Thursday, June 19, 2008

Polarik: Was Obama's 'Certificate of Birth' Forged?


Graphics guru Polarik, writing at Townhall, examines Barack Obama's Certificate of Birth. And it raises more questions than it answers.

The Daily Kos blog has posted a JPG that allegedly is Barack Obama's "Certificate of Birth." From a detailed analysis of the image and the text, it looks like it was created by a graphics program, and is not a true copy of an original, certified document.

I've been working with computers, printers, and typewriters for over 20 years, and given a set of printed letters, I can discern what kind of device made them. Printer output is quite different from the text created by a graphics program, and even if a document looks "official," it may not be.

The "Certificate of Birth," which I will call "COB," is posted on the Kos website as a color JPG. The reason for making it a color JPG, IMHO, is to induce the viewer to believe that this is a genuine copy of an original document -- something that a black & white, or even greyscale, reproduction would not convey as well.

Basically, anyone could have produced this document on his or her own computer, and I'll tell you why.

But it's not just on the DailyKos site. Barack Obama's official site appears to have the same image, albeit in smaller form.

Read the analysis. I've got a hundred bucks that says this image is a fake.

Update: Rants and Refinements spots this gem:


An ink stamp on the back of the certificate soaks through enough to show us the date: Jun 6, 2007. This is all a bit odd for me.


Hat tip: JonJayRay

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