Incredibly, we are just nine weeks away from inaugurating the next president of the United States, and millions of Americans still have citizenship eligibility questions that have never been addressed by Barack Obama and his entourage.

All that Barack Obama would have to do to put this issue to rest is release his complete birth certificate, revealing where he was born and who were his parents. It seems like a simple thing.

Personally, I doubt the Democratic Party would be so stupid as to run a disqualified candidate for president of the United States. I doubt Hillary Clinton would have accepted defeat at the hands of a candidate ineligible for the job.

So, it would seem Obama is simply thumbing his nose at the Constitution and the concerns of millions of American people. After all, he has made it clear the Constitution doesn't mean what it says anyway; it's all a matter of opinion.

Maybe his intransigence on this seemingly ridiculous matter is just his way of showing he will, as president, consider himself above the Constitution. I don't know any other way to interpret his behavior, do you?

Until last week, no one in the Obama camp would even comment on the controversy surrounding his complete birth certificate, which has never been released publicly. That changed after much hounding by World Net Daily staffers who managed to get one official Obama representative to proclaim — anonymously, I might add — that seven lawsuits filed by citizens trying to secure the birth certificate are "pure garbage."

Obama's record of noncooperation and secrecy has now resulted in conspiracy theories that will plague him throughout his administration, if he doesn't address them now with utter transparence. Do I expect him to do so? No, I don't.

He not only thinks those lawsuits are "garbage." Evidently, that's also what he thinks of the people who truly believe the Constitution means what it says and those who believe there ought to be some controlling legal authority determining Obama's eligibility for the highest office in the land before he is sworn in Jan. 20.

Count me among those who really want to see that birth certificate now. Imagine the level of secrecy we can expect from an Obama administration that guards his birth certificate with such tenacity.

I'm calling on Barack Obama today to release the entire birth certificate. And just so there is no mistake about what I am asking for, I want the part of the birth certificate that shows which hospital he was born in and the names of his parents. That is the only way to establish if he is truly a U.S. citizen. Further, I am asking as a journalist and pundit that if there is any government agency or government official anywhere on the planet that has inspected the birth certificate and can provide those details to the American people, now is the time to do it.

I'm also calling on all my colleagues, from coast to coast and around the world, not to let this matter drop. Apparently it is a point of real sensitivity with Obama people. Good. Let's rub it in. Let's demand he produce the birth certificate at every turn — at every press conference, at every appearance, on every talk show.

Could anything be more important than enforcing the requirements of our Constitution?

This is hardly a laughing matter. The longer this soap opera drags on, the more suspicions it will raise — the less credibility our electoral system will have, the more people will believe the whole political system is rigged.

Who does that benefit? I honestly can't imagine.

What possible motivation could Obama have for not producing this simple, innocuous document that every citizen must produce to get a passport, driver's license or Social Security card?

Are you curious? So am I. Where's the birth certificate, Sen. Obama?

Joseph Farah's newest book, "None of the Above: Why 2008 Is the Year To Cast the Ultimate Protest Vote," is available now. To find out more about Joseph Farah and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

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