Obama to young Hawaiian: ‘You have a birth certificate?’

“He’s a Hawaiian!” Obama exclaimed, looking up to face Andre Wupperman, who now lives in Orlando and will turn 7 next week, according to pool reporters.

“Do you know how to do a shaka?” he asked, making the Hawaiian gesture with his thumb and pinky finger.

“You were born in Hawaii?” he asked the child next, then pointed at him. “Do you have a birth certificate?”

Behind Obama’s grin and laughs from those nearby lie the conspiracy theories of some conservative Republicans, who maintain that Obama was not born in the United States, and is therefore not eligible to be president.

He released a certification of live birth during the 2008 campaign, and in the spring of 2011, released his long-form birth certificate. Both show that he was born in a Hawaii hospital on August 4, 1961. Contemporaneously published newspaper announcements also noted the birth in the Aloha State. Only “natural born” citizens of the United States are eligible to be president.