If President Obama wants to run again in 2012, he may need to prove to the state of Arizona that he was in fact born in the United States.
That is, if the efforts of the fringe “birther” movement manage to turn a small win into a big victory.
An amendment made by a Republican member of the state’s House of Representatives, Rep. Judy Burges, to a bill concerning how candidates can get on Arizona’s ballot, would require them to show documents to prove they are a “natural born citizen.”
Now dubbed the “birther bill,” the provision won a preliminary 31-22 vote, but the bill itself still faces a formal vote before it is sent to the state’s Senate.
Attempts have been made in other states, such as Florida and Oklahoma, to introduce similar legislation. None of them have ever become law.
“Republicans continue to take Arizona down the wrong track by wasting taxpayers’ time on frivolous legislation instead of working on important issues like health care for kids and seniors and education,” said Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, a Democrat, in a statement.
Regardless of whether or not the bill is passed, it likely will face multiple legal challenges.
“While everyone has an interest in ensuring that only eligible citizens run for President, there are obvious issues with states implementing what could become a patchwork of different tests for a presidential candidate to prove his/her citizenship,” said a spokesman for Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett in an e-mail to The Arizona Republic.
This latest effort by the “birther” movement to challenge Obama’s eligibility as President comes on the heels of an Army doctor who faces a court martial for refusing to deploy to Afghanistan because the order is “illegal.”
“I believe all servicemen and women, and the American people, deserve the truth about President Obama’s constitutional eligibility to the office of the presidency and the commander in chief,” Lt. Col. Terry Lakin said in a video statement posted on YouTube last month.
The conspiracy theory regarding Obama began during his campaign for President, with followers often arguing he was really born in Kenya, and that the certification of live birth his officials released is fake.
These claims have largely been dismissed by the general public.
Similar concerns regarding Sen. John McCain, who was born outside the United States in the Panama Canal Zone in 1936, were also also briefly raised in 2008. However, questions of his eligibility did not generate the same kind of fervor.
(Source: NY Daily News)
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17 Responses
Stupid – States can’t determine compliance with Federal election qualifications anyway. A slippery slope too; enlightened folk who are tickled by this – just wait until someone proposes a bill to make Chasidishe candidates prove their citizenship – or their loyalty. Shamefully stupid.
Hardly a challenge for Mr. Obama – his certificate from Hawaii is all over the ‘net.
The real danger of the “birthers” is that they will so discredit the opposition to the current administration’s policies, that instead of the next election being a repudiation of them, it will end up being an affirmation of the far-left policies (particular social policies) that will then become hard to change.
“Similar concerns regarding Sen. John McCain, who was born outside the United States in the Panama Canal Zone in 1936, were also also briefly raised in 2008. However, questions of his eligibility did not generate the same kind of fervor.”
Maybe that’s because Anti-McCain activists weren’t as hateful as were many anti-Obama activists.
McCain was born to a parent in the service. And was there any US connection to Panama?
That said, I think the birthers don’t do credit to the right.
This teacher is truly a genius!
As the late Adrian Rogers said, “you cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.”
This man is truly a genius!
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An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had once failed an entire class. That class had insisted that Obama’s socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.
The professor then said, “OK, we will have an experiment in this class on Obama’s plan”.
All grades would be averaged and everyone would receive the same grade so no one would fail and no one would receive an A…
After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy. As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little.
The second test average was a D! No one was happy.
When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F.
As the tests proceeded, the scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else.
All failed, to their great surprise, and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed.
Could not be any simpler than that. (Please pass this on)
Remember, there is a test coming up. The mid-term election in 2010!
The reason there’s no hullabaloo over McCain is that he didn’t hide anything, and everyone agrees where he was born. The only issue is being born in that zone makes one eligible to serve as president.
The reason there is a whole uproar about Mr. Obama’s eligibility is that the documents that would settle the matter are being hidden from the public and these people go by the cliche “where there’s smoke there’s fire”.
The whole thing is kind of pointless as Mr. Obama was, in fact, elected and is serving as President, so there’s likely nothing these people can do about it at this point.
well, he NEVER proved it. the toilet paper from HI was NOT a real birth certificate. bottom line is this prima dona manchild is hiding something as anyone could easily get a copy of their real birth certificate. the question is what.
something is VERY fishy.
#3, Or because there actually were senate hearings about McCain and never about Obama.
As for your other point, there would be nothing wrong with checking the eligibility of a Chasiddishe candidate, either. It is a very legitimate requirment to have to show your citizenship documents.
I know someone who is over 60, was born at home and even though he had a birth certificate, it didn’t have his first name on it. He was ablr to get a driver’s lisence, but, when he wanted a passport, he had to have a birth certificate with his name on it. In order to get it, he had to show hospital birth records – which he of course didn’t have, school records – also nada, because he went a Chassidish school and if they ever had records, there weren’t any now. So they asked for a doctor’s note showing that he had been a patient for 10 years or more. After he sent in the doctor’s note, it was rejected because of some technicality, so he resent the documents, again rejection. 3 times he tried and finally gave up, until he called his assemblyman, who made the right connections, and he finally got his birth cert.. What if he hadn’t had a doctor caring for him, like a lot of people, how would he have gotten his birth cert. I know this has nothing to do with obama, I’m just sounding off!
Or because there actually were senate hearings about McCain and never about Obama.
VERY TRUE!
Every president has had to prove that he was leagally allowed to be president, except one. why does the manchild get to get away with this? what is he hiding? something with his “father” maybe???
To #1 – actually, states do have the right to determine who goes on the ballot. If you look at the 2004 election, it took an act of the state legislature to get George W. Bush on the ballot in Illinois as he was not eligible to appear on the ballot according to the current Illinois law.
Arizona is fast becoming the laughing-stock of the country. First with their blatently unconstiutional immigrant law and now this fiasco. This is truly a step worthy of the intelligence of a Sarah Palin.
The habit that the Yeshiva World website has to put up embarrassing pictures of the people we disagree with or donot like is, in my opinion, a Chillul Hash-m. it is also potentially bad for the jews if someone were to see it and decide that we are not appreciative of the freedoms America has provided us over the years and starts to feel animosity for us.
I have researched this in the past and I believe that he is not actually eligible to be the president! I believe that the published birth certificates were forgeries. Furthermore, two of his siblings gave two different hospital names when asked what hospital Barack was born in in Hawaii. From what I understand, he may have been born in Hawaii, but even so, he doesn’t constitute a ‘natural-born citizen’, as it has been proven that when he moved to Kenya as a child, he had to renounce his US citizenship as that was the law of the country at the time. His school records indicate that he did not have dual citizenship and that he was a Muslim.
#15
I hate to disillusion you, but being a Muslim does not automatically bar you from US citizenship.
#16
That wasn’t what I was saying. I said that from what I understand, Obama isn’t officially classified as a natural-born citizen because at one point in his life, his U.S. citizenship was renounced. The Muslim part was just for effect.