Now Obama's supporters are doing so. Governor Abercrombie of Hawaii was first saying that they know that there is an original long-form birth certificate in the state archives, although he seemed to admit that he had not actually
seen it. This news account in the January 20, 2011
Daily Mail has to be among the oddest ways to make a claim in a deniable way that I have seen in a while:
Abercrombie said on Tuesday that an investigation had unearthed papers proving Obama was born in Hawaii in 1961.
He told Honolulu's Star-Advertiser: 'It actually exists in the archives, written down,' he said.
But it became apparent that what had been discovered was an unspecified listing or notation of Obama's birth that someone had made in the state archives and not a birth certificate.
And in the same interview Abercrombie suggested that a long-form, hospital-generated birth certificate for Barack Obama may not exist within the vital records maintained by the Hawaii Department of Health.
He said efforts were still being made to track down definitive vital records that would prove Obama was born in Hawaii.
And here is the article in the
January 18, 2011 Honolulu Star-Advertiser, an interview with the governor
:
Q: You stirred up quite a controversy with your comments regarding birthers and your plans to release more information regarding President Barack Obama's birth certificate. How is that coming?
A: I got a letter from someone the other day who was genuinely concerned about it; it is not all just political agenda. They were talking on Olelo last night about this; it has a political implication for 2012 that we simply cannot have.
(Abercrombie said there is a recording of the birth in the State Archives and he wants to use that.)
It was actually written I am told, this is what our investigation is showing, it actually exists in the archives, written down ...
...What I can do, and all I have ever said, is that I am going to see to it as governor that I can verify to anyone who is honest about it that this is the case.
Then a friend of Abercrombie's claims that Abercrombie admits that there is no birth certificate--and then within
a few hours claims that he had never talked to the governor about this issue. This is getting stranger and stranger. Even hard left writers, such as
Sam Smith, who edits Progressive Review, admits that this is all rather odd:
The state has produced what might be called a certificate of the certificate, giving the basics of what the original document purportedly says. CNN has suggested that the original certificate no longer exists since all such records were discarded in 2001 but the state denies it. Hawaii is, in effect, denying the absence of something it can't or won't produce.
...
But why not just tell Hawaii to let a pool of reporters and lawyers view the actual document?
The problem remains odd and is getting odder.
If there is a long-form birth certificate, and Obama refuses to allow its release, there must be something
really embarrassing on it to justify all this effort to keep it invisible. Was his race listed as white, or East Indian?
