The Obama birth certificate

Bob Unruh writes:

A conversation between well-known conservative commentator Mark Steyn and an intrepid talk-radio show went beyond the contents of a new book Monday and delved directly into the controversy over Barack Obama’s eligibility to be president.

After mentioning his birthplace is Toronto, author, radio host and commentator Steyn jumped feet first into the eligibility issue in an interview with Peter Boyles on KNUS Radio in Denver.

To live in the United States, “I have to provide a long-form birth certificate,” Steyn said, “but if it’s the president, any old photocopy from Kinko’s will do.”

Steyn, whose new book, “The Undocumented Mark Steyn,” compiles some of his best work, also has authored “After America” and “Lights Out: Islam, Free Speech And the Twilight of the West.” He’s been a guest host for Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity.

He explained to Boyles, who regularly tackles the eligibility issue, he was born in Toronto, and “oddly enough as a condition of my presence in this country, I did have to provide my long-form birth certificate.”

“I don’t know whether I’m ready to go full birther, but I think it’s slightly odd,” Steyn said.

He said the questions raised over the president’s eligibility are legitimate.

“What I find odd is when people present it as a crazy conspiracy. I don’t think it is crazy,” he said. “I think it’s the kind of thing that could happen very easily if you’re audacious enough and have the cooperation of a relatively small number of people. You could do it.”

Obama’s qualification for president as a “natural born citizen” has been challenged in court since before he was first elected in 2008. The White House finally relented in 2011 and posted a birth certificate, but Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s investigative team concluded it is a forgery and promises even more startling revelations soon.

“Anyone who thinks it would be difficult to obtain a faked certificate of live birth is someone who just doesn’t know how these things work,” Steyn said.

Steyn said there are doubts not only about the birth certificate but about Obama’s whole life story.

“The fascinating thing about Obama is this mutable biography. Whatever happens at the moment,” he said. “For over 15 years, his publicist found it convenient to promote him as a man born in Kenya.”

More recently, Grace Vuoto of the World Tribune reported that among the experts challenging the birth certificate is certified document analyst Reed Hayes, who has served as an expert for Perkins Coie, the law firm that has been defending Obama in eligibility cases.

“We have obtained an affidavit from a certified document analyzer, Reed Hayes, that states the document is a 100 percent forgery, no doubt about it,” Zullo told the World Tribune.

“Mr. Obama’s operatives cannot discredit [Hayes],” the investigator told the news outlet. “Mr. Hayes has been used as the firm’s reliable expert. The very firm the president is using to defend him on the birth certificate case has used Mr. Hayes in their cases.”

The Tribune reported Hayes agreed to take a look at the documentation and called almost immediately.

“There is something wrong with this,” Hayes said.

Hayes produced a 40-page report in which he says “based on my observations and findings, it is clear that the Certificate of Live Birth I examined is not a scan of an original paper birth certificate, but a digitally manufactured document created by utilizing material from various sources.”

“In over 20 years of examining documentation of various types, I have never seen a document that is so seriously questionable in so many respects. In my opinion, the birth certificate is entirely fabricated,” he says in the report.