I long ago affirmed that I believe Barack Obama is a natural born citizen of the United States, born in Hawaii in 1961. Simply put, I find it implausible that there would be a conspiracy, dating back nearly five decades, to cover up the details surrounding the birth of a mixed-race child of obscure parentage – or that such a conspiracy could be maintained in the face of his growing celebrity and political success. The question of Barack Obama’s place of birth, however, remains alive in some segments of the body politic. Witness this challenge to the man’s election.

A former opponent of Barack Obama's has come back to haunt him over questions regarding Obama's citizenship.

According to a press release from the American Independent Party, former presidential candidate Alan Keyes and other members of the party have filed suit in California Superior Court in Sacramento to stop the state from giving its electoral votes to President-elect Barack Obama until documentary evidence is provided to prove Obama is indeed a natural born citizen of the United States.

Really, there is only one way to kill off this silly conspiracy theory. It is, obviously, the release of a certified copy of the original certificate of live birth issued/filed in 1961 when Obama was born. We have the word of the Republican governor of Hawaii that the document exists and does prove that Obama was born in the United States – why not allow the American public to see it? After all, there really can be no argument that there is an expectation of privacy on his part – consider the amount of information about him in the public domain, including material released to the media and general public by his campaigns. The release of the birth certificate would serve to eliminate any and all doubt about his birthplace and citizenship – and would clearly affirm his eligibility for the high office to which he has been elected.

So why does Barack Obama, arguably the most public figure in the world, insist upon keeping this scrap of paper under lock and key? Is there something in the record that would prove to be embarrassing to his long-dead parents? Or is it indicative of a fundamental contempt for the American people’s right to be assured that their president does meet the constitutional requirements for the office to which he was elected? Or maybe he just wants to let this conspiracy theory alive in order to distract from something else.

But if he really has the good of the country at heart, Barack Obama ought to authorize and expedite the immediate release of the original document due to the historic nature of the event it documents.