Donald Trump leaps to the head of the Republican Presidential Candidate pack by simply spouting something ridiculous. He raises the birth certificate question. And simultaneously becomes the darling of the conspiracy theorist "Birthers" and the prime example of the lunacy of the conservatives to be pointed out by the Left. He's front page news.
I'm not a Birther. It is way too late for it to make a bit of difference. The Founders intent by adding to the eligibility requirements for only one office that the individual be a "natural born citizen" may have had fine rationale at the time we were emerging from beneath a colonial thumb. The rationale may very well still be valid. Or it may be outdated and inapplicable.
We've learned along the way that modern life creates nuances in the definition. It says nothing about the citizenship of the parents, so we get the conundrum of anchor babies of illegal immigrants. It doesn't allow for the birth of a child of a patriotic American serving abroad in the military or diplomatic service. It doesn't cover for well-meaning American parents having a child while simply traveling. It gets complicated quickly. We have to make supplemental rules and laws.
It might have been good to question the natural born citizen status of Obama the candidate. When the election took place, it might have been in order to validate his eligibility before inauguration. But we are long past that point. We have a fait accompli and there is no reasonable process for a reversal. So, the answer I fall back upon is that it is done, it can't be changed, and we need to get over it.
Now we've got a book and sure enough it jumps to the top of the best-seller list and makes the author a couple of quick millions. His name should be a household word. He's the same one who gave us "Unfit for Command" which brought the term "Swift-boating" into the political lexicon.
Maybe Dr. Corsi makes the case that Obama isn't eligible to be president. It really doesn't matter. Nothing will change. But read an interesting analysis here:
The Questions Raised By the Question Raised
You don't have to be a Birther to give those issues consideration. They are important.
1 comment:
Actually, everyone is 'talking around' Obama's real problem. It isn't a foreign birth (though he is thought to have spent $2 million hiding all of his records from public scrutiny).
What he really is hiding is his criminal fraud of attending Occidental on a scholarship for foreign-exchange students !
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