President Obama Presents Original Birth Certificate, Hoping to End Conspiracy Nonsense

In one of the more extraordinary presidential moments in history, President Obama came before the American people today, more than two years into his presidency, to provide even more documentation that he was born in the U.S. and is thus constitutionally eligible for the position he holds.

“We've got some enormous challenges out there,” the president said. “There are a lot of folks out there who are still looking for work. Everybody is still suffering under high gas prices. We're going to have to make a series of very difficult decisions about how we invest in our future but also get a hold of our deficit and our debt
Some White House advisers told the president not to dignify the sideshows and carnival barkers, but White House aides say two weeks ago President Obama was dismayed when in the midst of his squaring off against House Republicans over budget priorities many in the media chose instead to focus on false charges leveled about the president’s birth certificate by possible Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.“During that entire week the dominant news story wasn’t about these huge, monumental choices that we're going to have to make as a nation,” the president said today. “It was about my birth certificate. And that was true on most of the news outlets that were represented here.”

However much of a distraction it may have been, polls indicated that more and more Americans were believing the untruth. Only 33% of Republicans said that the president was born in the U.S., with 45% sure he was born outside the U.S., and 22 percent unsure where he was born, a recent New York Times/CBS News poll from earlier this month reported. Nineteen percent of Democrats said the president was born outside the U.S. or weren’t sure where he was born. Forty-eight percent of independents were either sure he was born outside the U.S. or weren’t clear either way.
At an off-camera gaggle with reporters this morning, Pfeiffer held up a certified copy of the President’s original Certificate of Live Birth. A copy is now on the White House website.