Hawaiian governor takes aim at birthers

HONOLULU – Frustrated by what he sees as a never-ending campaign to undermine President Barack Obama, Hawaii’s new governor says he plans to use his new post to counter conspiracy theorists who continue to allege that the president was not born in the United States. Neil Abercrombie, a Democrat who took office Dec. 6, has known Obama since the president’s days growing up in Hawaii. He’s also one of the few people who knew both Obama’s father, also named Barack, and mother, Stanley Ann Dunham.

That long-standing relationship is a major reason Abercrombie, 72, takes umbrage with the persistent effort by Obama’s most ardent foes to assert that he was born in Kenya, which would constitutionally bar him from holding the office of president. “Now that I’m governor, I’m going to do something about that,” Abercrombie vowed during an interview in his fifth-floor office in the state capitol.

Do you think birthers will ever be convinced that Obama’s presidency is legitimate?