Akademik

n.

A person who believes that U.S. president Barack Obama was not born in the United States, and is therefore ineligible to be president. [Usu. pejorative.]

—birtherism n.

Some Republicans have shifted their strategy against the health care bill from fighting over the details to questioning the very constitutionality of mandatory health insurance. And a few have sympathized with the so-called birthers, who continue to challenge Obama's citizenship and legitimacy as president despite all evidence to the contrary.

—Susan Milligan, " Obama domestic agenda largely a one-party effort: http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2009/11/17/obama_domestic_agenda_largely_a_one_party_effort/," The Boston Globe, November 17, 2009

Last December, in dismissing the birth-certificate argument as a "canard," Gilbert wrote, "The 'birthers' are the new 'truthers." Soon, birther met its counterpart, deather — that is, someone who insists that health care reform will lead to "death panels" eager to pull the plug on "granny."

—Leslie Savan, " On Language: From Simple Noun to Handy Partisan Put-Down: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/22/magazine/22FOB-onlanguage-t.html," The New York Times, November 18, 2009

Today is the day that all the Barack Obama birth certificate conspiracy theorists—or "birthers" as they're known in some circles—have been waiting for. Yes, at long last, it's Birth Certificate Day at the Supreme Court!

—Michael Kraskin, " Supreme Court Not Considering Obama's Birth Certificate Case: http://www.politicsdaily.com/2008/12/05/supreme-court-not-considering-obamas-birth-certificate-case/," Political Machine, December 5, 2008

Here is the reason the people need to be assured that the President meets the Constitution's natural born citizen requirement:

The President of the United States is one of the three branches of government. He is the Executive branch. The nation speaks to all people through one voice, the President's. The President can make treaties, grant pardons, sign and veto legislation, appoint a Cabinet, as well as Supreme Court Justices. In addition to these duties, the President knows the nation's most important and secure secrets, and as the Commander in Chief of the military, has the military's nuclear launch codes at the ready, and who can arguably, either take steps to weaken the nation, or even destroy it. In the words of Vice President Dick Cheney, "The president of the United States now for 50 years is followed at all times, 24 hours a day, by a military aide carrying a football that contains the nuclear codes that he would use and be authorized to use in the event of a nuclear attack on the United States. He could launch the kind of devastating attack the world has never seen. He doesn't have to check with anybody. He doesn't have to call the Congress. He doesn't have to check with the courts. He has that authority because of the nature of the world we live in."

Mr. Obama claims that he was born in Hawaii on August 4, 1961. As his only evidence that he meets the Article II, Section 1, Clause 5 of the U.S. Constitution's requirement that a President be a natural born citizen, he produced a document called a "Certification of Live Birth," which he posted on his website under the title: "Barack Obama's Official Birth Certificate."

At first blush, it is case closed. A closer examination of the facts, however, reveals that Mr. Obama failed to point out on his website that his posted "Official Birth Certificate," as he called it, is actually a 2007 computer-generated, laser-printed summary document of his 1961 vital record(s) on file with the Hawaii State Department of Health. What we do not know, however, is what 1961 vital record the Certification of Live Birth is summarizing.

In 1961 there were at least six different procedures available to obtain a vital record (birth certificate) that the Certification of Live Birth could be summarizing. Each one has a different degree of reliability and trustworthiness that warrants scrutiny (Copied with permission from http://birther.com).