Many legislators, however, have proved quite reluctant to turn the issue ? a sure winner with the conservative base, even before Donald Trump adopted it as a talking point ? into concrete legislation. So-called birther bills have foundered or fallen dormant in at least five states and are still being debated in more than a half-dozen others. In Arizona, where both legislative chambers passed one such bill, Gov. Jan Brewer, a Republican, vetoed it this week, calling it ?a bridge too far.?
But now, Oklahoma, a deeply conservative state, could be the first to put its doubts into law, through a bill that would require all candidates, from Town Council hopeful on up, to provide certified proof that they meet the legal requirements for office. A vote was expected by next week.
Supporters of the measure, and others like it from Georgia to Montana, protest that they are not ?birthers,? as doubters of Mr. Obama?s natal provenance have been dubbed, sometimes derisively. They say that they simply want to clarify the status of all candidates and that Mr. Obama?s case has only sharpened the issue and illuminated what they call a glaring hole in the statutes.
?It?s not a birther bill, it?s a common-sense bill,? said a lead sponsor, State Senator Rick Brinkley, a Republican from suburbs of Tulsa. ?If you?re going to file for office, you should be willing to substantiate that you meet the qualifications.?
A New York Times/CBS News Poll released on Thursday found that 57 percent of adults surveyed nationwide said Mr. Obama was born in the United States, versus 25 percent who said he was born in another country.
But digging deeper into the numbers shows striking disparities along party lines and regions of the country. Among Republicans, for instance, 33 percent said they think Mr. Obama was born in America, while 45 percent said the birth occurred in another country. The nationwide telephone poll, conducted April 15-20 with 1,224 adults and a margin-of-sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points, said that majorities in all regions of the nation think the president was born in the United States, but those majorities were smaller in the South and Midwest than in the Northeast and Far West.
Numerous investigations have concluded that Mr. Obama was, in fact, born in Hawaii in 1961, as he has always maintained. Just this week, on the morning news show ?Good Morning America? on ABC, George Stephanopoulos just this week produced a copy of the president?s certificate of live birth, copies of which are widely available on the Web, causing potential presidential aspirant Michele Bachmann, the Republican congresswoman from Minnesota, to say that the issue appeared settled. As far back as 2008, the Supreme Court declined to hear a case challenging that proof.
But what had been a wispy tale of purportedly buried documents and cover-ups, dismissed by many mainstream members of both parties, now appears to have legs as the political season lurches toward 2012. Debates in state capitols have been reframed in the dry language of good government ? a simple effort to clear the air, supporters say, for confused voters. And because many of the bills failed this year, supporters are renewing their legislative battle plan for next year, when it would be debated in the heart of a presidential campaign.
Meanwhile, Mr. Trump, the real estate developer who hints at presidential ambitions, has kept the issue alive, suggesting in recent interviews that he is unsure about Mr. Obama?s bona fides. Divergent views among Republican governors have heightened a new sense of debate. After Ms. Brewer vetoed the Arizona bill, for example, Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, a Republican, said he would sign a similar bill enthusiastically, should it reach his desk.
Here in Oklahoma, where Mr. Obama won just over a third of the vote in 2008 ? one of his worst state losses ? Senate Bill 91 passed last month with overwhelming and even bipartisan support. People in both parties say they are confident that the House will go along by its deadline next week (though the bill would need to return to the Senate for a procedural vote). After that, lawmakers said they assumed that Gov. Mary Fallin, a Republican, would sign it. A spokesman for Ms. Fallin said the governor would not comment until the bill was on her desk and she could review it.
Legislators backing credentials bills in other states are closely watching what happens here, and said success in even one place would be a victory for all.
?If one state passes, and the Obama administration basically ignores the requirement and does not qualify for the ballot in that state, that would send a very strong signal that we have a situation in the United States where someone who is not eligible is occupying the White House,? said Mark Hatfield, a Republican state representative in Georgia whose ballot bill failed to get through. If Oklahoma does not go forward, and an override of Ms. Brewer?s veto in Arizona does not materialize, Mr. Hatfield said, ?then other states, including Georgia, have a duty to step up.?
Democrats in Oklahoma, meanwhile, were divided. The minority floor leader in the House, for example, Chuck Hoskin, said he would probably vote yes. Asked in an interview whether he was concerned about embarrassing the leader of his own party, Mr. Hoskin said he thought Mr. Obama?s failure to win over Oklahomans in 2008 was the real embarrassment.
?The current president failed to carry even one of the 77 counties,? he said. ?Which is more embarrassing ? to have a law passed requiring a birth certificate, or not being able to win one of 77 counties??
But down the hall, an assistant Democratic floor leader in the House, Al McAffrey, called the bill an embarrassment.
?But this is Oklahoma ? we embarrass ourselves all the time,? he said.
Some lawmakers elsewhere around the country said the fight to clarify the rules, whether sparked by birther talk or not, was overdue. They said that doubt among voters over whether candidates are what they represent themselves to be was a growing problem, dangerous for democracy.
But even some Republicans who have backed certification bills said they really did not believe there was any doubt about the president.
?Barack Obama is a natural citizen, born in Hawaii,? said Mike Kelly, a Republican representative in the Missouri Statehouse and a co-sponsor of a candidate certification bill that Mr. Kelly said looked doomed for this year. ?I know there are people out there who don?t believe he is ? this is about trying to calm those people down.?
