Over the past few years, the allegation that he was born overseas -- in Kenya or perhaps Indonesia -- has taken on a life of its own, despite a mountain of evidence to the contrary. Earlier this week, CNN released the results of its own investigation into the controversy.
Documents and statements from numerous public officials and childhood friends made clear that the president was born in Hawaii on August 4, On Wednesday, Obama himself addressed the issue, pleading for an end to the distractions of "sideshows" and "carnival barkers. The president yielded to demands from his critics that he release his original long-form birth certificate, filing a special legal request with Hawaiian authorities to release a document that is no longer used for official purposes and ordinarily remains buried in the basement archives of the state health department.
Obama's release of the more common "live birth certification" -- a short computer-generated form typically used for documentation purposes -- did little to silence the chorus of skeptics.
It remains to be seen whether Wednesday's release will be received any differently. But the early reaction wasn't exactly positive.
One of the main websites pushing the birther claims -- birthers. The U. Constitution says only "natural born" citizens can become president -- a vague clause that some members of the birther movement contend disqualifies Obama if he was born outside the United States.
Joseph Farah, editor-in-chief of the conservative website WorldNetDaily. Dual citizenship, Farah asserted, "is not what the Founders had in mind when they coined the phrase 'natural born citizen. Sharon Guthrie, the legislative director for a Texas state representative backing a bill requiring proof of citizenship for presidential ballot access, told the website Slate.
The one that we have that says 'birth certificate' is from Mombassa, Kenya, with his footprint on it. He has still not produced an American birth certificate. Emory University's Drew Westen, author of the "The Political Brain" and an informal advisor to Obama's campaign, chalked up much of it to Obama's reluctance to immediately rebut the charge more quickly in the presidential race.
Westen, a professor of psychology and psychiatry, cited what psychologists call the "sleeper effect. It's just the result of the way our brains work," he said. Westen mentioned the so-called "Swift Boat" attacks against Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry in , which called into question the senator's service in Vietnam.
Kerry "allowed his honor to be challenged and didn't respond for weeks," Westen said. For the last four years, Barack Obama has been plagued by rumors that he is not a natural-born citizen of the United States and, as a result, is not eligible to serve as president. These rumors continue to show surprising resilience.
While rejection of the Birther rumor increased greatly in the immediate wake of the release of the document, a mere nine months later, the public had seemingly forgot what it learned. Two-thirds of the initial point increase in the percentage of respondents who said that Obama was born in the United States disappeared between April and January Polling conducted last week suggests that whatever remaining effect of the release of the birth certificate that persisted through January is completely gone today.
These polls demonstrate that the public is back where it was before Obama released his long form birth certificate. As recently as , nearly a third of U. The researchers found that 62 percent of very strong Republicans reported that Obama was born in the U.
Thirty-eight percent of very strong Republicans reported that Obama was probably born in another country, while 11 percent of very strong Democrats reported the same. Box , Thompson St. Ann Arbor, MI
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