Dec 28, 2010

Hawaii governor wants to prove Obama was born there
11:32 AM

By Eugene Tanner, APTalk about friends you don't need, especially during a peaceful, news-free vacation.

Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie has been spending President Obama's vacation eagerly talking with reporters about his crusade to prove -- once and for all? -- that the nation's 44th president was born in the Aloha State.

His effort is prompted by continued protestations to the contrary from so-called birthers -- conservative critics who claim that Baracj Obama actually was born in Kenya or another foreign country, and therefore can't be president.

It's a controversy the White House would prefer to ignore, since it long ago thought it had proved Obama's U.S. birth with Hawaii's issuance of a "certificate of live birth," newspaper announcements and other documents.

Still, critics contend that because Hawaii has not released the actual birth certificate -- which it cannot do for privacy reasons -- Obama may be hiding something.

To the rescue comes Abercrombie, a former liberal Democratic congressman elected governor in November. He took office earlier this month and says he's determined to do whatever he can do legally to prove Obama is a native Hawaiian.

For Abercrombie, it's personal. The 72-year-old governor actually knew Obama's parents, Barack Obama Sr. and Ann Dunham, when they were young university students in Hawaii. He told The New York Times that questioning where the president was born is "an insult to his mother and to his father."

Abercrombie has told the Times' Sheryl Gay Stolberg, CNN's Ed Henry and others that he's asked the state attorney general and health officials to determine what additional information he can release to prove that Obama was born in Hawaii on Aug. 4, 1961. (Oval note to self: big birthday coming up next year.)

"He's a big boy. He can take sticks and stones," Abercrombie told the Times. "But there's no reason on earth to have the memory of his parents insulted by people whose motivation is solely political."


To CNN, the governor said, "It's a matter of principle with me. I knew his mom and dad. I was here when he was born. Anybody who wants to ask a question honestly could have had their answer already."

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