Obama’s Re-election Campaign Gets Cheeky

President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign is poking fun at itself, and at the rumor mill, which has spent years raising questions about the veracity of Obama’s birth in Hawaii.
Obama’s Re-election Campaign Gets Cheeky
Andrea Hayley
5/18/2011
Updated:
10/1/2015
<a><img src="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/09/birth_mug_shirt_large.jpg" alt="BORN IN THE USA: Photos of a new T-shirt and mug made available by President Barack Obama's re-election campaign. The merchandise, offered in exchange for a campaign contribution, features the president's photo, a copy of his birth certificate and the message: 'Made in the USA.' (Taken from barackobama.com)" title="BORN IN THE USA: Photos of a new T-shirt and mug made available by President Barack Obama's re-election campaign. The merchandise, offered in exchange for a campaign contribution, features the president's photo, a copy of his birth certificate and the message: 'Made in the USA.' (Taken from barackobama.com)" width="350" class="size-medium wp-image-1803876"/></a>
BORN IN THE USA: Photos of a new T-shirt and mug made available by President Barack Obama's re-election campaign. The merchandise, offered in exchange for a campaign contribution, features the president's photo, a copy of his birth certificate and the message: 'Made in the USA.' (Taken from barackobama.com)
WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign is poking fun at itself, and at the rumor mill, which has spent years raising questions about the veracity of Obama’s birth in Hawaii. They are now offering supporters an opportunity to purchase merchandise that promotes an insider’s joke.

T-shirts and coffee mugs featuring the president’s photo, a copy of his birth certificate and the message: “Made in the USA,” are now available at BarackObama.com.

Obama’s deputy campaign manager Julianna Smoot posted the advertisement in a blog post on Wednesday.

“Get Your 2012 Made in the USA T-Shirt and Mug,” the merchandise is available in exchange for a campaign donation.

Also included in the blog post is Ms. Smoot’s musing, “This week, Jerome Corsi released a new book that his publisher says will be a bestseller ‘of historic proportions.’ The title is ‘Where’s the Birth Certificate?’—yes, really,” she wrote.

“There’s no way to make this stuff completely go away. The only thing we can do is laugh at it—and make sure as many other people as possible are in on the joke,” she wrote.

The president’s birth certificate from Hawaii was first released by his campaign in 2008, but conspiracy theorists and others—most notably, real estate mogul Donald Trump, who during a short presidential run exploratory tour, insisted he did not accept the document’s veracity.

In response to the ensuing media “distraction” from the budget crisis, created by Trump’s high profile remarks, White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer said in a statement, “The president directed his counsel to review the legal authority for seeking access to the long form certificate and to request on that basis that the Hawaii State Department of Health make an exception to release a copy of his long form birth certificate.”

The request was granted, and the long form document, complete with doctor’s signatures, was released to the public on April 27. It again received a flurry of media attention.

“I know that there’s going to be a segment of people for which, no matter what we put out, this issue will not be put to rest. But I’m speaking to the vast majority of the American people, as well as to the press. We do not have time for this kind of silliness,” said the president in an address to the American people.

The president’s re-election campaign officially kicked off last month on April 14, in Chicago, with three fundraising dinners that brought in an estimated $2 million dollars from 2,500 supporters.

The president began his working career as a community organizer in Chicago’s Altgeld Gardens public housing project in the mid-1980s. He later worked in the city as a civil rights attorney. He also taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School from 1992 to 2004.

Headquarters for Obama’s re-election campaign opened last week in downtown Chicago. The 50,000-square-foot space in a high-rise is just down the street from headquarters of the president’s successful 2008 bid.

This past week, Obama gave remarks at a number of school graduation commencement ceremonies.

The most recent was on Wednesday, at the 130th commencement ceremony of the Coast Guard Academy in New London, Conn.

“I’ve seen the Coast Guard’s precision when some of you—the Class of 2011—marched in the parade during my inauguration. You looked pretty good on that day, too,” Obama told the graduates.

Wednesday evening, Obama will attend a fundraiser in Boston, his second fundraising trip there. He is planning to meet supporters at the Cyclorama at the Boston Center for the Arts.
Reporting on the business of food, food tech, and Silicon Alley, I studied the Humanities as an undergraduate, and obtained a Master of Arts in business journalism from Columbia University. I love covering the people, and the passion, that animates innovation in America. Email me at andrea dot hayley at epochtimes.com
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