WH Releases Birth Certificate

The Hill reports:

White House officials released photocopies of President Obama's long-form birth certificate to reporters Wednesday that show Obama was born in Hawaii.

The White House said the debate over whether Obama was born in the U.S. and is eligible to serve in the Oval Office was a “sideshow,” but was also distracting attention from important issues.

“The President believed the distraction over his birth certificate wasn’t good for the country. It may have been good politics and good TV, but it was bad for the American people and distracting from the many challenges we face as a country,” the White House said in a strong>blog post< written by White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer.

The surprise move comes after the issue of Obama’s birthplace returned to the front page courtesy of businessman and television personality Donald Trump, who is flirting with a campaign for the GOP nomination for president. Trump has rocketed to the top of polls primarily by raising questions about whether Obama was born in the U.S.

Pfeiffer said that it “probably would've been in [Obama's] long-term political interest to let the birther debate continue in Republican debates for months to come,” but that it would not have been good for the country.

“The president believed it was becoming an distraction from the major issues in the country,” Pfeiffer said.

Mainstream politicians in both parties have said questions about whether Obama was born in the U.S. are not credible, yet polls show large numbers of voters, particularly Republicans, do not believe Obama was born in the U.S. A poll by The New York Times and CBS released last week showed 45 percent of Republican adults do not believe Obama was born in the U.S.

The long-form birth certificate released Wednesday shows Obama was born in Honolulu.