“Barack Obama’s mother was living in Kenya with his Arab-African father late in her pregnancy,” it said. “She was not allowed to travel by plane then, so Barack Obama was born there and his mother then took him to Hawaii to register his birth.” Then in August 2008 Phil Berg, an ex-deputy attorney general for Pennsylvania and a renowned conspiracy theorist, filed a lawsuit alleging that Mr Obama was ineligible to be a candidate.
“Obama carries multiple citizenships and is ineligible to run for President of the United States. United States Constitution, Article II, Section 1,” it said.
By then, the Obama campaign had posted a copy of his “certificate of live birth” — a shorter version of the birth certificate, which is accepted as proof of birth from applicants for a US passport.
But the fact it was not the full, original certificate — and that the campaign failed to show the serial number and other details in their scan — meant that the conspiracy theorists were unbowed.
The director of the Hawaii health department stated that she had seen the full certificate and that it was all in order. Entries from the birth records sections of two local newspapers from the time were found.
Yet still some were unconvinced, explaining away this extra evidence, and demanding to see the full certificate, which Kapiolani Maternity & Gynecological Hospital said it could not release.
After Mr Obama’s election victory and inauguration, the conspiracy theory survived, albeit quietly. Crudely fake Kenyan birth certificates purporting to prove it were circulated, and more lawsuits about Mr Obama’s birth were filed.
It was not until last month, and the emergence of the property tycoon Donald Trump as a potential Republican presidential candidate, that the issue was thrust back into national prominence.
Mr Trump outed himself as a “birther” in an interview on his private jet on March 17. “The reason I have a little doubt — just a little — is because he grew up and nobody knew him,” he told ABC News.
Over the following weeks, Mr Trump reiterated his comments repeatedly. He added a string of further allegations, including that Mr Obama’s grandmother had recalled witnessing his birth in Kenya, which were simply not true.
While insisting that the media was forcing him to talk about the subject, Mr Trump eventually resurrected the demand for Mr Obama to produce his full birth certificate.
Last week a poll suggested almost half of Republican voters believed the president was not born in the US. It appears to have convinced the White House that it was time to act.