Trump Did What No One Else Has Done: Forced Obama To Produce COLB

It only took 2 years plus, multiple parties filing lawsuits to see it and Barack Obama spending millions to prevent the release, but after the huge stink made by Donald Trump in the news, Barack Obama has finally released his long form Certificate of Live Birth aka COLB. (PDF here)



The issue of where Obama was born should finally be laid to rest. The questions as to what could this document contain that would make Obama fight so hard and spend so much to keep it from being released, should also be muted because after looking at it carefully, everything seems to be in order.

Name- Check
Place of birth- Check
Dates- Check
Signatures- Check

It is no longer a question of "what is on it" or "does it exist", which brings back the only question left.

Why on earth did Barack Obama wait this long and why did he allow the speculation and doubt to reach the point where 25 percent+ of Americans actually doubted his place of birth?

Not that the answer to why really matters in the scheme of things, it is simple curiosity as to whether this COLB was held back as a strategical move that no longer felt as strategic once the issue blew up again or if Obama spent millions to prevent the release out of simple stubbornness.

Donald Trump deserves (and takes!!! see video at the top) credit for being the catalyst that forced Barack Obama to finally take the simple steps necessary to obtain and produce the COLB, is proud of himself for creating enough of a news fallout where Obama felt pressured enough to finally put this issue to rest.

Trump's reaction was expressed as he was speaking in New Hampshire:

"Today I am very proud of myself, because I've accomplished something that nobody else was able to accomplish," Trump said after landing in the Granite State.

Trump expressed some lingering skepticism of the birth certificate's veracity, saying he wants to examine it, but said he expected to be able to move on.

"I hope that it's true so we can get on to much more important matters. So the press can stop asking me questions," he said. "I am really honored to have played such a big role in hopefully getting rid of this issue."

Birthers are going to love Trump for this, even more than they already do, because he manipulated the media into asking about it continuously, got them investigating it and forced Obama to provide something birthers have been demanding from day one.

Reactions are varied and there is an incredible amount of ink being dedicated to the release of Obama's COLB.

PJM says Trump drew "First Blood".

Chicks on the Right asks "was that so hard?"

Atlas Shrugs asks the same thing we and many others are asking "what took so long and why?"

Instapundit thinks Obama waited too long, the damage has been done:

The White House may think it’s sprung a trap, but I think they waited too long. By now — as the polls from earlier this week showing how many independents thought Obama wasn’t born here, and which probably prompted the release decision, indicate — the damage is done. Even if people change their minds on the issue, for many the residual suspicion will remain: The thought that regardless of where he was born, there’s something shady about him.

Best chuckle worthy headline of the day goes to Michael over at Questions and Observations, who declares "Good News! Biden Not The Real President!"


[Update] No worries to those who still want to question the eligibility, WND has that covered.

[Update #2] Jake Tapper from ABC News says Obama's claim that the "dominant news story" two weeks ago was his birth certificate is an "untruth." (Tapper wouldn't dare be saying the President lied would he?)

According to Pew’s Project for Excellence in Journalism, that week the dominant news story was without question the economy.

In fact, it seems the COLB issue was #4 although in Obama's defense, constantly seeing it, hearing about and watching the attention, must have made it seem like it was the dominant news story.

As for which newsmaker received the most coverage, here, too, the president seemed to have a skewed perspective.

Again, Pew’s PEJ: “There was no question that Barack Obama loomed as the key newsmaker last week, mostly due to his nationally televised speech. That marked a change from recent weeks, including several where Obama was not the top newsmaker (Col. Gadaffi was the top newsmaker during the weeks of February 21-27 and February 28-March 6).

“The No. 2 newsmaker last week, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, was a key figure in 2% of stories—the first time he ranked among the top five newsmakers since the week of February 7-13, when Mubarak left power in Egypt. Mubarak was hospitalized after experiencing a heart attack.

“Next was Paul Ryan, at 1% of all stories. Ryan’s budget was passed by the House of Representatives at the end of the week, effectively anointing it as the official negotiation starting point of the GOP for the ongoing debate over federal spending.

“At No. 4 was Donald Trump, whose potential candidacy got a boost from his perseverance in insisting there were troubling questions to be answered about Obama’s citizenship.”

[Update #3] Just because it is quite amusing to rile up the left, Philip Berg and Orly Taitz are questioning immigration records and Obama's social security number. (Via The Politico)

I am going to go pop some more popcorn.

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Donald Trump's So-Called 'Birther' Claims: The Media Continues To Bring It Up, Trump Just Responds

I just posted on the recent PPP poll showing Donald Trump with a 9 point lead among Republican primary voters over Mike Huckabee but I had a side note (more a pet peeve) that I didn't want clouded by another topic.

So, two in a row about Trump, so be it.

I keep seeing news articles claiming that Donald Trump "continues to push "birther" claims in interviews and public appearances."

This calculated attempt to mislead readers into believing that Trump is pushing the issue and not the media pushing it by asking Trump about it continuously, is starting to stick in my craw, so to speak.

Might seem like a technicality to most but that meme bugs me when from what I have seen after Trump's initial request that Barack Obama show his birth certificate, almost all subsequent mentions from Trump has been in response to someone else asking him about that initial statement or answers to questions asked of him following the initial statement.

So, in fact, it isn't Trump "pushing" the topic, it is the media pushing it and using Trump's initial question to do so.

Example: Joy Behar on The View, video below (Behar brings the topic up is at very beginning of the vid):



Joy Behar- "What about this, you recently said about President Obama and I am going to quote you 'He grew up and nobody knows who he is until later in his life, the whole thing is very strange'"

Then Trump responds, he didn't bring it up, Behar did.

From that date, until now, every time I have seen Trump address the issue it has been in response to a media personality asking him about it, not the other way around.

Yet news outlets continue to deliberately mislead their readers with examples like the one below from The Hill:

Trump has been steadily climbing in public polling and continues to push "birther" claims in interviews and public appearances. Trump has demanded that President Obama produce his birth certificate and says questions over his birthplace are legitimate.

Ummmmmmmm, WRONG.


Even writers that admittedly enjoy bantering with Trump have bought in to the meme, saying things like Trump "Dwelling on the birth certificate is not the only way he has been playing to the Republican base," ignore the reality that Trump has two choices after his initial mention of it.

1)Respond honestly how he thinks when asked or 2) Beat around the bush like most politicians refusing to answer the question directly.

Which would you rather he do?

Why doesn't the media just admit the truth here? They keep asking Trump about the "birther" issue because the story generates readers, page views and ad revenues.

Period.

They need to show a little honesty and quit with the meme implying Donald Trump is the one that continues bringing the topic up.

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Is Donald Trump A Birther? Nope

[Update 4/14/11] Donald Trump To Make Announcement On Presidency Run On Season Finale Of Celebrity Apprentice

"I want him to show his birth certificate. I want him to show his birth certificate. There's something on that birth certificate that he doesn't like."-- Donald Trump, ABC's The View

Video of Trump making that statement and more will be at the end of the post.

Donald Trump is ruffling some feathers as he questions why Barack Obama refuses to produce a birth certificate.

When asked why he thinks Obama should have to, he responds "because I have to and everybody else has to."

Right there is the whole point. Many of us believe Barack Obama is a citizen, was born in America but as I asked early on when this first became an issue, "why not just show it and put this issue to rest?"

Da Techguy's Blog makes this point:

My wife is starting a new job, we will be getting new insurance because of it. We are REQUIRED to provide not only our marriage certificate but the long form copies of the birth certificates of both of our children.

Having to produce a birth certificate is not an irregular occurrence for the average person so when Trump says this to the general public, they understand it.

Does it make Trump a "birther" to want to see the actual document and find out what the big deal about producing it has been about?

Unlike many birthers I have seen and read up on, Trump states he believes Obama is "probably" American born and I think Trump falls into a middle category, not a birther but questioning that something, whatever it may be, is being hidden.

Trump is not coming out and saying Obama is not American born, he also is showing no fear of saying "show the damn thing" and that middle ground is what separates Trump from birthers but also helps Trump distinguish himself from those that will not address the issue at all.

For many, it isn't a question of whether Obama was born in Hawaii or not, at this point people just want to see why Obama has refused to produce it.

Trump is not a birther but he is a very smart man to address the issue in this manner, admit Obama was probably born here but claim that something "strange" is going on because Obama won't produce the one simple document that would make this whole issue disappear in a heartbeat.

That will resonate with many.

Appeals Court Rules Rahm Emanuel's Name Not On Ballot: UPDATE- Higher Court Grants Emanuel Stay

[Update below post] Illinois Supreme Court grants Emanuel stay and orders his name to on ballots. (Unofficial until I can find links confirming.)

The Chicago Board of Elections is out of time and must send out the ballots to the printer and due to the recent appeals court in Chicago's ruling that Rahm Emanuel, former Obama chief of staff, does not meet the residency requirements to be on the ballot as a mayoral candidate, those ballots will be printed without Emanuael's name.

The appeals court ruling overturned the Chicago Board of Elections' decision in allowing Emanuel to be on the ballot and a Cook County Circuit Court's ruling which upheld that decision.

According to the ruling a "candidate must meet not only the Election Code's voter residency standard, but also must have actually resided within the municipality for one year prior to the election, a qualification that the candidate unquestionably does not satisfy."

Emanuel resided in Washington as Obama's chief of staff and resigned in October 2010, moved back to Chicago and immediately announced his intention to run for Mayor.

The ruling itself can be found here.

Emanuel plans to go to the Illinois Supreme Court to appeal the appeals court's decision, but with the Chicago Board of Elections' running out of time to get the ballots to the printer, even if the Illinois Supreme Court overturns the appeals court's decision, Emanuel's name may not be on the ballot.

Touch screen early voting is to begin on Monday and absentee and military ballots are expected to be mailed out. Should the higher court rule in Emanuel's favor, those votes will still count made without his name on the ballot, even if the higher court, should they agree to hear the case, orders new ballots to be printed.

In an interesting turn of events, The Politico reports that an Obama confidante claims Barack Obama believes Emanuel is eligible, just as The American Thinker reports Mike Evans, a long-time friend of Hawaii governor Neil Abercrombie, claims Abercrombie told him "There is no Barack Obama birth certificate in Hawaii, absolutely no proof at all that Obama was born in Hawaii."

Then updates with this:

Writing at WND, Jerome Corsi features a sworn affidavit from former Hawaii elections clerk Tim Adams "swearing he was told by his supervisors in Hawaii that no long-form, hospital-generated birth certificate existed for Barack Obama Jr. in Hawaii and thatneitherQueens Medical Center nor Kapi'olani Medical Center in Honolulu had any record of Obama having been born in their medical facilities." Check it out here.

I added The American Thinker report simply because of the irony of Barack Obama speaking about eligibility was too amusing to pass up when according to CNN polling from August 2010 a quarter of the American population doubt Obama was born in the United States.

...According to a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey, more than a quarter of the public have doubts about Obama's citizenship, with 11 percent saying Obama was definitely not born in the United States and another 16 percent saying the president was probably not born in the country.

For the record, this blog and it's writers have never been part of the "birther" movement even though the writers do have their own opinion on the subject. We do not ban or moderate comments from those that do not believe Barack Obama was eligible for his seat as President. People are entitled to their own opinions until proof one way or another is provided.

[Update] Emanuel's emergency appeal to keep his name on the ballot can be found here.

[Update #2] Illinois Supreme Court grants Emanuel stay and orders his name to on ballots. (Unofficial until I can find links confirming.)

NBCChicago's Ward Room reports one minute ago that the Illinois higher court has granted Emanuel his emergency motion and stay, ordering his name be put on the ballots.

“Emergency motion for stay pending appeal is allowed in part," the motion reads.

And not a moment too soon. Ballots are being printed today.

According to the motion, “Board of Election is directed that if any ballots are printed while this court is considering the case the ballots should include the name of petitioner Rahm Emanuel as a candidate for the mayor of City of Chicago."

This is not a ruling on the residency issue and the higher court has not overturned the appeals court ruling saying Emanuel is not eligible. Instead they are ordering his name be put on the ballots that are to be sent to printing today while they decide the residency issue.

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