Suitably Flip

Kos Tries To Pass Off Obama's Birth Certification As Birth Certificate

... without any attribution or mention of how it came into his possession, it should be noted.  He divulges only that it is a scanned image, the edges of which he trimmed.

Unfortunately, he's more careful with document grooming than with authentication.  It certainly appears genuine, but doesn't Markos at least want to bolster the document's credibility by describing the manner in which he got hold of it?  Hawaii won't release birth records to non-family members, so it was either authorized and furnished by the campaign (mention of which would go a long way toward supporting its authenticity), obtained without authorization from a third party (which calls the document's integrity into doubt), or created from scratch.

Assuming the document is legit and obtained with the campaign's blessing (which I do), why wouldn't he say so?  Sloppiness and/or a request by the campaign, I suppose.

But there's a bigger problem here than the document's chain of custody.  It involves the difference between a "Certificate of Live Birth" and a "Certification of Live Birth".  This is the latter, despite Kos' identification of it as the former.

Per the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands (a state agency that happens to detail the difference):

In order to process your application, DHHL utilizes information that is found only on the original Certificate of Live Birth, which is either black or green. This is a more complete record of your birth than the Certification of Live Birth (a computer-generated printout). Submitting the original Certificate of Live Birth will save you time and money since the computer-generated Certification requires additional verification by DHHL.

Indeed, the Kos document offers scant details, limited to name, gender, date, location, and names and races of parents.

To recap, the now mildly famous three speculations about why the Obama campaign was refusing to release this document were:

1. Obama was born in Kenya and is not Constitutionally eligible to be President
2. He was born Barack Muhammad Obama
3. He was born Barry Obama

But while the summary certification disproves the Geraghty speculations, it says nothing about what I previously offered as a more plausible scenario - namely, that the full-length document might indicate Obama's parents were avowedly unmarried at the time of his birth (which would contradict Obama lore that they were in good faith married, but only later dissolved the marriage upon the revelation that Obama Sr. had never divorced his first wife in Kenya).

The abbreviated certification document eliminates information about parents' marital status, while the actual birth certificate (as specified in 1961) includes it.  If the full certificate documents Obama's parents as knowingly unmarried in 1961, it doesn't make the candidate unfit on account of his parents' marital status, but the direct contradiction to what Obama has said in the past would fray yet another thread in his ever-unraveling backstory.

Previously:  Wired: Obama's Birth Certificate; Tired: Whitey Video; Expired: Closet Muslim

---

Update: Pressed by his readers for some answers about how he got hold of the document, Kos simpers, "I asked the campaign ... This 'journamalism' thing actually works sometimes."

Nice to know that's campaign policy.  Accordingly, I've asked them to provide a copy of the actual "certificate" (with secure information redacted), so the matter ought to be resolved shortly.  You can go ahead and hold your breath.

Comments

Kos Tries To Pass Off Obama's Birth Certification As Birth Certificate

... without any attribution or mention of how it came into his possession, it should be noted.  He divulges only that it is a scanned image, the edges of which he trimmed.

Unfortunately, he's more careful with document grooming than with authentication.  It certainly appears genuine, but doesn't Markos at least want to bolster the document's credibility by describing the manner in which he got hold of it?  Hawaii won't release birth records to non-family members, so it was either authorized and furnished by the campaign (mention of which would go a long way toward supporting its authenticity), obtained without authorization from a third party (which calls the document's integrity into doubt), or created from scratch.

Assuming the document is legit and obtained with the campaign's blessing (which I do), why wouldn't he say so?  Sloppiness and/or a request by the campaign, I suppose.

But there's a bigger problem here than the document's chain of custody.  It involves the difference between a "Certificate of Live Birth" and a "Certification of Live Birth".  This is the latter, despite Kos' identification of it as the former.

Per the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands (a state agency that happens to detail the difference):

In order to process your application, DHHL utilizes information that is found only on the original Certificate of Live Birth, which is either black or green. This is a more complete record of your birth than the Certification of Live Birth (a computer-generated printout). Submitting the original Certificate of Live Birth will save you time and money since the computer-generated Certification requires additional verification by DHHL.

Indeed, the Kos document offers scant details, limited to name, gender, date, location, and names and races of parents.

To recap, the now mildly famous three speculations about why the Obama campaign was refusing to release this document were:

1. Obama was born in Kenya and is not Constitutionally eligible to be President
2. He was born Barack Muhammad Obama
3. He was born Barry Obama

But while the summary certification disproves the Geraghty speculations, it says nothing about what I previously offered as a more plausible scenario - namely, that the full-length document might indicate Obama's parents were avowedly unmarried at the time of his birth (which would contradict Obama lore that they were in good faith married, but only later dissolved the marriage upon the revelation that Obama Sr. had never divorced his first wife in Kenya).

The abbreviated certification document eliminates information about parents' marital status, while the actual birth certificate (as specified in 1961) includes it.  If the full certificate documents Obama's parents as knowingly unmarried in 1961, it doesn't make the candidate unfit on account of his parents' marital status, but the direct contradiction to what Obama has said in the past would fray yet another thread in his ever-unraveling backstory.

Previously:  Wired: Obama's Birth Certificate; Tired: Whitey Video; Expired: Closet Muslim

---

Update: Pressed by his readers for some answers about how he got hold of the document, Kos simpers, "I asked the campaign ... This 'journamalism' thing actually works sometimes."

Nice to know that's campaign policy.  Accordingly, I've asked them to provide a copy of the actual "certificate" (with secure information redacted), so the matter ought to be resolved shortly.  You can go ahead and hold your breath.