What? No discussion of Obama's COLB certificate today?

[Magda Hassan]

'Obama was born in Kenya and raised in Indonesia and Hawaii': President's OWN literary agency promotional booklet from 1991 claims he WAS born in Africa

• Promotional authors pamphlet from publishing imprint Acton & Dystel says Obama - then president of the Harvard Law Review - was 'born in Kenya'
  
• Pamphlet edited by now-Dystal & Goderich literary editor Miriam Goderich
  
• President Obama published Hawaiian birth certificate last year in hopes to end 'birther' theories
  
  

By BETH STEBNERPUBLISHED: 20:23 GMT, 17 May 2012 | UPDATED: 22:05 GMT, 17 May 2012

Bio: The biography for Mr Obama published in a literary agency's promotional pamphlet says he was born in Kenya

The simmering political row over President Obama's heritage was dramatically reignited today as a 1991 booklet boldly announced that the Democrat was born in Kenya and raised in Indonesia and Hawaii.'In the cover for a 1991 promotional booklet by Mr Obama's then-publisher Acton & Dystel, he is as the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review, (who) was born in Kenya and raised in Indonesia and Hawaii.'The information, which could be used as more ammunition against the incumbent, comes months before what will likely be a close campaign between Mr Obama and likely Republican nominee Mitt Romney.
The 36-page promotional booklet was exclusively obtained by Breitbart, and was sent out to colleagues within the publishing industry in the early 1990s.

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A later biography, which can still be found on Acton & Dystel's archives, reads: Barack Obama is the junior Democratic senator from Illinois and was the dynamic keynote speaker at the 2004 Democratic National Convention.
He was also the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review. He was born in Kenya to an American anthropologist and a Kenyan finance minister and was raised in Indonesia, Hawaii, and Chicago. His first book, Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance, has been a long time New York Times bestseller.The blue, teal, and silver booklet was printed in part to celebrate Acton & Dystel's 15th anniversary, and also to display the breadth and depth of authors the imprint published.
Other authors featured include Ralph Nader, former Speaker of the House Thomas P. O'Neill, and pop group New Kids on the Block.Miriam Goderich, who now works at partner company Dystel & Goderich, is listed as the pamphlet's editor.An assistant for Ms Goderich told MailOnline that she was not commenting on the story at this time.Scroll down for videoDreams of my father: The 1991 pamphlet says Barack Obama was born in Kenya and raised in Hawaii and Indonesia; Mr Obama is pictured here with his father, Barack Obama Sr, in an undated 1960s photo

Controversy: Obama, pictured with his mother Ann Dunham in the 1960s. The president settled birther claims when he published his Hawaiian birth certificate publically last year

'LATEST INSTALLMENT OF WILDLY INCOMPETENT VETTING': PUNDITS TAKE AIM AT BREITBART

Pundits took to the Breitbart story like wildfire, with both the left and right coming up with heated responses to the article.
New York Magazine columnist Jonathan Chait writes that the controversy' was little more than the result of a lazy literary agent.'
He failed to see the pattern that Breitbart was trying to make, and notes: Breitbart is careful to tiptoe around (the birther shock angle.)'

Media Matters for America, a politically progressive watchdog group, calls the article the latest installment of the self-serious and wildly incompetent Breitbart.com-let "vetting" of President Obama.'
They point out an article published February 6, 1990 in the New York Times, which declares that Mr Obama, 28, was elected as the first black president to The Harvard Law Review.
It reads: His late father, Barack Obama, was a finance minister in Kenya and his mother, Ann Dunham, is an American anthropologist now doing fieldwork in Indonesia. Mr Obama was born in Hawaii.'



Though he no longer represents Mr Obama, Jay Acton spoke with Breitbart about the cover, saying that almost nobody' wrote their own biography, though non-athletes were probably' approached to confirm the veracity of it.Mr Obama later left Acton & Dystel, submitting a book proposal to Simon & Schuster imprint Poseidon Press worth more than six figures.The book, tentatively called Journeys In Black And White, was later abandoned for the autobiography Dreams From My Father.A note from Breitbart's senior management at the top of the article offers the following disclaimer: It is evidence not of the President's foreign origin, but that Barack Obama's public persona has perhaps been presented differently at different times.'President Obama released his birth certificate to the public last April. He said during a press briefing at the time that he was puzzled at the degree to which this thing just keeps going on.'He said: We've had every official in Hawaii, Democrat and Republican, every news outlet that has investigated this, confirm that, yes, in fact, I was born in Hawaii, August 4, 1961, in Kapiolani Hospital.'The president concluded his speech by acknowledging that some people - despite the evidence - would not let go of the issue.
'I know that there's going to be a segment of people for which, no matter what we put out, this issue will not be put to rest,' he said.
'But I'm 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. We've got better stuff to do. I've got better stuff to do.'Proof is in the papers: Mr Obama released his birth certificate last April to try and quiet a debate within Republican circles that he was not born in the country



Though the White House was certainly hoping to silence the birther' movement by releasing the president's birth certificate, grumbles and murmurs have been commonplace since the April 27, 2011 release.
'We've had every official in Hawaii, Democrat and Republican, every news outlet that has investigated this, confirm that, yes, in fact, I was born in Hawaii, August 4, 1961, in Kapiolani Hospital.'
-Mr Obama, addressing the press on April 27, 2011

On May 12, Colorado Republican Congressman Mike Coffman brought up the issue at a fundraiser, saying: I don't know whether Barack Obama was born in the United States of America.
'I don't know that. But I do know this that in his heart, he's not an American.He's just not an American.'According to 9 News, Rep Coffman was first met with silence, but after several moments, fundraiser attendees offered tentative applause.However, the congressman issued an apology later in the week, writing: I have confidence in President Obama's citizenship and legitimacy as President of the United States.'He further qualified his statement by saying: I don't believe the president shares my belief in American Exceptionalism. His policies reflect a philosophy that America is but one nation of many equals.As a Marine, I believe America is unique and based on a core set of principles that makes it superior to other nations.'

THE 'BIRTHER' DEBATE: WHO SUPPORTED IT AND WHY OBAMA CHOSE TO RELEASE HIS BIRTH CERTIFICATE

Debated: Donald Trump led the 'birther' movement

Celebrity developer Donald Trump, who took the lead in sowing doubts about Mr Obama's birth, was gaining a following as he flirted with a Republican presidential bid.
A 2011 poll showed two-thirds of all Republicans - and smaller percentages of independents and Democrats - believing Mr Obama was born overseas or voicing uncertainty about his place of birth.
The public doubts about his birth, with their hints of xenophobic and even racist attitudes, threatened to feed broader suspicions and grievances among millions of Americans.
Unchallenged, those sentiments would linger through his re-election campaign, the Associated Press said in 2011.
Among many party activists, questioning Obama's birthplace - and thus his constitutional legitimacy as president - was a test of party allegiance.
Republican presidential hopefuls were forced into uncomfortable corners where they had to distance themselves from the birthers' claims without alienating potential voters.
Recognizing the potential backlash, Republican House Speaker John Boehner put some distance between the GOP establishment and the conspiracy theorists.
'This has long been a settled issue,' Boehner spokesman Brendan Buck said last April. 'The speaker's focus is on cutting spending, lowering gas prices and creating American jobs.'
What had given the issue its drive was the success critics such as Trump achieved by simply questioning why Mr Obama had not released the long-form version of his birth document.
The White House choreographed the release of the birth certificate.

Aides said Obama decided that he had had enough of the issue and asked his White House counsel, Bob Bauer, to look into getting a waiver from the state of Hawaii to release the document.

-Associated Press

Watch President Obama talk about his birth certificate
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