Hawaii

Public Policy Polling has a new study of the “birther” movement and finds that by a 44-36 margin, Republicans don’t believe that “Barack Obama was born in the United States.” Twenty percent are unsure. For comparison, both Democrats (82-12) and independents (64-18) know that the president was born in this country. (Self-identified “conservatives” are split [...]

In response to our earlier post indicating that Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) might harbor questions about President Obama’s citizenship, McHenry spokesman Brock McCleary sends over clarification: There are no doubts. McHenry is no birther.

Or not.
Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) just shot out a statement declaring that he has “absolutely no reason to question President Obama’s citizenship.”
I anticipate that as a legal matter the courts will continue to come to the same conclusion.
But he also leaves a bit of room for doubt, adding that his view is based only on [...]

The new Public Policy Polling survey of North Carolina, which finds that only 54 percent of the state’s voters know that President Obama was born in the United States, also finds that only 92 percent are absolutely sure that the mysterious state of Hawaii counts as American soil. Only 27 percent of McCain voters say [...]

Mike Stark does another round of ambush interviews with Republican Congressmen, a tactic I’m not really comfortable with, but one that’s shaking out some truly strange opinions about Barack Obama’s citizenship. An exchange with Rep. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), who is running for Senate in Missouri:

BLUNT: What I don’t know is why the President can’t produce [...]

The #TCOT Report homepage is currently given over to a huge picture of me and this charge, which I’ll just reprint below:
Meme Wars: “Transparency Dodger” David Weigel of Washington Independent Falsely Labels #TCOT Co-founder With “Birther” Meme
Weigel is same “journalist” who played a role in launching the false “teabagger” meme
It’s a response to this post, [...]

Back in April, Brian Beutler reported that Top Conservatives on Twitter—the grassroots group consisting of anyone who used the Twitter hashtag #tcot — was riven by internal divisions. And I’ve talked to conservative activists who have, after being affiliated with the hashtag, moved on and spoken harshly about chief #tcot-er Michael Patrick Leahy.
Today, we find [...]

For eight months, Hawaii State Department of Health Director Chiyome Fukino’s statement on President Obama’s original birth certificate has fed, not silenced, “birther” conspiracies. Specifically this part:
I as Director of Health 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 [...]

Greg Sargent asks whether the unanimously passed Hawaii statehood anniversary resolution in the House will “reveal how absurd it is for Lou Dobbs to continue to turn CNN’s airwaves over to birthers.” We don’t know how it will affect the birthers themselves, but the reaction from FreeRepublic, a conservative activist site, isn’t promising.

Conservative blogger Tom Maguire takes issue with my story today, specifically the part about Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) presidential campaign checking the record on Barack Obama’s citizenship and coming away satisfied.
Barack’s mom and maternal grandparents had a strong incentive to create a paper trail documenting Obama as a US citizen back in 1961 and it [...]