July 28, 2009 05:50 PM UTC

Obama Still a U.S. Citizen

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• by: Colorado Pols

We’re floored that this is still a story, but apparently critics of President Barack Obama really have nothing better to do:

State officials in Hawaii on Monday said they have once again checked and confirmed that President Barack Obama was born in Hawaii and is a natural-born American citizen, and therefore meets a key constitutional requirement for being president.

Health Director Dr. Chiyome Fukino said she hoped to end lingering rumors about Obama’s birthplace…

…Fukino issued a similar press release Oct. 31, but was prompted to speak out again because of the renewed attention on Obama’s beginnings. Hawaii’s Health Department has been flooded in recent weeks with questions from individuals and several national TV news networks asking for proof that Obama was indeed born in Hawaii.

“They just keep asking over and over and over again,” Health Department spokeswoman Janice Okubo said.

The Constitution states that a person must be a “natural-born citizen” to be eligible for the presidency. Birthers contend that Obama’s birth certificate is a fake, and many say he was actually born in Kenya, his father’s homeland. They’ve challenged his citizenship in court.

One widely circulated YouTube clip of a town hall meeting showed a Republican congressman getting booed for saying Obama is a citizen. Talk show host Rush Limbaugh and CNN’s Lou Dobbs have also raised the issue, and 10 Republican members of Congress co-sponsored a bill that would require future presidential candidates to provide a copy of their original birth certificate.