We at FactCheck.org are grateful to the Obama birth certificate conspiracy theorists for hundreds of thousands of page views to our "Born in the U.S.A." article from last November, and to our other items debunking some of their more outrageously false claims. We’re less grateful for their thousands of sometimes abusive e-mails claiming that we’re perpetuating a dangerous falsehood, among the more printable comments. Dr. Chiyome Fukino, director of the Hawaii Department of Health, is also fed up. She has now released her second statement (the first was made last November) saying that state records show Obama was indeed born in the U.S.A. This one states unequivocally that he is "a natural-born American citizen," and will everyone please just leave it alone now? (We confess we are paraphrasing that second part.)
Do we expect this official statement from the keeper of Hawaiian birth records to quiet all the rumors, speculation and false claims? Of course not. We weren’t founded yesterday. In fact, doubters, we’ll get you started with a suggestion on how to ignore this latest bit of evidence. Fukino is willing to swear that Barrack Hussein Obama is a natural-born citizen. But that’s probably because (warning: sarcasm alert), by an amazing coincidence, someone named Barrack Hussein Obama was born in Hawaii, while Barack (with one "r" and not two) Hussein Obama was being born in Kenya, or on the moon, or somewhere. Does that sound adequately convincing without actually involving any evidence? Okay, then, go to town!
Update: The state of Hawaii has now posted the statement on their Web site — and in the 24 hours since they sent it to reporters, they’ve corrected the spelling error. Another excellent theory down the tubes!