"For Hawaii governor, discrediting anti-Obama 'birthers' is a top priority"

[Clio the Leo]

Hopefully this isn't TOO high a priority as there are more pressing matters, but it's nice to see him stick up for the kid.

For Hawaii governor, discrediting anti-Obama 'birthers' is a top priority
By Michael A. Memoli, Washington Bureau
December 24, 2010

Reporting from Honolulu — Neil Abercrombie knew Barack Obama's parents when the future president was born here in 1961, and he has been aggravated by the so-called birther movement, which alleges Obama was not born in the United States and thus should be expelled from office.

Now Abercrombie has an office of his own — he became governor of Hawaii on Dec. 6. — and he intends to do something about it.

What, exactly, is unclear. But in an interview this week at the state Capitol, he left little doubt that torpedoing the conspiracy theorists was a priority.

"What bothers me is that some people who should know better are trying to use this for political reasons," said Abercrombie, 72. "Maybe I'm the only one in the country that could look you right in the eye right now and tell you, 'I was here when that baby was born.' "

One of Abercrombie's aides said the governor is voicing the frustration of many Hawaiians who continue to be troubled by the rumors, which they see as emblematic of the view that Hawaiians are not Americans in the same way as those who live in the continental United States.

<snip>

Abercrombie, a native of Buffalo, N.Y., arrived in 1959 to study sociology at the University of Hawaii. As a teaching assistant, he met and befriended Obama's father, a native of Kenya.

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-obama-birthers-20101224,0,3744847.story

[Cirque du So-What]

1. My first thought upon reading your headline

is that the 'birther movement' will die of its own accord, but it IS gratifying to see that Hawaii's new governor is going to set the record straight. In fact, it may do some good to revive the birthers' specious argument long enough to remind people of just how insane-in-the-membrane their position really is. I look forward to the birthers getting their noses rubbed in their own feces (sorry for that analogy if anyone is having breakfast, but I believe it is truly apt).

[SpiralHawk]

2. "How do we know for a fact that Abercrombie was born in Buffalo." - BirfBaggers (R)

"Anyone can say they were born in Buffalo. Right?"

- BirfBaggers (R)

[brooklynite]

3. This is incredibly foolish...

...because the birthers will never be satisfied with whatever evidence is presented, and will look upon headlines like this as proof that there's a conspiracy to protect the President from the "real" truth getting out. Everybody else simply doesn't care.

When you meet a crackpot with a "The world is ending" sign on the corner, do you offer proof he's wrong, or do you step around him and continue on your way?

[The Doctor.]

4. They will believe what they want to believe...

and nothing will enlighten them.

They're very comfortable in their ignorance and anger.

[calimary]

10. So as long as they continue, there really should be a counter-movement to make them look bad.

And KEEP making them look bad.

There should be consequences for idiocy like theirs.

[alp227]

11. +1. seriously.

Abercrombie's predecessor Linda Lingle, a Republican, also dismissed the birthers. There needs to be corrections whenever people spread misinformation, or else the consequences to our political discourse would be very scary.

[CitizenLeft]

5. doh! - didn't know he'd won the governship - good for him!

:applause:

...and now from the sublime to the ridiculous: the comments.:eyes:

[Mz Pip]

6. someone should forward this

to Jerome Corsi and World Nut Daily

[Name removed]

7. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[proud2BlibKansan]

8. What gets me about this birther crap is the number of folks who have swallowed it

I was just reading a column by a local republican and he was talking birther crap. I never would have pegged this guy for a crazy.

[Kingofalldems]

9. He knew Obama's father? He's a Muslin too!!!

This is HUGH!!

[alp227]

12. Thanks for posting. NY Times also reported on this too.

www.nytimes.com/2010/12/25/us/25hawaii.html

HONOLULU — Gov. Neil Abercrombie of Hawaii, who befriended President Obama’s parents when they were university students here, has been in office for less than three weeks. But he is so incensed over "birthers" — the conspiracy theorists who assert that Mr. Obama was born in Kenya and was thus not eligible to become president — that he is seeking ways to change state policy to allow him to release additional proof that the president was born in Honolulu in 1961.

"It’s an insult to his mother and to his father, and I knew his mother and father; they were my friends, and I have an emotional interest in that," Governor Abercrombie said in a telephone interview late Thursday. "It’s an emotional insult. It is disrespectful to the president; it is disrespectful to the office."

Whoa! I didn't know that Abercrombie was a personal friend of Obama's parents!

But as for releasing more data, aren't the certificate of live birth and newspaper announcements ENOUGH proof that Barack Hussein Obama II was truly born in Honolulu? It just makes no damn sense that he'd be born in frickin' Kenya or else where given that his parents had been married 6 months before. While we know which hospital Mrs. Dunham went to give birth to Barack, the birthers have yet to provide any satisfactory proof that Mrs. Dunham was in Kenya, Canada, Mexico, anywhere else that August 4, 1961! Since Inauguration Day 2009 the issue's been beaten to death over and over again. And those fools even went as far as to forge a Kenyan birth certificate (so ironic for complaining about forgery themselves!)

Besides, it's been Republicans (e.g. US Rep. Bill Posey, R-FL and some Republican state legislators) who've intro'd legislation to make Hawaii release the longform certificate or generally to make future presidential candidates do so. Is Abercrombie falling for that trick?

[Princess Turandot]

13. Of course, even if Hawaii actually released the 'long form' thing they're screaming for, ..

these nutters would immediately declare the additional information to be unsupportable. The President turns 50 this year, so unless he was delivered by Dougie Howser, there's a reasonable chance that the obstetrician is now deceased. That will prompt cries of a murder plot by his mom, or perhaps even the Clintons, since they've already bumped off most of their friends.

Then they would demand his mom's medical record, which in all likelihood was destroyed decades ago. In NYS, the retention requirement for adult patients is 7 years from the last hospital care at a given institution. They have to keep kids' records until the kid turns 21.

And if the record still existed and included those little footprints, they would demand to see his current footprints.

And then the second he took his shoes off, they would scream that was proof of his being a Muslin, since everyone knows, Muslins take their shoes off when doing important things. Like praying. And foot-printing.