Obama's 'long-form' birth certificate is released

President Obama spoke about the release of his “long-form” birth certificate at the White House on Wednesday.

President Obama on Wednesday posted online a copy of his “long-form” birth certificate from the state of Hawaii, hoping to finally end a long-simmering conspiracy theory among some conservatives who asserted he was not born in the United States and was not a legitimate president.

The birth certificate, which is posted on the White House Web site, shows that Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, and is signed by state officials and his mother.

“The President believed the distraction over his birth certificate wasn’t good for the country,” Dan Pfeiffer, the White House communications director, wrote on the Web site Wednesday morning. Pfeiffer said on the site Obama had authorised officials in Hawaii to release the document broadly.

In a statement to the news media Wednesday morning, Obama said he decided to release the document in an effort to end the “silliness” about his birth that threatened to distract from the serious issues facing the country.

“Over the last two and a half years, I have watched with bemusement,” he said in brief remarks. “I’ve been puzzled by the degree to which this thing just kept on going.”

Obama said there would be a “segment of people for which, no matter what we put out, this issue will not be put to rest.” But he said that he was “speaking to the vast majority of the American people as well as to the press. We do not have time for this kind of silliness.”

The president said he decided to release the “long-form” birth certificate two weeks ago, after news reports about the controversy dominated a week in which Republicans released their 2012 budget and Obama gave a speech on the nation’s debt. “This is going to generate huge and serious debates, important debates,” Obama said of those issues.

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