January 13, 2013
Email Friend | Print Article | | Share Share

May 28, 2011

President Obama and Numbergate

By Henry Percy
Jack Cashill recently detailed what Susan Daniels, a private investigator, has learned about Mr. Obama's Social Security Number.  In a nutshell, the president's SSN was issued in 1977 with a Connecticut Area Number (first 3 digits).

Here's what the SS official web site says, in relevant part:

The Area Number [first 3 digits] is assigned by the geographical region. Prior to 1972, cards were issued in local Social Security offices around the country and the Area Number represented the State in which the card was issued. This did not necessarily have to be the State where the applicant lived, since a person could apply for their card in any Social Security office. Since 1972, when SSA began assigning SSNs and issuing cards centrally from Baltimore, the area number assigned has been based on the ZIP code in the mailing address provided on the application for the original Social Security card. The applicant's mailing address does not have to be the same as their place of residence. Thus, the Area Number does not necessarily represent the State of residence of the applicant, either prior to 1972 or since.

One must wonder if the above was written or revised in the last three years in the wake of inquiries about Mr. Obama's SSN to draw a red herring across the trail.

But what if the Obamaites are setting us up for another sucker punch?  Their handling of the birth certificate was masterful: the PDF posted mollified all the MSM pundits, who immediately pronounced the matter put to rest, while the artifacts in the PDF allow the matter to stay open, with attendant finger-pointing and laughter from the brilliant Obamaites at the uncouth, unreasonable, unstoppable birthers, who will accept no proof.

So let's take a quick look at what has the left said about the SSN.  I donned my bunny suit for entry into a toxic waste site, Huffington Post, and searched on "obama social security number," which led to a blog by one Jason Linkins, who thought all the refutation needed was provided by "the good folks at The Week," who in turn thought the last word on the subject came from one Carole Bengle Gilbert at Associated Content:

What about Obama's father, also named Barack Hussain Obama [sic], who lived in Connecticut after divorcing Obama's mother? That doesn't count as a family connection? ... Even assuming that Obama's father left Connecticut before the Social Security number issued, his residency there establishes the connection Daniels said didn't exist. And it's not too hard to imagine a young Barack Obama checking out the place his dad once lived or connecting with people still there who knew his dad. In fact Barack Obama's dad attended college in Connecticut and in 1977, Obama was college aged; is it beyond reason to consider that he might have checked out his father's alma mater?

Where to start with this farrago of nonsense?  We know that by 1977 BHO Sr. had been back in Kenya for 12 years, where he was pursuing an early grave through alcohol and drunk driving accidents.  And we learn from the astute Ms. Gilbert that BHO Sr., after abandoning the future president's mother, apparently enrolled at that other Harvard University in Connecticut, not the better-known one in Massachusetts.  Then BHO Jr., as a sophomore or junior in high school, went on a fact finding trip to "the place his dad once lived," met up "with people still there who knew his dad" (no small task, akin to verifying the voter rolls in Chicago), and asked one of them if, oh by the way, he might use their address to apply for a Social Security number.

Apparently the Connecticut Harvard made a poor impression on him, because 11 years later he chose the one in Massachusetts for law school.  Eventful trip for a high school kid whose chief interests heretofore had been hanging out and getting high.  Ties up all the loose ends for me.

But wait, there's another explanation.  The Wikipedia article on Social Security numbers, under the section "Identity Theft," offers information that the Obamaites may wish to work into their story:

Identity confusion has also occurred due to the use of local Social Security Numbers by the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands and the Republic of Palau, whose numbers overlap with those of residents of New Hampshire and Maine.[20]

So when Numbergate heats up, Jay Carney, White House press secretary, can say that Palau is close to Hawaii (both islands, both in the Pacific) and that New Hampshire and Maine and Connecticut are all in New England, so maybe the whole matter is just a bureaucratic snafu.  This delivered with Mr. Carney's signature deadpan and received by the press corps (pronounced "corpse") with appreciative laughter.

Henry Percy is the nom de guerre for a technical writer living in Arizona.  He may be reached at saler.50d[at]gmail.com.
on "President Obama and Numbergate"