Democracy Has Prevailed.

July 23, 2008

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.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

This again? This is so sad. The wingnuts would not even be thinking about this if there wasn't that dude up in NH challenging McCain's natural born citizen status.

If anyone changes their vote based on this (in either direction) they are an idiot.

-Whampa

Anonymous said...

John K: Got a solution here. Produce the orginal.

Anonymous said...

John K,

You are an idiot. The original has already been produced.

Anonymous said...

John K. is correct.


No, not about anything he says, except this: He now owns this blog.

Anonymous said...

John K: Nope, that birth certificate you claim is his, comes from the Daily.Kos website. Which is why it is questionned. All sorts of things wrong with it. But hey, simple solution, have Obama sign a release and get it from the State of Hawaii. It is on file? Can you do that?

Anonymous said...

Every true wingnut conspiracy has to include at least one of the following elements:

1. Bill Clinton's penis.
2. Hillary's secret lesbian army
3. Black Helicopters
4. Jane Fonda
5. Ted Kennedy

Since the conspiracy they're pushing includes none of these elements I have no choice but to conclude the birth certificate is real.

Anonymous said...

Thus spake the troll:

But hey, simple solution, have Obama sign a release and get it from the State of Hawaii. It is on file?

Here's an even simpler solution: All the wingnuts pushing this ridiculous meme can crawl back under their respective rocks and we grownups can go back to discussing actual issues.

This is this year's version of Swift Boating. The wingnuts raise an issue that is in direct contradiction to officially documented evidence that has stood unquestioned for decades.

Anonymous said...

John K: This is so easy to solve. Produce the orginal. One stroke of the pen. Yet, Hussein Obama and the left resists and instead uses a source from the Daily.Kos. And then the appropriate amount of insults to throw it off track. Make me a liar. Produce the orginal.

cathcatz said...

even an "original" wouldn't satisfy you. funny that you seem to hold up the democrats to some level of truthiness, but you don't apply that same threshold to your party.

Anonymous said...

Original was released by the Obama campaign, from the State of Hawaii, viewable at his website.

The source for the one shown on DailyKos was...Barack Obama and by extension, the state of Hawaii.

So...the conservative attacks on Barack amount to: his middle name, a sytle of headdress and, now, a piece of paper...any wonder they're going to get creamed in November?

Anonymous said...

John K: So you admit that the one on the website if from the DailyKos. Just what I said. And the DailyKos has altered it. Which is where Steigerwald, Pintek and Quinn are having their problems. Think I am wrong. Go to the State of Hawaii and produce the orginal. Make a liar out of me. lMAO you won't because you know I am right.

Anonymous said...

To John K -

Wrong again.

It's here.

or

http://my.barackobama.com/page/invite/birthcert

And you didn't know that.

LOL ROFLMAO

I own your ass.