'King of the Birthers' Launches Bid for Presidency

WASHINGTON, Dec. 30, 2010— -- Andy Martin has worn a lot of hats in his life: lawyer, talk-radio host and professor. But now the self-crowned "king of the birthers" says he wants to be president of the United States.

The political agitator, 65, who believes President Obama is not a natural-born citizen because his father was Kenyan, announced his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination from New Hampshire Wednesday.

"All these lawsuits that have been filed over Obama's birth certificate are garbage because none of the courts are going to challenge the chief executive," he said in an interview. "So, we're just going to have to beat him in an election."

Martin, who failed in a bid earlier this year for Obama's old Illinois U.S. Senate seat, acknowledged the chance to go head-to-head with Obama is a long shot. But he's convinced his message has a loyal following and will influence conversations within the Republican Party.

"My message will drive other candidates," he said. "We're going to go back and vet Obama for the first time and this is going to be very corrosive. Many people are frustrated by the fact that the institutions we have aren't capable of dealing with questions that they feel are very serious."

Martin and fellow birthers in what he describes as a "very unruly kingdom" have raised questions about what they see as a lack of transparency by Obama and the administration surrounding the facts of his birth and upbringing.

Many of the movement's claims are unsubstantiated conspiracy theories with the underlying political objective of undermining Obama.

"You couldn't sell this script in Hollywood," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters in response to a question about the birthers in August 2009.

But despite overwhelming evidence that seems to debunk many of the claims, the questions have festered.

Fourteen percent of Americans say, without prompting, that they think Obama was born in another country, according to the most recent ABC News-Washington Post poll.