A CNN investigation has concluded that President Barack Obama was born in Hawaii “period”:
[UPDATE: See below. Fox News’ Shepard Smith says Fox News can state the same thing.]
Was Barack Obama really born in America?
A new CNN investigation reveals what most analysts have been saying since the “birther” controversy erupted during the 2008 presidential campaign: Obama was born in Hawaii on August 4, 1961. Period.
But this most assuredly won’t stop Donald Trump from insisting his investigators who perhaps include this guy are going to make a big revelation about Obama really being from Kenya. Or will it? As we noted in another post, Trump has now shifted gears a bit and said that Obama really was a lousy college student and is demanding Obama to prove documents that he was a good one. (So let me get this straight: Harvard Law Review has no standards?). Also: don’t expect Sean Hannity to stop repeating a political mantra since if you repeat it well enough it becomes reality to some. Facts, schmacts. And here are some more facts:
While the president has made light of the controversy, the question remains political red meat for some of his critics. A recent CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll showed that nearly 75% of Americans believe Obama was definitely or probably born in the United States. More than four in 10 Republicans, however, believe he probably or definitely was not born in America.
The U.S. Constitution says only “natural born” citizens can become president — a vague clause that some members of the birther movement contend disqualifies Obama because, they insist, he was born outside the United States.
Skeptics contend, among other things, that Obama was born in his father’s home country of Kenya. Potential GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump recently seized on the issue, saying he had doubts about Obama’s background.
CNN investigators in Honolulu found nothing to reinforce those doubts.
Here’s a CNN video report:
Part II airs tonight.
PREDICTION: You’ll hear from some birthers and on some websites:
1. It’s a false report coming from the liberal media.
2. Any documents Hawaii are showing are fake and were forged after the fact.
And we again offer this theme song:
FOOTNOTE: Not all Republicans are birthers. Writes Right Wing News’ John Hawkins:
If you look at just that information, it’s hard to see how anyone can logically conclude anything other than that Obama was born in Hawaii. Of course, Obama doesn’t want people to come to that conclusion. That’s why he hasn’t put a copy of his original birth certificate out there. Outside of professional con men like Jerome Corsi, Joseph Farah, and Alex Jones who make a living pushing conspiracy theories for profit, nobody benefits from keeping the birther discussion going more than Obama.
UPDATE: Fox News’ Shepard Smith says Fox News can confirm Barack Obama was born in the United States.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.