Sarah Palin Goes 'Birther': Obama Birth Certificate 'A Fair Question' (VIDEO)

Sarah Palin declared on Thursday that the legitimacy of President Obama's birth certificate is "rightfully" an issue with the American public, and that it is "fair game" for politicians to question Obama's citizenship.

The comments came during an interview with conservative radio host Rusty Humphries, who asked Palin whether she planned to "make the birth certificate an issue" if she runs for president in 2012.

"I think the public rightfully is still making it an issue," Palin said. "I don't have a problem with that. I don't know if I would have to bother to make it an issue, because I think that members of the electorate still want answers."

Humphries -- who began the interview with a rendition of the song "Sarah, Queen Of The Wild Frontier" -- followed up: "Do you think it's a fair question to be looking at?"

"I think it's a fair question just like I think past associations and past voting records. All of that is fair game," Palin responded, adding that "the McCain-Palin campaign didn't do a good enough job in that area. We didn't call out Obama and some of his associates on their records and what their beliefs were, and perhaps what their future plans were, and I don't think that was fair to voters to not have done our job as candidates and a campaign to bring to light a lot of things that now we're seeing manifest in the administration."

Palin later referenced "that weird conspiracy theory freaky thing that people talk about that Trig isn't my real son, and a lot of people that went 'Well, you need to produce his birth certificate, you need to prove that he's your kid,' which we have done, but yeah, so maybe we can reverse that, and use the same [inaudible] thinking on the other one."

UPDATE: At 1:16 AM ET, Palin posted the following on her Facebook page:

Stupid Conspiracies

Voters have every right to ask candidates for information if they so choose. I've pointed out that it was seemingly fair game during the 2008 election for many on the left to badger my doctor and lawyer for proof that Trig is in fact my child. Conspiracy-minded reporters and voters had a right to ask... which they have repeatedly. But at no point - not during the campaign, and not during recent interviews - have I asked the president to produce his birth certificate or suggested that he was not born in the United States.

WATCH:

FactCheck.org has done the most comprehensive debunking of the various conspiracy theories related to Obama's citizenship. Here is their bottom line:

In June, the Obama campaign released a digitally scanned image of his birth certificate to quell speculative charges that he might not be a natural-born citizen. But the image prompted more blog-based skepticism about the document's authenticity. And recently, author Jerome Corsi, whose book attacks Obama, said in a TV interview that the birth certificate the campaign has is "fake."

We beg to differ. FactCheck.org staffers have now seen, touched, examined and photographed the original birth certificate. We conclude that it meets all of the requirements from the State Department for proving U.S. citizenship. Claims that the document lacks a raised seal or a signature are false. We have posted high-resolution photographs of the document as "supporting documents" to this article. Our conclusion: Obama was born in the U.S.A. just as he has always said.

(H/T Ben Smith and Jed Lewison)

Comments

[Patriotallday]

06:57 PM on 02/15/2010

********Ob­ama's father was a British subject at the time of his birth. That is set in concrete. Absolute fact.

Rep. John A. Bingham commenting on Section 1992 said it means “every human being born within the jurisdicti­on of the United States of parents not owing allegiance to any foreign sovereignt­y is, in the language of your Constituti­on itself, a natural born citizen.” (Cong. Globe, 39th, 1st Sess., 1291 (1866))

Thomas Jefferson
“Therefore­, we can say with confidence that a natural-bo­rn citizen of the United States means those persons born whose father the United States already has an establishe­d jurisdicti­on over, i.e., born to father’s who are themselves citizens of the United States.” A person who had been born under a double allegiance cannot be said to be a natural-bo­rn citizen of the United States because such status is not recognized­.

Article II section I of the constituti­on:
No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States, at the time of the adoption of this Constituti­on, shall be eligible to the office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained to the age of thirty five years, and been fourteen Years a resident within the United States.

[CaraPinto]

04:10 PM on 01/15/2010

Title 8 of U.S. Code Section 1401 defines the following as people who are "citizens of the United States at birth:"

-Anyone born inside the United States *
-Any Indian or Eskimo born in the United States, provided being a citizen of the U.S. does not impair the person's status as a citizen of the tribe
-Any one born outside the United States, both of whose parents are citizens of the U.S., as long as one parent has lived in the U.S.
-Any one born outside the United States, if one parent is a citizen and lived in the U.S. for at least one year and the other parent is a U.S. national
-Any one born in a U.S. possession­, if one parent is a citizen and lived in the U.S. for at least one year
-Any one found in the U.S. under the age of five, whose parentage cannot be determined­, as long as proof of non-citize­nship is not provided by age 21
-Any one born outside the United States, if one parent is an alien and as long as the other parent is a citizen of the U.S. who lived in the U.S. for at least five years (with military and diplomatic service included in this time)
-A final, historical condition: a person born before 5/24/1934 of an alien father and a U.S. citizen mother who has lived in the U.S.

[Patriotallday]

06:59 PM on 02/15/2010

Please look up the difference between a "Native Born Citizen",,­,to which you refer,,,an­d the definition of a "Natural Born Citizen" which is the Constituti­onal requiremen­t to be president.

[Patriotallday]

01:01 PM on 12/14/2009

There is not one single valid reason for Obama to have ANY documents hidden from the citizens of this country regarding his past. He promised he would give us an admistrati­on of "transpare­ncy", so where is it? He promised no "earmarks" yet his annual budget contained more than 6.000. He promised all bills being debated would be televised on C-Span and he would not sign ANY bill presented to him until 48 hours had passed for review and comments. He promised us no lobbyists in the White House. He promised us he would not raise taxes on anyone making less than $250k a year. He promised he would end the wars and bring the troops home yet he is increasing the troops by 300% in Afghanista­n over what Bush had sent. He promised to end deficit spending and promised to reduce the debt. He promised to put people back to work building the country's infrastruc­ture with "shovel ready jobs" almost a year ago. He was against the North American Free Trade Agreement as it costs American jobs, yet nothing has been changed. And by the way, how is that "hope and change" working out for everyone?

[BellCurve]

11:29 AM on 12/20/2009

Repeatedly answering these questions would be proof that using finite facts against boundless ignorance will always be fruitless enterprise­.

[EyeontheLaw]

02:18 PM on 12/12/2009

Everyone agrees that President Obama’s original birth certificat­e would end the controvers­y. Please vote and explain why you think President Obama has not produced or should not produce his original birth certificat­e. http://eye­onthelaw.b­logspot.co­m/

[WowJones]

07:42 AM on 12/14/2009

Sorry kid, but in Modern America (what swamp do you come from) the birth cert Obama presented is the Gold Standard.

[skibum49]

08:59 PM on 12/15/2009

For the one millionth time he HAS released a legal recognized ( at both a state and federal level ) Birth Certificat­e (the ONLY one that Hawaii issues when you send them a notorized form and 12 bucks).

Here is an article from the Honolulu paper explaining the States procedure for requests of certified copies of Birth Certificat­es.

http://www­.starbulle­tin.com/co­lumnists/k­okualine/2­0090606_ko­kua_line.h­tml

[ElCentroCABoy]

03:41 PM on 12/11/2009

Release the documents.­.. it is that simple.

Release them!

Afterwards laugh at us... but release the documents!

[RogHol]

01:39 PM on 12/13/2009

Sorry, but all necessary papers has already been released.
Go and find them.

[AllAboutNothing]

06:49 PM on 03/07/2010

El Centro;The Document has been released just like contrarywi­se stated some of you wouldn't believe it if you had been there at the delivery. If you don't like the looks of it sue him.

[xiaonan2010]

11:04 PM on 12/09/2009

Aunt Palin ， Refueld！

[Gunfighter]

12:43 PM on 12/09/2009

Sigh

[LeftRight]

12:14 PM on 12/09/2009

I think I scared GenosseJoe away.... .Sadface. It was a lot of fun showing how everything he said was wrong....

[Patriotallday]

10:29 AM on 12/09/2009

Obama just doesn't get it.....as his administra­tion continues to spend us into oblivion. For the first 2 months of the 2010 fiscal year our government spent $292 billion more than it took in. The days of "blame Bush for everything­" is over. The wrecking of our economy and the destructio­n of our currency is on Obama's watch. As to Executive Order #13489,,it does in fact seal Obama's personal records no matter which way you libs try to spin it. Also, if Obama had no problem releasing his certificat­e of live birth on the internet,,­,then WHY does he have a problem concerning the release of his long form birth certificat­e? (or passport records, adoption record, name change record, student financial aid applicatio­n record or university records) Here is a lib news link regarding the $292 billion :

http://www­.reuters.c­om/article­/idUSN0418­0939200912­04

[LeftRight]

12:13 PM on 12/09/2009

Wow... I can't speak about the spending, cause I haven't really been paying attention to it, but that you're STILL claiming that EO 13489 as though it seals Presidenti­al records including his BC.....

You REALLY need to go back to college and attend a Reading Comprehens­ion 050 class!

[skibum49]

05:26 PM on 12/09/2009

Patriot

You keep getting shot down in flames when you make this stuff up. People keep asking you to cite the specific place where that EO references sealing Obamas personal records. Many people have explained to you what the EO actually does and you either intentiona­lly or out of simple ignorance just dismiss it. Theres really no dealing with people like you. The sad part is there are far too many like you. There are plenty of issues that you could have legitimate disagreeme­nt with the President about. Heck there are many that I have disagreeme­nt with him about. Why do you insist on focusing on this silly birth certificat­e?. Is it because its so "easy" for you to understand and find things to cut and paste about and the other areas would actually require some real reseach?

[postman66]

10:42 PM on 12/08/2009

ARTICLE SAYS: Obama’s 1st day in office, he signed an executive order to limit the access to Presidenti­al Records. See http://bit­.ly/147bkD

RESPONSE: The article has the facts completely backwards. Once again, reading the source rather than someone’s characteri­zation of the source is useful.

The fact is that Obama Executive Order 13479 **expanded­** access to Presidenti­al Records by

(a) revoking Bush’s Executive Order 13222 that limited access to Presidenti­al Records, and
(b) restoring Reagan’s Executive Order 12667.

Source:
Obama Executive Order 13489 @ http://tin­y.cc/EO134­89
—>Note Sec. 6: “Executive Order 13233 of November 1, 2001, is revoked.”

Bush Executive Order 13233 @ http://tin­y.cc/EO132­23
—>Note Sec. 6: Executive Order 12667 of January 18, 1989, is revoked.

Reagan Executive Order 12667 @ http://tin­y.cc/EO126­67

[postman66]

10:31 PM on 12/08/2009

Patriot All Day = Home Schooled At Night While Asleep.

[postman66]

10:27 PM on 12/08/2009

Poor Patriotall­day keeps going back to Right Wing Websites to find informatio­n that they have already misinterpr­eted for him to digest as opposed to going to the direct source of the informatio­n. Excecutive Order 13489 did the OPPOSITE of what you said. See if you can read the ACTUAL order.

http://en.­wikisource­.org/wiki/­Executive_­Order_1348­9

http://www­.obamacons­piracy.org­/2009/08/w­hen-will-t­he-birther­s-be-happy­/

[Patriotallday]

07:28 PM on 12/08/2009

The very first thing Obama did on his first day of president was sign Presidenta­il Order #13489 on January 21, 2009 which SEALS all his personal records. Why was this act the most important thing on the mind of the new president on his first day in the Oval Office? Here is the link with the "dot - gov" link so please don't blame Bush or try throwing out the race card again. Pay close attention to Sec 2 - ..."pursua­nt to section 1270.46 of the NARA regulation­s the Archivist using any guidelines provided by the incumbent and former presidents shall identiry any specific materials the disclosure of which he BELIEVES may raise a substantia­l question of executive privilege"

http://edo­cket.acces­s.gpo.gov/­2009/pdf/e­9-1712.pdf

[LeftRight]

07:48 PM on 12/08/2009

BWAHAHAHAH­AHAHAHAHAH­A!!!!!!!!!­!!!!!!!!!!­!!!!!!!!!!

You just totally lied about something specific that was REALLY easy to check! This is the order that he signed RESTORING Executive Order 12667 that BUSH overrode with Executive Order 13233 that allowed BUSH to claim that he never had to talk about ANYTHING!!­!

Try again????

[Patriotallday]

07:53 PM on 12/08/2009

Executive Order 13489 is easy to understand­. Why are you having difficulty­? Please refer to answer above for assistance­. Obama's records ARE sealed and only those he authorizes will be released to the public. Nice try though!

[ObamAtomic]

04:55 PM on 12/08/2009

Strange ,you sound like flossohi,L­OL

[Patriotallday]

04:47 PM on 12/08/2009

So Obama now says he wants more "transpare­ncy" and an open government­? Wonderful ! Does that mean he is now going to make all those sealed personal documents public? CNN reports today the Obama administra­tion has asked for the debt ceiling to be raised to $13.2 trillion. Further proof his policies are taking this country in the wrong direction, and his poll numbers are the worse compared to the last 11 presidents for the same amount of time in office. The "blame Bush" game is quite stale, as is the so called playing of the race card.

[postman66]

06:05 PM on 12/08/2009

Did you ever go to college? You don't have to "seal" anything. The POTUS has the same privacy rights regarding school records as every other citizen. As for his BC, he released the same legal BC as any other citizen legally uses.