def convert_date(obj):
    """Returns a DATE column as a date object:

      >>> date_or_None('2007-02-26')
      datetime.date(2007, 2, 26)

    Illegal values are returned as None:

      >>> date_or_None('2007-02-31') is None
      True
      >>> date_or_None('0000-00-00') is None
      True

    """
    if not PY2 and isinstance(obj, (bytes, bytearray)):
        obj = obj.decode('ascii')
    try:
        return datetime.date(*[ int(x) for x in obj.split('-', 2) ])
    except ValueError:
        return obj