The Birthing Issue (yes, again)
First off, I am neither Republican nor Democrat. I am, if I must be pigeon-holed, a Libertarian with leanings toward conservativism.
That having been said, I've been watching the latest hoopla over President Obama's birth certificate with some bemusement.
Yesterday (or was it the day before) Mr. Obama released the long form of his birth certificate. Putting aside, for the moment, the fact that the Hawaiian officials have said that they never release the long form, even when requested by the owner, it would seem that there are some die-hard "birthers" out there who still refuse to believe it.
My question is this...
If you are one of those "birthers", where is your proof that Mr. Obama was born outside of the US? It seems a simple matter. If you belioeve he was born in Nigeria (or whereever), simply bring forth a birth certificate from that country proving your case.
Like I said, I'm neither Democrat nor Republican, nor do I really care one way or the other. But I got to tell you if he has one to prove his side and you don't have one to prove your side, I gotta go with the guy who has the hard evidence.
That having been said, I've been watching the latest hoopla over President Obama's birth certificate with some bemusement.
Yesterday (or was it the day before) Mr. Obama released the long form of his birth certificate. Putting aside, for the moment, the fact that the Hawaiian officials have said that they never release the long form, even when requested by the owner, it would seem that there are some die-hard "birthers" out there who still refuse to believe it.
My question is this...
If you are one of those "birthers", where is your proof that Mr. Obama was born outside of the US? It seems a simple matter. If you belioeve he was born in Nigeria (or whereever), simply bring forth a birth certificate from that country proving your case.
Like I said, I'm neither Democrat nor Republican, nor do I really care one way or the other. But I got to tell you if he has one to prove his side and you don't have one to prove your side, I gotta go with the guy who has the hard evidence.
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It does matter actually. His father was not a citizen. I believe his mother was, but the law was different back then. The law stated that the parent must have been a citizen for at least 10 years and 5 of which after you were 16 years old. His mother gave birth at 18, so thus he HAD to have been born in the US to qualify to be President. This is the reason why it's such a big deal.
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I didn't care where he was born before, and I don't care now.
You should, because it's part of the Constitution. If we ignore one part of it, what's the stop us from ignoring the rest?
You should, because it's part of the Constitution. If we ignore one part of it, what's the stop us from ignoring the rest?
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According to the US Constitution:
No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.Just having a parent who was a US citizen is not enough. The president must be a natural born citizen, ie he has to be born on US soil.
He produced the required legal documents long ago.
When was that?
This whole thing has been an embarrassing side show perpetrated by sore losers and encouraged by political opponents.
For the most part I agree. I think it's a legitimate concern though. Now that he has shown his BC, I think it needs to be dropped. The Constitution works both ways. People are more than welcome to want proof that he is legitimately a President, but they also need to concede that he is now that he has given his BC out.
How long after he produced the Long Form birth certificate did you start hearing about how it was forged?
I didn't know people were saying anything. That's why I asked my first question. I heard he had publicized his BC, and that was the last I heard...
When was that?
This whole thing has been an embarrassing side show perpetrated by sore losers and encouraged by political opponents.
For the most part I agree. I think it's a legitimate concern though. Now that he has shown his BC, I think it needs to be dropped. The Constitution works both ways. People are more than welcome to want proof that he is legitimately a President, but they also need to concede that he is now that he has given his BC out.
How long after he produced the Long Form birth certificate did you start hearing about how it was forged?
I didn't know people were saying anything. That's why I asked my first question. I heard he had publicized his BC, and that was the last I heard...
It's not a legitimate concern - he produced his certificate of live birth years ago, the same certificate any other Hawaiian citizen would use for legal purposes such as obtaining a passport. For some reason, that's not good enough for Obama in the eyes of "birthers", but it was good enough for the people who investigate Presidential candidates: the US Gov't including CIA and FBI.
If you don't know that people are saying it's a forgery or illegitimate, look no further than Donald Trump who in his 'victory' speech stated "We'll need to look at it closely and see if it's legitimate" or google "long form birth certificate photoshop layers".
If you don't know that people are saying it's a forgery or illegitimate, look no further than Donald Trump who in his 'victory' speech stated "We'll need to look at it closely and see if it's legitimate" or google "long form birth certificate photoshop layers".
It's not a legitimate concern
I was just speaking generally, not necessarily in just this case. I would hope we ensure our Presidents are allowed to be President. Honestly, I never really gave Obama's birth much thought. I assumed as you pointed out that our government agencies did their homework.
LOL, I googled it as you said. Interesting page I found. Honestly, I don't even see the point in pursuing this anyways. He's already President. I don't get it. I guess every President has their hecklers. Never ending story.
I was just speaking generally, not necessarily in just this case. I would hope we ensure our Presidents are allowed to be President. Honestly, I never really gave Obama's birth much thought. I assumed as you pointed out that our government agencies did their homework.
LOL, I googled it as you said. Interesting page I found. Honestly, I don't even see the point in pursuing this anyways. He's already President. I don't get it. I guess every President has their hecklers. Never ending story.
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I also had another thought. Let's just say, for the sake of discussion, that it's discovered that his birth certificate was faked. What will happen? Will all the legislation passed since he took office suddenly become undone? Will Mr. Biden, who was elected with Mr. Obama, becme an illigitimate vice president.
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Why waste time on any thought process? It's not just a discussion about Mr. Obama in particular, but a discussion in general about what would happen if any person were elected President who, it was later found out, did not meet the Constitutional requirements for the office.
What will happen?
I don't know to be honest. I've never heard of any legislation that covers this. Probably because they assume the President will be qualified to be president, thus we should never run into the problem.
I don't know to be honest. I've never heard of any legislation that covers this. Probably because they assume the President will be qualified to be president, thus we should never run into the problem.
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Thanks for the debate (such as it was)