You are, of course, entitled, and welcome, to your opinion as to whether the clamor for the prez to release his birth certificate was “a waste of time, resources, and brainpower for otherwise clever and thoughtful would-be activists.” The fact remains that HE made it the issue it became by beligerantly refusing to comply with a very simple request. He obviously gains tremendous joy from toying with the minions. It is his arrogance which rankles!

I agree with the comments to move on but …

There are two primary constitutional qualifications to become President: 35 years of age and birth in the United States of America. Both qualifications can be answered by an official hospital birth certificate. Maybe in the past when many babies were born at home – and there was no hospital birth certificate record – a birth certificate was not suggested in politics as a requirement for a presidential candidate. But those days of domestic births without a hospital birth certificate are long gone.

The requirement on any citizen to obtain a copy of his/her own has been a requirement for numerous reasons: from personnel offices for civilian employment, from admissions offices for entry into a college or a university, and from application offices for other purposes. At the Federal level it is a prerequisite for a federal government passport among many other official government requirements such as security clearances of various levels. Those institutional demands have been unwavering and absolute – no authenticated copy of your hospital birth certificate, no admission.

The 2008 request for an Obama birth certificate was certainly reasonable considering his parents and the circumstances of his birth.

Any other American, in the course of life, when faced with a request for an authenticated hospital birth certificate would have been required by the requestor to produce same.

Mr. Obama probably had to obtain a copy of his birth certificate and provide a copy for entry admission into at least three educational instititions and later for his U. S. passport. This request was not new to him.

Other modern presidents have gone beyond the birth certificate and routinely produced documentation on other kinds of personal information and records. They have complied even though these requirements have been well beyond establishing proof of meeting the constitutional requirement to be president.

The print and television media – the so-called professional “Press Corps” – obviously gave Obama a pass early on with this birth certificate issue beginning early on. The Democratic Party was no help. It never required this on their candidate to lay the issue to rest.

Mr. Obama apparently delighted in keeping secrets, playing games with the press corps, and tweaking the general public during the campaign. That behaviour continued after he became president.

The birth certificate issue became a moot point once he was sworn in as president. Thereafter, it became, like they say, an academic issue.

After he became President it became an issue insofar as his actions to that point lacked openness and transparency.

His behaviour since 2008 on this subject has been condesending to the electorate and remained very elitist.

I agree with Ron Bass, both parents have to be American citizens for the child to be an American citizen. There are some who say we should move on to more important issues; they are crossly mistaken. It is extremely important to make sure our President is Constitutionally eligibe to hold the office.
I don’t think his constitutionality has been established yet!

I hate to inform you but it is not a non-issue. What Obama released has been proven a forgery. Too many experts have proven that it is not a true birth certificate. I know you want to move on but don’t give out false information or keep up with the news.