Transparency (Obama Style)

During the endless campaign of 2008, numerous people raised questions about Obama’s birth certificate and his eligibility to become president of the US. Many others took note, but presumed that there was nothing to the concern.

With time, his refusal to present a valid, long form birth certificate has grown more problematic. The version made public would not be sufficient proof of American citizenship in Hawaii, the state that provided it. If everything is all right, then why the continued secrecy? Ordinarily a birth certificate has to be one of the most innocuous documents possible. The cover-up itself provides fuel to keep the lawsuits going and the innuendos growing in intensity.

But, that’s just part of the story. He hasn’t even allowed his kindergarten documents to be made public. The school he said he attended released a photo of two teachers and five students and a statement that he had attended in 1966-67, but no official records. Ordinarily a copy of the birth certificate is required to register at the school.

His high school records from Punahou in Honolulu have been declared off limits. Even though he attended the exclusive school for eight years on scholarship, no records of what type of scholarship he won have been released. The concern is that his scholarship was one granted to foreign students.

Nor has he allowed Occidental College in Los Angeles to provide information about his scholarship for the first two years of college there. The school has hidden behind the FERPA Act to keep from replying to a lawsuit demanding information about the scholarship, his grades, and classes taken.

True to his established pattern, little is known about his last two years of college at Columbia. He refused to publish his transcript and cannot remember the names of any friends or classmates there. Fox News could not find one classmate out of the 400 they contacted who remembered him. He supposedly wrote a major thesis on Soviet disarmament his senior year, but no copy has been made available either by Obama or the school. A 1983 program lists him as a graduate, but not one with any honors.

That makes one wonder how he got into Harvard Law School without someone, somewhere pulling some strings. He and his staff have carefully guarded his SAT and LSAT scores. They’re remained mum about his grades although he buckled down enough to graduate magna cum laude. He did become the first black to serve as president of Harvard Law Review, but during the entire year, he published no articles.

While modern presidential candidates have made full disclosures of their complete medical records, Obama merely released six paragraphs from his physician, with no supporting documentation, that covered 21 years of treatment. McCain, on the other hand, released 1200 pages of medical records.

His passport is something else that remains off limits to the public. Three times during the campaign, someone in the State department made unauthorized searches of his file, but no one has revealed what they discovered. These files could have contained citizenship information and basic biographical information. However, the one person who was cooperating with the authorities in the investigation was found shot to death in his car in Washington, DC.

Other non controversial records that have been requested, but denied are:
• Baptismal certificate
• Complete files and schedules of his years as an Illinois state senator from 1997 to 2004
• Obama's client list from during his time in private practice with the Chicago law firm of Davis, Miner, Barnhill and Gallard
• Illinois State Bar Association records
• Obama/Dunham marriage license
• Obama/Dunham divorce documents
• Soetoro/Dunham marriage license
• Adoption records