The Controversy Over Obama's Birth Certificate

Right-wing bloggers have recently been raising a stink about Barack Obama's birth certificate and the dark secrets that the document may (but probably doesn't) reveal. As has consistently been the case during Obama's candidacy, the newest round of claims reveal an embarrassing level of xenophobia and ignorance on the part of Obama's detractors. Additionally, two of the three birth certificate related claims, like most claims made about Barack, have no actual bearing on the nominee's fitness for leadership.

The first rumor that Obama's birth certificate could clear up, and the only one that has any relationship to his ability to serve as President, is the claim that the document would reveal that Obama holds dual citizenship in the U.S. And Kenya. The Constitution does not address dual citizenship when laying out the qualifications for President--it merely states that the candidate must be 35 years old or older and a natural-born citizen-but the potential conflict of interest could obviously be a point of concern. However, none of this applies to Barack, since (according to the State Department's web site), the country of Kenya does not recognize dual citizenship.

The next rumor that Barack's birth certificate could quell is that his middle name is actually Mohammad, not Hussein, or that he has two Islamic-sounding middle names. The obvious aim here is to imply that Obama is, as Stephen Colbert puts it, a "secret Muslim." The fact that these same self-appointed pundits are simultaneously attacking Obama for the statements of his Christian minister should give any thinking person a reason to question such claims.