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For Hawaii governor, discrediting anti-Obama 'birthers' is a top priority
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Candidate
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| Contributor | particleman |
| Last Edited | Jason Oct 24, 2011 08:59pm |
| Category | News |
| News Date | Dec 23, 2010 10:00pm |
| Description | 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.
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.
Although Abercrombie's goal may be to support Obama, experts who study political extremism say the release of additional evidence would only perpetuate the conspiracy theory. They say people who embrace such theories are guided by suspicion and, therefore, view any contrary evidence as part of the conspiracy.
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.
Obama's mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, was born in Kansas and met and married his father, also named Barack, when the two were college students in Hawaii. Obama was born at Kapi'olani Maternity & Gynecological Hospital in Honolulu on Aug. 4, 1961. |
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