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Lots of feverish discussion in the online world concerning the death in a plane crash of Loretta Fuddy, the Hawaiian health official who verified the authenticity of Barack Obama’s birth certificate. There’s chatter that she was silenced for “what she knows.”

Hard to see, even if one did suspect foul play, why she would be silenced in the waning years of Obama’s career—what would the point be? Also, out of the pilot and eight passengers, Fuddy was the only fatality.

Meanwhile, for perspective on the plane crashes that ended the lives of politically-connected figures, it is worth considering this partial list of people who from the 1980s to the present died in airplane incidents not involving shoot-downs or hijackings, and how tragedy seems to strike all kinds of people:

Gregory Coleman, former Texas solicitor general; prominent litigator for conservative causes

Perry Imhofe, son of Republican Oklahoma Sen. James Inhofe

Ted Stevens, former Republican Alaska Senator

Paul Wellstone, Democratic Minnesota Senator

John Heinz, Republican Pennsylvania Senator

Ron Brown, Democratic Commerce Secretary

George Mickelson, Republican South Dakota Governor

John Tower, former Republican Texas Senator

Mickey Leland, Democratic Texas Congressman

Olin Branstetter, former Republican Oklahoma State Senator

Larkin Smith, Republican Mississippi Congressman

Mel Carnahan, Democratic Missouri Governor

Jim Waltermire, Republican Montana Secretary of State

John F. Kennedy Jr., son of late Democratic President John F. Kennedy

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