Okay, so there are still people going around, saying that Obama’s status as a natural born citizen is in doubt. As you might remember you have to be a natural born citizen of the United States to be eligible to be president, among other basic requirements.
For instance there are those who claim that he was not actually born in Hawaii.
Or there is a guy I argue with in Althouse’s comments who claims that even if Obama was born in the U.S., because his father was technically a British subject at the time, that meant he was granted British citizenship at birth and thus, simultaneously denied natural born American citizen status. He says that therefore by the operation of another nation’s laws, a person born in America would normally be eligible to be president would be denied that birthright. I say that’s crap.
But for all that, I get it. I really get where they are coming from. Barrack Obama is in my humble opinion the worst president in my lifetime, although to be fair, I was very young when Carter was president and maybe if I remembered Carter better, I would change that ranking some. But the point is he is bad. And so what the birther movement is really about, is trying to find a silver bullet that ends his presidency. Some miracle cure that doesn’t stop cancer, but does stop Obamamania.
But wishing doesn’t make it true. The fact is that they have found a birth announcement in Hawaii written close to the time. And you can judge the legal theories of his supposed British citizenship for yourself.
But they make one valid point. It turns out that when a person becomes president, we don’t even check for this kind of crap. We don’t ask for their birth certificates, don’t ask for anything to prove they meet the constitutional test of eligibility. Mind you, of course we shouldn’t only accept birth certificates, but also other forms of evidence and testimony, but the point is you should have to prove you are eligible to be president before you get to be president. And it’s not about believing anyone isn’t eligible; it’s just that old Reagan mantra: trust but verify.
