Grassroots Sign Onto Eligibility Billboard Campaign
June 13, 2009
Grassroots Americans are signing onto a national billboard campaign that focuses on putting the question "Where's The Birth Certificate" in front of President Barack Obama and voters wherever it can.
WorldNetDaily founder and CEO Joseph Farah launched the effort only weeks ago, because he believes it is essential to force Obama to produce hard evidence that he is, indeed, a "natural born citizen" as the Constitution requires for the presidency.
Then this week a new sign, not part of the formal WND effort, appeared along Interstate 5 in Washington state.
 Sign along Interstate 5 in southern Washington state |
The sign says in simple block letters, "Where's The Birth Certificate?"
"It is a prime location, close to the highway and very big," said a trucking company spokeswoman who noticed the message. "It's priceless and looks great."
Farah had responded to an e-mail request for permission to post the message with authorization, and confirmed that the more messages posted, the better the campaign will fare.
The newest message in the formal WND campaign also has just been unveiled near Hamburg, Pa., along Interstate 78 eastbound.
 On Interstate 78 eastbound near Hamburg, Pa. |
Farah maintains Obama has not proved his constitutionally eligibility to serve as president as a "natural born citizen," and suggests only the release of his long-form birth certificate showing the hospital of his birth, attending physician and other details can conclusively meet that test. Obama's presidential campaign released to select news organizations only what is known as a "certification of live birth," a document obtainable in Hawaii in 1961 by Americans actually born outside the country.
WND has reported that CBS, Lamar Outdoor and Clear Channel Outdoor all have rejected requests to post the message on their billboards. But Farah confirmed the decisions by three companies has not yet even dented the billboards available across America for the campaign, and the number erected will be limited only by the donations to the campaign.
The WND founder said he stepped up because no one else has.
"WND's reporters have investigated this issue more extensively than the rest of the media combined – sending senior staff writer Jerome Corsi to Hawaii and Kenya in search of evidence," said Farah. "We have commissioned private investigators in Honolulu. There is simply no persuasive evidence to affirm Obama's claim to a Hawaiian birth. There is no hospital on the island that will confirm the first black president of the United States was born there. It's all conjecture. And no controlling legal authority in this country has ever asked Obama to provide the proof."
The first WND sign went up in Louisiana:
 Birth certificate question being raised in Ball, La. |
Then came two signs in California:
 "Where's The Birth Certificate" billboard near Buena Park, Calif. |
 "Where's the Birth Certificate?" billboard near the Santa Ana Freeway in Los Angeles |
The campaign even has earned the approval of Philip Berg, one of the first attorneys to file a legal challenge to Obama's eligibility to be president, and who still has three lawsuits pending over the issue.
"WND sign campaign is terrific," he wrote on his website, although he thinks it should go further.
He suggested putting up signs specifically mentioning Obama and asking about "your" birth certificate.
"I want Americans to understand that this billboard campaign will be successful with or without CBS and Lamar," said Farah. "There are still millions of billboards available through other companies eager to take this business. The only barrier to success is money. And I am as determined as ever to keep purchasing billboard space as our budget allows."
Officials with Clear Channel Outdoor said in prepared statement it is a "politically agnostic" company and also rejects "a personal attack ad" such as the birth certificate question.
Lamar Outdoor, where a spokesman told WND he'd looked online and decided that the birth certificate issue was "settled," has begun losing business for dissing the advertising campaign's question. A Florida businessman confirmed to WND's he's dropping the billboard company and will be advertising his apartments through other channels.
The Outdoor Advertising Association of America already has prepared a policy regarding the new billboards.
It states: "In the situation of the Obama birth certificate billboards, there is no First Amendment question. The First Amendment applies to governmental restrictions on speech, not on the decisions of outdoor advertising companies. We strongly stand behind the right of our companies to reject this or any other copy."
Farah said the sensitivity by large public corporations like the billboard providers demonstrates how important this politically charged issue is to the future of the country.
"I never fully realized how dangerous it is that the media in this country are so afraid of government power," he said. "How are Americans supposed to become aware of controversial issues with this kind of heavy-handed self-censorship in place throughout corporate America? That is the reality of what we face, and the reaction to this campaign should illustrate it better than anything else I've seen in my lifetime."
The campaign got a boost recently when WND White House correspondent Les Kinsolving asked Obama's press secretary, Robert Gibbs, why the president wouldn't release his birth certificate. Gibbs' response was covered live on C-SPAN and by Fox News Channel and others – excluding CBS.
It was the first time any member of the press corps has publicly asked a member of the administration a question directly related to Obama's constitutional eligibility for office as a "natural born citizen."
Farah points out that congressional hearings were held to determine whether Sen. John McCain was constitutionally eligible to be president as a "natural born citizen," but no controlling legal authority ever sought to verify Obama's claim to a Hawaiian birth.
Both the petition and the billboard campaign are part of what Farah calls an independent "truth and transparency campaign."
Many have asked why Obama's name is not included in the billboard. Farah said the matter was carefully considered.
"There are several reasons we chose the message: 'Where's the birth certificate?'" he explained. "There is only one birth certificate controversy in this country today – despite the near-total absence of this issue from coverage in the non-WND media. This is a grass-roots issue that resonates around the country, as our own online petition with nearly 400,000 signers suggests. In addition, I like the simplicity of the message. I like the fact that the message will cause some people to ask themselves or others about the meaning of the message. It will stir curiosity. It will create a buzz. I'm assuming when these billboards are springing up all over the country, it might even make some in the news media curious. And there's one more factor that persuaded me this was the way to go.
"Come 2012, campaign laws will pose restrictions on political advertising mentioning the names of presidential candidates. This one clearly doesn't. I would like to see the federal government make the case that this is somehow a political ad," he said.
Further, Farah said, the reaction to the campaign by billboard companies makes the point about how squeamish major media outlets are about questioning powerful political leaders – especially those with whom they agree.
"Imagine the problems we'd have finding billboard space if Obama's image or name was part of the message," he said. "CBS and Lamar are afraid of four innocent words!"
Farah said the campaign was born of frustration with timid elected officials in Washington, corrupt judges around the country and a news media that show a stunning lack of curiosity about the most basic facts of Obama's background – especially how it relates to constitutional eligibility for the highest office in the land.
"As Obama transforms this country from self-governing constitutional republic to one governed by a central ruling elite, the simple fact remains that no controlling legal authority has established that he is indeed a 'natural born citizen' as the Constitution requires," Farah said. "Obama's promises of transparency have become a bad joke as he continues to hide simple, innocuous documents like his birth certificate and his student records."
New to the billboard campaign on the issue of eligibility is a "birth certificate" yard sign.
If you are a member of the media and would like to interview Joseph Farah about this campaign, e-mail WND.