Editor's note: Tune in to AC360° Tuesday beginning at 10 p.m. ET to see the remainder of Gary Tuchman's investigation into President Barack Obama's birthplace.
(CNN) -- Was Barack Obama really born in America?
A new CNN investigation reveals what most analysts have been saying since the so-called "birther" controversy erupted during the 2008 presidential campaign: Obama was born in the state of Hawaii on August 4, 1961. Period.
Obama passes CNN birther investigation
While the president has made light of the controversy, the question remains political red meat for some of his critics. A recent CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll showed that nearly 75% of Americans believe Obama was definitely or probably born in the United States. More than four in 10 Republicans, however, believe he probably or definitely was not born in America.
The U.S. Constitution says only "natural born" citizens can become president -- a vague clause that some members of the birther movement contend disqualifies Obama because, they insist, he was born outside the United States.
Skeptics contend, among other things, that Obama was born in his father's home country of Kenya. Potential GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump recently seized on the issue, saying he had doubts about Obama's background.
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CNN investigators in Honolulu, however, found nothing to reinforce those doubts.
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Dr. Chiyome Fukino, a former director of the Hawaii Department of Health and a Republican, told CNN in her most extensive comments to date that she has "no doubt" Obama was born in the state.
Obama's 2008 campaign produced a "certification of live birth," a document legally accepted as confirmation of a birth and routinely used for official purposes. Fukino, however, went one step further, taking advantage of a state law that allows certain public officials to examine a person's actual birth certificate if there is a "direct and tangible interest."
The president's actual certificate, she said, is stored in a vault in the building that houses the Department of Health. Ironically, unlike the certificate of live birth, it is no longer accepted for official usage.
Obama's certificate is "absolutely authentic," she said. "He was absolutely born here in the state of Hawaii."
In order to see what happens when someone born in Hawaii requests a birth certificate, CNN asked a current resident of the state -- Stig Waidelich -- if he could get a copy of the document.
Waidelich was born just hours after Obama in August 1961. Like Obama, Waidelich's birth was announced at the time in the Honolulu Star Bulletin newspaper.
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Waidelich, like Obama in 2008, was given a certification of live birth in response to his request.
Could Obama's 1961 birth announcement in the Honolulu Star Bulletin be a fake? Some conspiracy theorists say yes. Longtime Honolulu newspaper reporter Dan Nakaso says no.
"It's not possible," Nakaso told CNN. "Under the system that existed back then, there was no avenue for people to submit information that way. ... The information came directly from the state Department of Health."
Indeed, as CNN confirmed, all birth announcements at the time came directly from hospital birth records.
Could Obama, a self-proclaimed Christian, be preventing the distribution of copies of the original birth certificate because it identifies him as a Muslim?
Fukino says no. The original certificate includes no mention of the president's religion. And indeed, other original certificates from that time don't mention faith.
Obama could file a Freedom of Information Act request to view his original birth certificate and make copies. But at this point, the White House maintains, nothing will satisfy the doubters.
Rick Smethurst, a 2008 John McCain voter who now lives in Obama's childhood home in Hawaii, counts himself among the doubters. He wants to find someone who saw Obama immediately after the president was born.
Current Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie says he did. Abercrombie, a Democrat, was friendly with Ann Dunham, Obama's mother, and remembers celebrating the birth.
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"Of course, we had no idea at the time that the future president of the United States was that little boy, that little baby," Abercrombie recalled. But "we are very, very happy ... that took place."
Professor Alice Dewey of the University of Hawaii was a faculty adviser to Dunham and also knew the future president when he was a child. She called the controversy "funny." She said there is "no way" Obama wasn't born in the state.
Dewey remembered a conversation in which Dunham compared the birth of Obama with that of his sister, Maya, who actually was born overseas.
"She said, 'When I had Maya, it was a lot of more difficult because Indonesia doesn't believe in painkillers while you're giving birth. ... Of course, in the United States, giving birth to Barry (Obama's childhood nickname) was quite different and much more comfortable,' " Dewey recalled.
Waidelich's mother, Monika, believes she saw Obama in Honolulu's Kapiolani Medical Center next to her son back in 1961.
"In those days, there were hardly any other black babies," she told CNN.
The hospital wouldn't show patient records from 1961, but the state's African-American population was less than 1% at the time.
Regardless of the evidence, there may be no convincing some of those who question the president's origins.
"I find it a bit amusing in the sense that (the issue) keeps resurfacing over and over again," Fukino said. "It really tells us that the whole conspiracy notion is out there (and) that if there is an issue that needs a following, they will find one.
"No matter what you do or say, it make no difference," she said.
Abercrombie, who tried to put an end to the controversy when he became governor, told CNN he just hopes that "people who have this political orientation towards the president respect us here in Hawaii."
"Respect his mother and father," the governor urged. "Respect the people I loved and the people that I knew, and the little boy who grew up here in paradise and became president."
That, the evidence suggests, may be easier said than done.
#1. To: Ferret Mike, war, , *Crime and Corruption*, *Politics and Politicians* (#0)
A new CNN investigation reveals what most analysts have been saying since the so-called "birther" controversy erupted during the 2008 presidential campaign: Obama was born in the state of Hawaii on August 4, 1961. Period.
Ok,I have always believed he was born in Hawaii,but I just changed my mind. If Pravda says he was born there,he wasn't. They are never content to just spin the news to a leftist perspective,they outright lie. They have been caught at this time after time,from Operation Tailwind to the 96 Russian elections to various polls they have rigged and been caught rigging.
Obama's 2008 campaign produced a "certification of live birth," a document legally accepted as confirmation of a birth and routinely used for official purposes. Fukino, however, went one step further, taking advantage of a state law that allows certain public officials to examine a person's actual birth certificate if there is a "direct and tangible interest."
The president's actual certificate, she said, is stored in a vault in the building that houses the Department of Health.
YOO,HOO! War! See that? The very person you claim that says a COLB is the same as a birth certificate says right here that they ain't.
Ironically, unlike the certificate of live birth, it is no longer accepted for official usage.
A change that happened after people began claiming the acting president had never shown his,and that the COLB wasn't proof of America citizenship.
Obama's 2008 campaign produced a "certification of live birth," a document legally accepted as confirmation of a birth and routinely used for official purposes. Fukino, however, went one step further, taking advantage of a state law that allows certain public officials to examine a person's actual birth certificate if there is a "direct and tangible interest."
See this,war? What does this mean to YOU? Enquiring minds,and all dat.
Waidelich, like Obama in 2008, was given a certification of live birth in response to his request.
Typical CNN spin/lie. They are IMPLYING you can't get a birth certificate,which also means the acting president isn't providing his because the state won't give it to him. Which is bullshit on more than one level. Besides the FACT that a sitting president can get any freaking document he wants to get,so can everybody else. In FACT,NON-POLITICAL people applying for a security clearance are REQUIRED to provide a birth certificate. So are people enlisting in the US military.
What is wrong with requiring the Commander in Chief of the US military from having to meet the same MINIMUM requirements a freaking Private E-1 in the US Army has to meet?
WHERE are the leftist equality demands for the powerful to be held to the same requirements as the powerless?
The president's actual certificate, she said, is stored in a vault in the building that houses the Department of Health. Ironically, unlike the certificate of live birth, it is no longer accepted for official usage.
Once again a spin lie told to benefit the pretender in the WH. It may no longer be accepted for official usage in Hawaii,BUT IT IS STILL A REQUIREMENT UNDER FEDERAL LAW.
AND.......,once again it is no longer accepted in Hawaii because of laws that have been passed in order to give the pretender in the WH political coverage. Dims and other idiots will read that and think that has been the law ever since Hawaii has existed,and it just ain't so.
"It's not possible," Nakaso told CNN. "Under the system that existed back then, there was no avenue for people to submit information that way. ... The information came directly from the state Department of Health."
Indeed, as CNN confirmed, all birth announcements at the time came directly from hospital birth records.
AND.........ANOTHER lie. Birth announcements came from the newspapers,and ANYBODY could place a phone call to a paper and have a birth announcement printed.
Or do they now want us to believe that home births (for instance) to be reported by a hospital?
Obama could file a Freedom of Information Act request to view his original birth certificate and make copies.
YOO,HOO! War! See this? Says right here that the pretender can REQUEST AND RECEIVE A CERTIFIED COPY OF HIS ACTUAL BIRTH CERTIFICATE.
Current Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie says he did.
Yeah,and if you can't trust him,who CAN you trust?
Gimme a freaking break!
Waidelich's mother, Monika, believes she saw Obama in Honolulu's Kapiolani Medical Center next to her son back in 1961.
"In those days, there were hardly any other black babies," she told CNN.
Yeah. You can look at a black infant and then recognize him 45 years later from that one encounter,right?
Abercrombie, who tried to put an end to the controversy when he became governor, told CNN he just hopes that "people who have this political orientation towards the president respect us here in Hawaii."
"What he got, everybody got," said Fukino. "He put out exactly what everybody gets when they ask for a birth certificate."
Fukino was and is lying. ANYBODY born in Hawaii can get a certified copy of their original birth certificate by merely asking for it and paying a small fee. Several people born in Hawaii have done just this and posted their birth certificates on the internet since these claims were started.
But Wisch, the spokesman for the attorney general's office, said state law does not in fact permit the release of "vital records," including an original "record of live birth" — even to the individual whose birth it records.
"It's a Department of Health record and it can't be released to anybody," he said. Nor do state laws have any provision that authorizes such records to be photocopied, Wisch said. If Obama wanted to personally visit the state health department, he would be permitted to inspect his birth record, Wisch said.
But if he or anybody else wanted a copy of their birth records, they would be told to fill out the appropriate state form and receive back the same computer generated "certification of live birth" form that everybody else gets — which is exactly what Obama did four years ago.
But Wisch, the spokesman for the attorney general's office, said state law does not in fact permit the release of "vital records," including an original "record of live birth" — even to the individual whose birth it records.
Whose birth records are they,yours or the states?
"It's a Department of Health record and it can't be released to anybody," he said.
He's full of Bush. You have present one to enlist in the military.
Nor do state laws have any provision that authorizes such records to be photocopied, Wisch said.
That's not what Fukino says. And there ain't nothing new or high-tech about it. I got certified true copies of mine in 1964.
But if he or anybody else wanted a copy of their birth records, they would be told to fill out the appropriate state form and receive back the same computer generated "certification of live birth" form that everybody else gets — which is exactly what Obama did four years ago.
