On the other hand, could anyone seemingly so incompetent actually pull off a conspiracy?

Well, stupid people have tried to pull off conspiracies. They tend to end up defeated, in prison, or dead. Some Birfers would surely qualify for this role. They strike me as the sort of people who, if they were crooks of a different kind, would call 911 to complain if the clerk at the gas station refused to hand over the cash at gunpoint.

In the outpatient setting at a teaching clinic, if the patient consents, a resident or med student is still allowed to take the history & do part of the exam on their own at first, then present the case verbally to the attending faculty outside the patient's room. They then go back to the patient together, & the attending needs to repeat/confirm pertinent parts of the history, repeat parts of the exam & document this in writing, even if their notes are redundant. No more "I concur with the findings, diagnosis & plan of....[student or resident]...signed Dr X." My first thought on hearing of the Palafox resignation was that some scandal about this, for the whole med school, might soon break shortly. But there's nothing & as June Bug said, Dr Palafox is back at his old job with no problems, except some embarassment & confusion. I wish him well.

Weird

But Slom adds he would be happy to use the Palafox case if it would permit him to open up to the public any birth records the Hawaii health department has.

"If Palafox serves as a shoehorn to get for the public any Obama birth records the Hawaii Department of Health has, I am all for doing so," he said. "I don't understand why Obama has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to keep all his records from the public – not just his Hawaii birth records, but his passport records and his school records. All Obama's records should be public, including any Hawaii birth records that exist."

Slom said Abercrombie did conduct a search for Obama birth records – he wasn't sure if Abercrombie looked himself, or if he sent someone to search the records.

Slom, the lone Senate Republican in the state of President Obama’s birth...

Like a lot of Hawaii pols, Slom was mystified by Abercrombie’s short-lived effort to make public Obama’s original, long-form birth certificate, which the president has never given permission to release. The birther issue had been waning in recent months, but Abercrombie’s announcement reignited it. “I think it was part ego,” Slom says of Abercrombie’s motive, “and it might have been part anger that this (birther) thing was still going on. It was dying down, so to bring it up was inappropriate.”

Abercrombie's actions were foolish, risky, and counterproductive. It's possible that they were part of a concerted conspiracy to "stoke the birther coals" so that the issue wouldn't die out, out of a belief that it helps the Democrats in the long run. But I doubt that, because if that was the goal, the plan was extremely risky and could backfire at any moment. I doubt any political strategist at a high level would bother taking such risks with such little up-side and significant down-side.

The fatal flaw in his approach is that he took the position that "something more" needed to be done to conclusively prove the birthers wrong, and that's exactly the problem: if we already know they're wrong, why do we need something more? By claiming he was going to dig up even better evidence than what already exists, he set himself up for the argument that what already exists is insufficent. Ultimately, his actions fed directly into the delusional thinking of birthers, by reinforcing their arguments rather than undermining them.

Abercrombie's actions were foolish, risky, and counterproductive. It's possible that they were part of a concerted conspiracy to "stoke the birther coals" so that the issue wouldn't die out, out of a belief that it helps the Democrats in the long run. But I doubt that, because if that was the goal, the plan was extremely risky and could backfire at any moment. I doubt any political strategist at a high level would bother taking such risks with such little up-side and significant down-side.

The fatal flaw in his approach is that he took the position that "something more" needed to be done to conclusively prove the birthers wrong, and that's exactly the problem: if we already know they're wrong, why do we need something more? By claiming he was going to dig up even better evidence than what already exists, he set himself up for the argument that what already exists is insufficent. Ultimately, his actions fed directly into the delusional thinking of birthers, by reinforcing their arguments rather than undermining them.

I think Abercrombie just had an emotional knee-jerk reaction, after 2 years of hearing BS about Hawaii & how we functon here. The local Obama supporters I know talk about other issues & have no desire to "stoke the birther coals." Most folks here still just laugh at this, as they did this AM with The Donald, when he had a local interview this morning.

Hawaii News Now caught up to Governor Neil Abercrombie and asked him to clarify what he meant when he said he was "there."

"Of course here in Hawaii," Abercrombie said.

"Not in the room?" we asked.

"Let's be serious. It is simply reprehensible to have this kind of conversation. Insulting someone's mother and father speaks about the person who is doing it," Abercrombie said.

(Snipped Abercrombie calling Trump a 'serial bankrupt' )

As for Obama's roots in Hawaii, Abercrombie told Hawaii News Now he first laid eyes on baby Barack Obama a few days after he was born. Abercrombie said Obama's parents introduced their newborn to friends at the University of Hawaii where Abercrombie was going to college with the president's father.

I agree. His actions have the look of someone who got irritated with bullshit, went off half-cocked, and said dumb stuff without thinking about it. A premeditated attempt to "stoke the birther coals" would have made more sense and made him look less dumb, I think.

Abercrombie's attitude goes from mellow to mean
By Lee Cataluna
POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Jul 10, 2011
...
We all knew that Neil Abercrombie was a hothead, the kind of guy whose usual shtick is rich with bombast, hyperbole and overheated indignation. When he was 5,000 miles away it wasn't so loud. Somehow, during his campaign for governor, he managed to convince an overwhelming number of Hawaii Democratic voters that he had somehow mellowed. In comparison with the Hannemann "If-you-aren't-with-me-you-are-against-me-and-you-must-be-punished" campaign, Abercrombie almost seemed like a sweet grandpa. We forgot that sometimes this grandpa can go off, and unlike Hannemann, he does his own dirty work. Bad Mufi had his XXL red-shirted supporters shouting down the opposition at debates. Bad Neil shouted down a nurse on Maui. Bad Mufi had his minions write angry response letters to every word of public criticism. Bad Neil barks, "I'm not your friend!"

It's looking like Abercrombie isn't anybody's friend. Gov. Linda Lingle's loathsome furlough Fridays were at least agreed upon by the teachers union. Abercrombie's last, best offer is being forced upon Hawaii's overworked, undervalued public school teachers. No employee wants a pay cut, but worse than that is having no voice in the negotiations. That is the insult to the injury.
...

A leader has to make difficult, often unpopular decisions, particularly in tough times. But a good leader can make those decisions dispassionately, even graciously, and convey a message of "this must be done for the greater good," which makes the action seem less onerous. Abercrombie has shed the "good listener uncle" he was portraying during the campaign and has become the "because I said so" angry czar who people are beginning to resent.

His term in office has just begun, and the tough times aren't going to end overnight, which means Abercrombie will probably face many more unpopular decisions. He's right; he's not our friend. But he promised to be our leader, and [highlight]a leader needs to lift up people during the hard times[/highlight], not just scream at them to suck it up and not talk back.
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Lee Cataluna can be reached at lcataluna@staradvertiser.com.