(AP) - Jack Wiley Dithers Reporting.
Our cracker-jack investigative journalism team has obtained the transcript of yesterday's Presidential Birther speech - from our source
at the Wall Street Journal. Our highly capable IT staff soon discovered that the transcript opened in Adobe Illustrator shows multiple layers, revealing some very interesting deletions from an earlier draft. The draft layer as viewed in Illustrator is presented here.
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The White House
Office of the Press Secretary
April 27, 2011
Remarks by the President
James S. Brady Press Briefing Room
9:48 A.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Hello, everybody. Now, let me just comment, first of all, on the fact that I can’t get the networks to break in on all kinds of other discussions — (laughter.) I was just back there listening to Chuck — he was saying, it’s amazing that he’s not going to be talking about national security. I would not have the networks breaking in if I was talking about that, Chuck, and you know it,
because my national security policies are a train wreck.
Q Wrong channel. (Laughter.)
THE PRESIDENT: As many of you have been briefed, we provided additional information today about the site of my birth. Now, this issue has been going on for two, two and a half years now
when I could have ended it with a phone call at any time. I think it started during the campaign
with a campaign operative for my Secretary of State. And I have to say that over the last two and a half years I have watched with bemusement
because I thought it was a political asset to paint my detractors as moonbats, I’ve been puzzled at the degree to which this thing just kept on going
and had hoped you media people would do a better job of painting my detractors as moonbats. We’ve had every official in Hawaii
on our payroll, Democrat and Republican, every news outlet
in our pocket that has investigated this, confirm that, yes, in fact, I was born in Hawaii, August 4, 1961, in Kapiolani Hospital.
We’ve posted
a blurry image of the certification that is given by the state of Hawaii on the Internet for everybody to see. People
on our payroll have provided affidavits that they, in fact, have seen this birth certificate. And yet this thing
my Secretary of State started just keeps on going.
Now, normally I would not comment on something like this, because obviously there’s a lot of stuff swirling in the press on at any given day and I’ve got other things to do
like play Golf with Richard Trumka. But two weeks ago, when the Republican House had put forward a budget that will have huge consequences potentially to the country, and when I gave a speech about my budget
speech and how I felt that we needed to invest in education and infrastructure and making sure that we had a strong safety net for our seniors even as we were closing the deficit
after I'm out of office, during that entire week the dominant news story wasn’t about these huge, monumental choices that we’re going to have to make as a nation. It was about my birth certificate. And that was true on most of the news outlets that were represented here
, even the ones in our pocket.
And so I just want to make a larger point here. We’ve got some enormous challenges out there
, like my 2012 campaign. There are a lot of folks out there who are still looking for work
due to my train wreck of an economic policy. Everybody is still suffering under high gas prices
due to my train wreck of an energy policy. We’re going to have to make a series of very difficult decisions about how we invest in our future but also get a hold of our deficit and our debt
after I'm out of office — how do we do that in a balanced way
guaranteeing I get all the spend and none of the cut.
And this is going to generate huge and serious debates
I will not participate in to preserve my messianic image, important debates. And there are going to be some fierce disagreements
I will not weigh in on to preserve my messianic image — and that’s good. That’s how democracy is supposed to work
now that I've lost my congressional super majority. And I am confident that the American people and America’s political leaders can come together in a bipartisan way and solve these problems
without me needing to take a stand with a veto or anything like that. We always have
taken care of Barack that way before.
But we’re not going to be able to do it if we are distracted by questions
you people in the media haven't done a good enough job of burying. We’re not going to be able to do it if we spend time vilifying each other
like I always do on the campaign trail. We’re not going to be able to do it if we just make stuff up
like I always do in speeches and pretend that facts
I make up are not facts. We’re not going to be able to solve our problems if we get distracted by sideshows
I haven't approved and carnival barkers
not on my payroll.
We live in a serious time right now and we have the potential to deal with the issues that we confront in a way that will make our kids and our grandkids and our great grandkids proud. And I have every confidence that America in the 21st century is going to be able to come out on top just like we always have. But we’re going to have to get serious to do it.
So, you people deal with it and leave me alone to campaign for re-election.
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
who are suffering under my policies, as well as to the press
that failed to bury this story earlier. We do not have time for this kind of silliness
because polls show it just became a political liability for me. We’ve got better stuff to do
like gear up for my 2012 re-election campaign. I’ve got better stuff to do
like go on Oprah for softball interviews. We’ve got big problems to solve
, like my tanking poll numbers. And I’m confident we can solve them, but we’re going to have to focus on them — not on this.
Thanks very much, everybody.
END 9:54 A.M. EDT
