement can be dealt with easily. First, we already know that Hawaii does not release vault birth certificates to just anyone, and to this day, has not done so in this case. (See above discussion.) Second, Mr. Obama would surely have known this. Still, he might have been hesitant -- unless -- unless some powerful people could promise the funds to create a large enough and credible enough media campaign, complete with public relations and legal operations to rebut any "ridiculous" claims. Then, the pre-candidate might be willing to risk such a course of action. Such things have clearly happened before all over the world, although we are not so used to it in the U.S. In my opinion, it is this credulousness which has aided and abetted the Bush thefts in 2000 and 2004, and -- just possibly -- in 2008 (although "hoax" would be a better term than "theft" in 2008).

To summarize, this Snopes article, which represents statements of those elsewhere claiming that critics of Mr. Obama's proof of citizenship are all washed up, has itself not delivered the goods -- at least not as of yet.




http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/birthcertificate.asp