John Steigerwald Spreads the Rumor

Got an email today by someone who says she heard KDKA Radio guy John Steigerwald spreading the rumor that Senator Obama's birth certificate "might be proven fake."

I didn't hear him last night so I can't comment specifically. Tonight just after 9pm he said that he DIDN'T say that the birth certificate was a fake - only that someone else said it was.

I took a look at this rumor today. Sheesh the wingnuts have been busy.

My guess is that since it hasn't been settled (though no one will possibly challenge it) that John McCain is a Constitutionally defined "natural born citizen" they're working like the dickens to have something when/if that ever comes up. No one is saying that McCain isn't a citizen, let me be clear. The argument is whether he's a "natural born citizen" like the Constitution says is necessary to be president. Governor Schwarzenegger is a citizen but not a "natural born citizen" so he can't be president. See the difference?

Now that the certificate has been posted on the web, their response?

It's a fraud. And they have the photoshop evidence to prove it. As I scrolled through the page I wonder why no one has bothered to call Hawaii and actually ask whether the certificate is real.

Oh wait, someone has. Amy Hollyfield in the St Petersburg Times did. She wrote:

To verify we did have the correct document, we contacted the Hawaii Department of Health, which maintains such records.

"It's a valid Hawaii state birth certificate," spokesman Janice Okubo said after we e-mailed her our copy.

Ok. But the wingnuts counter that that Okuba must be wrong.

As Politifact notes:

At PolitiFact.com, we’re all about original sources. We don’t take anyone at their word or take the reporting of other media organizations as proof. We go to the heart of the story, the source of the truth — original, corroborating documents.
When the official documents were questioned, we went looking for more answers. We circled back to the Department of Health, had a newsroom colleague bring in her own Hawaii birth certificate to see if it looks the same (it’s identical). But every answer triggered more questions.

And soon enough, after going to every length possible to confirm the birth certificate’s authenticity, you start asking, what is reasonable here?

Because if this document is forged, then they all are.

If this document is forged, a U.S. senator and his presidential campaign have perpetrated a vast, long-term fraud. They have done it with conspiring officials at the Hawaii Department of Health, the Cook County (Ill.) Bureau of Vital Statistics, the Illinois Secretary of State’s office, the Attorney Registration & Disciplinary Commission of the Supreme Court of Illinois and many other government agencies. [emphasis added]

That last part is the important part. IF the document's a fraud, then the conspiracy has to include all those various and separate bureaucracies.

Or the document is real. Which is the more reasonable position?

I know the wingnuts will continue to cling to their goofy conspiracy theories regardless of, you know, REALITY.