“the unsubstantiated claim that he was born in Hawaii”
The following statements made by Republican state officials in Hawai’i have scared the national Republican Party off the issue.
“I, Dr. Chiyome Fukino, Director of the Hawai’i State Department of Health, have seen the original vital records maintained on file by the Hawai‘i State Department of Health verifying Barack Hussein Obama was born in Hawai‘i and is a natural-born American citizen.”
“You know, during the campaign of 2008, I was actually in the mainland campaigning for Sen. McCain. This issue kept coming up so much in the campaign, and again I think it’s one of those issues that is simply a distraction from the more critical issues that are facing the country. And so I had my health director, who is a physician by background, go personally view the birth certificate in the birth records of the Department of Health, and we issued a news release at that time saying that the president was, in fact, born at Kapi’olani Hospital in Honolulu, Hawaii. And that’s just a fact. And yet people continue to call up and e-mail and want to make it an issue. And I think it’s, again, a horrible distraction for the country by those people who continue this. ... It’s been established. He was born here.”—Governor of Hawai’i Linda Lingle
As a result of the above, we get the following:
“The state of Hawaii has said he was born there. That’s good enough for me,” “The president says he’s a Christian. I accept him at his word.”—John Boehner, Speaker of the House of Representatives
“Do you question his faith and citizenship?” Palin was asked during an onstage interview hosted by the Long Island Association.
“I don’t, and those are distractions. What we’re concerned about is the economy. And we’re concerned about the policies coming out of his administration and what he believes in terms of big government or private sector. So, no, the faith, the birth certificate, others can engage in that kind of conversation. It’s distracting. It gets annoying and let’s just stick with what really matters.”—Governor Sarah Palin