WASHINGTON, DC – Birther movement leader Orly Taitz today produced what called “conclusive” evidence that confirms her group’s claims that President Barack Obama was born in Kenya: video purporting to show Obama running a marathon in just over 2 hours and 10 minutes.
“As far as we’re concerned, this is absolute proof,” Taitz told CNN anchor Lou Dobbs during an interview. “How many people from Hawaii do you know who can run a marathon that fast? Especially when they smoke? Clearly, only a true Kenyan citizen could run this well.”
The amateur footage shows a tall, slender black man crossing the finish line with a time of 2:11:01 from a great distance away.
“You look at that and tell me that’s not Obama,” Taitz said. “There’s even a Kenyan flag on his shirt. Listen – you even hear people talking about ‘Hussein,’ which is a clear reference to this traitor and liar’s middle name!”
However, running experts and video analysts have dismissed the footage. They say it is clearly taken from the 1989 New York City marathon, won by Kenyan runner Ibrahim Hussein in a time of 2:11:01.
“You can even see a big electronic billboard flashing that says ‘Congratulations Ibrahim Hussein, winner of the 1989 New York Marathon’ as soon as he crosses,” says Harold Osterman, a longtime journalist covering running. “I’ve met Ibrahim Hussein dozens of times, and that’s obviously him.”
Despite the claims that the footage is not of Obama, CNN’s Dobbs is planning a two-hour special broadcast devoted to “whether or not this explosive new footage should warrant Congressional action looking at President Obama’s place of birth.”
President Obama refused to comment on the matter. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said that Obama was “focusing on more important issues, like health care reform and the economy” and definitely not running from Washington, DC to Annapolis, MD as part of this daily workout.
Editor-in-chief of the conservative Web site World Net daily and a self-professed “birther” Joseph Farah brushed aside critics of the video as being “brainwashed followers” of the liberal media.
“There’s one coincidence that someone digs up, and suddenly it’s supposed to invalidate our whole movement?” he said. “The burden of proof is on Obama to prove that he can’t run a marathon in less than two hours and 15 minutes without purposely not running as fast as he can.”
