Gibbs Gets 2nd Shot at Eligibility Question (with video)
Bob Unruh - WND
June 15, 2009
 Presidential spokesman Robert Gibbs bends over laughing at a question over Obama's eligibility |
President Obama's press secretary Robert Gibbs has been given another opportunity to respond to a question regarding the documentation of Obama's eligibility to occupy the Oval Office, but instead of laughing at it like the last time it was raised, he's simply ignored it.
The latest question came in a letter from attorney John D. Hemenway, who has worked with Pennsylvania Democrat Philip Berg on a lawsuit raising questions about Obama's eligibility.
In a letter to Gibbs, a copy of which was posted of the Family Security Matters website, Hemenway raises a series of questions. Gibbs, however, did not respond or even acknowledge the questions, Hemenway told WND today.
WND reported only a few weeks ago when Les Kinsolving, WND's correspondent at the White House, asked Gibbs about the issue.
Gibbs' response was to guffaw in unison with members of the Washington press corps about the concerns of 400,000 petitioners who have demanded it.
"Are you looking for the president's birth certificate?" he asked incredulously. "Lester, this question in many ways continues to astound me. The state of Hawaii provided a copy with the seal of the president's birth. I know there are apparently at least 400,000 people – (laughter) – that continue to doubt the existence of and the certification by the state of Hawaii of the president's birth there, but it's on the Internet because we put it on the Internet for each of those 400,000 to download. I certainly hope by the fourth year of our administration that we'll have dealt with this burgeoning birth controversy."
Hemenway took it from there: "Your reply to the question posed … by Lester Kinsolving from World Net Daily on this subject was disingenuous," he wrote.
"Please answer the following five basic questions for the hundreds of thousands of petitioners asking for Barack Obama, aka Barry Soetoro, to release his actual birth certificate, not the dubious 'Certification of Live Birth,' (COLB) and for many other Americans who have increasingly begun to question whether they have been victims of fraud perpetrated by a political campaign and aided and abetted by a partisan press corps and incompetent judges:" Hemenway said.
The questions included needed information about Obama's expenditure of "hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees to seal ALL records, birth, academic and his passport file, which would prove his eligibility to hold the office of president."
Why, Hemenway asked, should the public accept the online COLB which "would not be acceptable to obtain a drivers' license in most states in America (or play little league as Rep. Bill Posey has pointed out)."
And why is the COLB presented as documentation when it is "not even used by the state of Hawaii's Department of Home Lands."
He also raised a question about the validity of the COLB document by asking for confirmation that "Sun Yat Sen, a Chinese national, was issued a COLB."
Lastly, what about those statements from Obama's paternal grandmother as well as the Kenyan ambassador to the U.S. seeming to refer to Obama's birth in Kenya?
"The office of the president of the United States is arguably the most important political office in the world. The position demands the trust and confidence of the American electorate. The cynical dismissal of serious inquiries to legitimate this president in the eyes of his constituency shows contempt for the public and for the Constitution. Mr. Obama can end his personal controversy immediately – and should, by releasing to the public and the media his birth records, for examination in any courts in the land and by forensic experts," Hemenway, a World War II veteran, Naval Academy graduate and Rhodes scholar, wrote.
The question comes as the controversy is heating up nationally – sparked in part by a new billboard campaign asking the question: "Where's the birth certificate?" The campaign has also raised more than $75,000 in contributions from the public.
It followed an ongoing petition campaign was launched several months ago by WND Editor and Chief Executive Officer Joseph Farah. The billboard campaign is to raise public awareness of the fact that Obama has never released the standard, "long-form" birth certificate that would show which hospital he was born in, the attending physician and establish that he truly was born in Hawaii, as his autobiography maintains.
The "Certification of Live Birth" posted online and widely touted as "Obama's birth certificate" does not in any way prove he was born in Hawaii, since the same "short-form" document is easily obtainable for children not born in Hawaii. The true "long-form" birth certificate – which includes information like the name of the birth hospital and attending physician – is the only document that can prove Obama was born in Hawaii, but to date he has not permitted its release for public or press scrutiny.
Oddly, though congressional hearings were held to determine whether Sen. John McCain was constitutionally eligible to be president as a "natural born citizen," 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 "the truth and transparency campaign."
 "Where's The Birth Certificate?" billboard in Pennsylvania |
The exchange between Kinsolving and Gibbs was caught on video, and it has been posted online by Politico:
The idea behind the billboard campaign is to make sure Obama cannot avoid this question any longer. He must be asked to produce it at every turn, Farah says. Billboard space is currently being hunted in Houston, Dallas, Sacramento, San Francisco, Seattle and other metro areas.
"Is it unusual for a news agency to launch such a campaign?" asks Farah. "Yes it is. But we live in very unusual times. The founding fathers built special protections into the First Amendment for the free press. The reason they did that is because they understood a vibrant 'Fourth Estate' was necessary as an independent watchdog on government. It is in that tradition that WND assumes this role – since nobody else in the press will do it."
WND previously launched a petition campaign that has collected more than 380,000 names demanding Obama's eligibility be verified and demonstrated publicly. That campaign continues. That list has been shared with members of the Electoral College and the chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.
WND has reported that among the documentation not yet available for Obama includes his kindergarten records, his Punahau school records, his Occidental College records, his Columbia University records, his Columbia thesis, his Harvard Law School records, his Harvard Law Review articles, his scholarly articles from the University of Chicago, his passport, his medical records, his files from his years as an Illinois state senator, his Illinois State Bar Association records, any baptism records, and his adoption records.
If you are a member of the media and would like to interview Joseph Farah about this campaign, e-mail WN