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Just when it seemed the birther movement (folks who believe that Obama is not really an American citizen) had faded into the background, Hawaii governor Neil Abercrombie stepped in and stirred things up once more.
Abercrombie has stated that he intends to prove that Obama was born in America. While it would be nice to see this matter laid to rest, there are some problems worth considering.
First, I would think that a state governor would have more important tasks to worry about than trying to prove that Obama was born in America. It would be one thing if a retired person decided to take this on as a hobby, but if I were a citizen of Hawaii, I would hope that my governor did not have so much idle time on his hands.
Second, I suspect that his efforts will simply be a waste of time. After all, the evidence that Obama is really an American seems to be adequate. If Obama was not actually qualified to be president on these grounds, the Republican leadership would have certainly taken action. The fact that they have not seems to be a reasonably good indicator that he is, in fact, a natural born American. If folks are not convinced at this point, it seems likely that there is no evidence that would convince them otherwise.
Third, by taking on the birthers, the governor is actually giving them a certain appearance of credibility. After all, this makes them seem like a movement that is worth engaging and this probably serves to bolster the members and make some other folk feel that there just might be something to this movement. It would seem wiser to simply leave the movement alone and wait for it to quietly diminish over time. In some cases, one must confront crackpot movements in order to defeat them. In other cases, it is best to not feed them and to not keep getting them mentioned in the media. I think that the birther movement is, at this point, best ignored rather than engaged.
