On the August 15 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends, Jerome Corsi, author of The Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality, claimed that the campaign of Sen. Barack Obama “has a false, fake birth certificate posted on their website.” In fact, the Hawaii Department of Health has confirmed that the birth certificate posted online by the Obama campaign is “a valid Hawaii state birth certificate” and has called the speculation about Obama's citizenship “pretty ridiculous.”

Referring to Obama's birth certificate, which was posted on the Obama campaign's Fight the Smears website in response to unfounded claims that Obama is not a natural-born citizen, Corsi said: “The campaign has a false, fake birth certificate posted on their website ... The original birth certificate of Obama has never been released, and the campaign refuses to release it.” Co-host Steve Doocy asked, “Well, couldn't it just be a State of Hawaii-produced duplicate?” Corsi replied: “No, it's a -- there's been good analysis of it on the Internet, and it's been shown to have watermarks from Photoshop. It's a fake document that's on the website right now.”

In an August 13 article, The Honolulu Advertiser reported that Hawaii Department of Health spokeswoman Janice Okubo said that her office contacted the Obama campaign to find a solution to the repeated requests for Obama's birth certificate. She reportedly said that the Obama campaign “responded and apparently it isn't good enough that he posted his birth certificate.” She reportedly added: “They say they want it because they claim he is not a citizen of the United States. It's pretty ridiculous.” From the Advertiser article:

The Obama campaign said it has posted a copy of his birth certificate at www.fightthesmears.com in response to Internet chatter that the Illinois senator is not a natural-born citizen. But the posting has done little to curb the nearly weekly requests to the Health Department for copies of the original, Okubo said.

Some skeptics point to the lack of an official state seal on the birth certificate posted on the Obama campaign Web site.

But seals often are placed on the back of the birth certificate, Okubo said, “and whether it shows through depends on how much force was put into it.”

Others wonder why a large black rectangle appears next to the words, “CERTIFICATE NO.”

“The thing that's redacted is just our file number,” she said. “Potentially, if you have that number, you could break into the system.”

Health officials contacted the Obama campaign a few months ago in response to the persistent inquiries “to see if they could try and resolve the issue with the people who were asking questions,” she said.

“They responded and apparently it isn't good enough that he posted his birth certificate,” Okubo said. “They say they want it because they claim he is not a citizen of the United States. It's pretty ridiculous.”

Additionally, Politifact.com, in a June 27 article, quoted Okubo stating of Obama's posted birth certificate: “It's a valid Hawaii state birth certificate.” Noting the unfounded “internet” rumor that Obama's birth certificate is “Photoshopped and a wholesale fraud,” PolitiFact concluded: “There is not one shred of evidence to disprove PolitiFact's conclusion that the candidate's name is Barack Hussein Obama, or to support allegations that the birth certificate he released isn't authentic. And that's true no matter how many people cling to some hint of doubt and use the Internet to fuel their innate sense of distrust.”

As Media Matters for America has noted, Corsi has pushed numerous falsehoods in media appearances promoting his falsehood-laden book.

From the August 15 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends:

DOOCY: You were involved in the writing of the --

CORSI: Correct.

DOOCY: -- Swift Boat book --

CORSI: Absolutely. Right.

DOOCY: -- four years ago, and so a lot of people have suggested, well, the Obama campaign is not going to allow their candidate to get Swift Boated once again by this guy, and do you feel almost as if you yourself are being Swift Boated?

CORSI: Well, in a way, but I also think the Obama campaign is making the identical mistake as the Kerry campaign.

DOOCY: How so?

CORSI: Well, they started now calling me names and trying to get The New York Times to introduce me as a gadfly and try to get the AP to do press releases for them. You know, I couldn't find this 41-page report on the website until 1 a.m.

DOOCY: Yeah.

CORSI: And so now, I'm going to -- there's -- the substantive issues in here -- you know, they say I got incorrect the date of Senator Obama's marriage. Well, what would be really helpful is if Senator Obama would release primary documents like his birth certificate. The campaign has a false, fake birth certificate posted on their website. How is anybody supposed to really piece together his life?

DOOCY: What do you mean they have a “false birth certificate” on their website?

CORSI: The original birth certificate of Obama has never been released, and the campaign refuses to release it.

DOOCY: Well, couldn't it just be a State of Hawaii-produced duplicate?

CORSI: No, it's a -- there's been good analysis of it on the Internet, and it's been shown to have watermarks from Photoshop. It's a fake document that's on the website right now, and the original birth certificate the campaign refuses to produce. As I point out, you know, in Obama Nation, and by the way, I don't know what chapters in here the campaign is so afraid the people are going to read. They must be desperately afraid of this book.