Give it a rest. All of the evidence in the world (yes, including his birth certificate) indicates that President Obama was born in Honolulu Hawaii. However, if for some reason his mother had decided to sneak off to Kenya in order to have her baby and then sneak back into Hawaii and then lie to the state of Hawaii about that, and then lie to the local newspapers about that, and have the hospital also lie on her behalf, with the full knowledge that her bouncing bundle of joy would one day grow up to become President of the United States, then Barack Hussein Obama is still a natural born citizen of the United States of America.
The only legislation which addresses the issue of children of US citizens born overseas is the Naturalization Act of 1790, which was based upon English Common Law and ratified by most of the original signers of the Constitution.
"And the children of citizens of the United States, that may be born beyond the sea, or out of the limits of the United States, shall be considered natural born citizens: Provided, That the right of citizenship shall not descend to persons whose fathers have never been resident in the United States."
Barack Obama's mother was a US citizen (and she also happened to be white, since that's what this issue is really about) and his father did live in Hawaii, and they were legally married to each other at the time of Barack Obama's birth.
The Naturalization Act of 1790 was superseded in 1795 and many times subsequent to that by legislation, including the 14th Amendment, which further broadened the definitions of who might be a "natural-born citizen". But the issue of children of one or two US citizens born abroad was never again addressed and on that issue the Naturalization Act of 1790 has never been superseded.
Therefore, Barack Hussein Obama, and incidentally Panamanian-born John Sidney McCain, are both natural-born US citizens regardless of whether their moms happened to be in Hawaii, Kansas, Kenya, Panama or Mars at the moment they were born. And therefore they are both eligible to serve as President of the United States of America.
And, incidentally, to the best of my knowledge neither of them have ever bankrupted even a single corporation that they were in charge of.
Donald is surfing in on a wave of crazy - and it's evidently a big wave.
ReplyDeleteIt's an awfully big wave. And he's already announced that if he doesn't win the Republican Primary he's going to run a third-party campaign. Which is a really nice way of handing Barack Obama a re-election on a silver platter. Which I'm okay with, I think Obama is doing about as well as any president could be expected to under the circumstances he has. But there are some intelligent and competent voices on the Republican side of the aisle who have some ideas worth considering, who are simply going to be drowned out in the circular firing-squad that is certain to ensue from a Trump candidacy. Personally, I would really appreciate seeing a civil, intelligent and well-reasoned presidential debate between Barack Obama and someone like Mitt Romney or Mike Huckabee. I don't necessarily agree with any of the three of them on all of the issues, but I know that they've given serious consideration to their stances on the issues even if I don't agree with those stances. But Donald Trump has decided that the American people aren't going to be allowed that kind of civil debate. Hopefully the American voters will have the sense to fire him for that.
ReplyDeleteFox News is now endorsing Trump with the birther thing. Maybe Rupert Murdoch will be his running mate. Or Glen Beck. That would be fabulous.
ReplyDeleteOh right, Murdoch's an Aussie. But he's a white Aussie, so maybe that's okay?
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