The point is that a newspaper printing information from a birth certificate is pretty iron-clad evidence that a birth-certificate existed as of August 13, 1961.
Years back, when I had misplaced the original photostat of my birth certificate, I had to apply to the town office in the town where I was born. I had to pay a fee to get a certified copy (this is what the Obama campaign has) and the town clerk pulled the town's photostat of my birth certificate, typed the relevant information on security paper, embossed it and signed it to attest that it was an accurate transcription of the basic information on the photostat in their possession. It looks very much like Obama's birth certificate. I needed it to get a passport, and used it again more recently to identify myself to the Social Security Commission when applying for disability benefits. Original birth certificates are closely-guarded and are stored in fire-proof safes. For obvious reasons (too easy to fake/doctor) the municipal governments do not give out photocopies of the originals.
Some bloggers' assertions that Obama's campaign could have gotten a valid Hawaii birth certificate and washed it in solvent, then typed in Obama's personal information show just how ignorant and ill-informed those people are. I did service/consulting work for the paper industry, and one of my clients was one of the largest producers of security papers in the country. If you tried to alter any printing subsequently applied to the papers that they made (with alcohol, acetone, and any number of other solvents) the security features would release VERY colorful dyes that would ruin the document. We're not dealing with very sophisticated conspiracy-theorists, here.
