
One of the
stranger stories to come out of this year's election was the widely
e-mailed claim that
Barack Obama was ineligible to run
for president because he was not actually born on U.S. soil. Our
constitution, you see, requires that our presidents be "natural-born"
citizens.
John McCain, of course, was
born in Panama, though, because that event
took place on a U.S. military base, it passes constitutional muster.
The unfounded, conspiratorial charge that Obama was hiding his
birth certificate got a whole certificate got a whole lot of people who
were already upset at Obama even more upset. Call it the bitter icing on
the bitter cake. These folks screaming about the birth certificate are
the same ones who believe that we don't know the "real Obama."
Obama's campaign
released copies of the birth certificate to
the media, but that wasn't good enough for the lunatic fringe. After
all, the campaign might have doctored the copies! So, all across the
country crazy people started filing lawsuits to get the state of Hawai'i
to break its own laws and show off the original document. What always
astonished me about this story was the notion that a guy would go
through this whole process--two years of non-stop campaigning and the
endless scrutiny it entails--if he knew that he could be knocked out of
the race on a simple technicality.
Well, on Friday, the Director
of Hawaii's Department of Health,
Dr. Chimoye Fukino,
finally got tired of listening to ridiculous chorus coming from
McCain/Palin supporters and he went to
personally inspect
the original birth certificate.
Fukino said she and the registrar of vital statistics,
Alvin Onaka, have personally verified that the health department holds
Obama's original birth certificate.
"Therefore, I as Director
for the State of Hawai'i, along with the Registrar of Vital Statistics
who has statutory authority to oversee and maintain these type of vital
records, have personally seen and verified that the Hawai'i State
Department of Health has Sen. Obama's original birth certificate on
record in accordance with state policies and procedures, Fukino
said.
Fukino said that no state official, including Gov. Linda
Lingle, ever instructed that Obama's certificate be handled differently
from any other.
Will this satisfy the skeptics out
there in McCain-land? Of course not. I mean, really,
Chimoye
Fukino? What kind of name is that? Sounds even worse than Barack
Hussein Obama. No, no, they'll tell you. Something's fishy.
Isn't it suspect that Obama's grandmother (yes, the one who
died of cancer today) happened to
break her hip and get sick
just as this latest in a seemingly never-ending series of
bogus lawsuits was running its course? No, something nefarious is
lurking just under the surface. If it takes the Palin/McCain mob the
next eight years to find it, by golly, they will.