By Mark Memmott

As the nonpartisan PolitiFact.com puts it:

Despite our best efforts, the conspiracy theory that President Barack Obama may not actually be an American citizen continues to roll on.

Those "best efforts," by PolitiFact and others such as FactCheck.org, include quoting Hawaii state Health Director Chiyome Fukino -- who says she has "personally seen and verified that the Hawaii State Department of Health has (then) Sen. Obama's original birth certificate on record in accordance with state policies and procedures."

FactCheck, PolitiFact and others who have investigated the issue have posted copies of the birth certificate.

But in recent days, "birthers" theory that the president may not have been born in the USA, but instead in Kenya, has taken on renewed life because of:

-- Comments by CNN's Lou Dobbs, on his radio show, that "there are some issues here that should be really resolved ... all the president of the United States has to do is produce a birth certificate."

-- A YouTube video that's been watched more than 550,000 times, showing a crowd going wild as a woman at a townhall meeting challenges Rep. Mike Castle, R-Del., saying Obama "is not an American citizen" that "I want my country back!" At one point, she gets the audience to join her in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.

-- Legislation introduced by some conservative members of Congress that would require presidential candidates to produce copies of their birth certificates to prove they meet the Constitution's "natural born citizen" requirement.

-- This much-blogged about appearance by Rep. John Cambell, R-Calif., one of the lawmakers who supports that legislation, on MSNBC-TV's Hardball With Chris Matthews:

Just a guess: Most of the birthers' minds will never be changed.

Update at 1:45 p.m. ET: Liz Cheney, daughter of the former vice president, was on CNN's Larry King Live last night and sought to explain why "birthers" feel the way they do, but didn't dispute those beliefs. Today, though, she's told Politico that "I don't have any question about Barack Obama's right to be president."

Correction at 6:20 p.m. ET: Earlier, we misidentified Castle's party affiliation. It's now correct in the post.

categories: National News

10:00 - July 22, 2009

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