...I was born in Hawaii.” President Obama took on the "birthers" yesterday, telling a crowd in Chicago, his adopted 'home town' that 'birtherism' was going to be a 'problem for them,' when asked about candidates who deny he is an American citizen. “I think that over the last two and a half years, there’s been an effort to go at me in a way that is politically expedient in the short term for Republicans but creates I think a problem for them when they want to actually run in the general election, where most people feel pretty confident the president was born where he says he was, in Hawaii,” Obama replied. “He doesn’t have horns.”
This won’t make this issue go away, and it may be that Obama doesn’t want it to. If he believes it will actually help him, and it’s hard to see how it could hurt him, he may play it occasionally just to keep it alive. Trump, with the support of Sarah Palin, may well ride it to a short boost in popularity, and even into an announced campaign for President, but if he wants to be a credible candidate, and, perhaps more importantly, to receive the support of the Republican Party, he’s going to have to find more than this to talk about.
On the same day, Arizona passed what has come to be known as the "Birther Bill," a bill to require any candidate to prove he/she is an American citizen to get on the ballot. "It's essential that we bring back the integrity to the office," Republican state lawmaker Judy Burges said, apparently implying that the current President's seat in that office has somehow removed integrity from the office, and that federal vetting processes will be less comprehensive than Arizona's. Governor Brewer has not indicated whether she would sign the bill.
President Obama believes, and he’s likely got this one right, that people who come to vote in the next general election will need more than an insupportable conspiracy theory about his birth certificate. They are going to want to know where the jobs are coming from, and when gas prices are coming down.
“We may disagree with him on some issues and we may wish that you know, the unemployment rate was coming down faster and we want him to know his plan on gas prices. But we're not really worrying about conspiracy theories or-- or birth certificates. And so-- I-- I think it presents a problem for them,” he said.
What he said.
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Comments: 31
The Republican party made their choice - they chose political expediency instead of being responsible.
Idiots need something to cling to, I suppose.
Obama is only about two years older than I am, so I imagine his birth certificate looks similar.
Again, how would somebody go about faking all this? Also, wouldn't people have vetted Obama's records as soon as he announced his candidacy? If there really had been irregularities in Obama's records, they would have almost certainly been found during his candidacy. Moreover, since Obama knows his Constitution, he wouldn't have run for President if he'd known he was ineligible to do so.
They don't care. They have decided they hate him...for whatever reasons real and imagined...and have given up all pretense of critical thinking.
Consider that large percentages, sometimes majorities, of the tea party say that Obama 1) was not born in the USA, 2) is a Muslim, 3) is a socialist, etc. All of these have something in common - the suggestion that "he is not one of us." It's easier to rationalize publicly him being "foreign" in an effort to demonize him rather than admit their own private fears, paranoias, and prejudices.
It says a very sad thing about America. We can do better than that. We must do better than that. We are better than that.
We've started something, and that scares some people.
Second, because no one has EVER challenged presented birth documents before... EVER. And there was no reason to challenge this one. The alleged "long form" birth certificate has NEVER been called for before in a presidential election.
I see no urgency in this matter. I'm pretty damned sure the President has declined to allow his "long form" birth certificate to be presented on the basis of: "No one else ever had to. The Certificate of Live Birth has always been acceptable. Why isn't mine, and why should I have to present the extra document? No answer? Screw it, you ain't gettin' it!" Give an acceptable answer to that, and you'll see the document.
How do I feel about citizenship versus potential? The question is irrelevant. The Constitution lists only two qualifications to be President: 1) You must be at least 35 years old, and 2) You must be a natural born citizen of the USA. I don't care HOW MUCH potential there is in a person, if he doesn't fulfill BOTH those requirements, he can NOT be President, potential be damned. Barrack Obama fulfills both. His potential is the purview of the electorate.
Hawaii Health Department web page
Interview
"It's a Department of Health record and it can't be released to anybody," he said. Nor do state laws have any provision that authorizes such records to be photocopied, Wisch said. If Obama wanted to personally visit the state health department, he would be permitted to inspect his birth record, Wisch said.
But if he or anybody else wanted a copy of their birth records, they would be told to fill out the appropriate state form and receive back the same computer generated "certification of live birth" form that everybody else gets — which is exactly what Obama did four years ago."
I think you are dead on the money--the AZ 'birther' bill is unconstitutional and inspired by a degree of racism that may be surprising to some, but should not be. Mississippi has the reputation of being a racist state (progress has been made, is being made, but we have long way to go) but having seen the attitudes become more covert through the years, I've learned to listen much more carefully. And guess what? It really is everywhere, though most states don't want to admit it. AZ seems to be rather upfront about it, though--and proud.
BTW: How many GOP candidates (or wannabes) could meet Arizona's criteria? This is, of course, a moot point, since the law won't pass Constitutional muster. I'm just wondering.
The 28% who answered "Don't know" also "don't know" where the White House can be found, who any president was, with the possible exception of Ronald Reagan, who gave the Gettysburg Address (three women in a New York City taxi agreed it was George Washington last night), whether or not Canada is a State of the USA, or the names of two out of four grandparents.
on the topic of gas prices, Republicans will tell you that it is not the President's job to lower gas prices. No wait a minute, no, they are not going to say that, because the current president is a Dem. :)
'Because nothing outlasts Republicanizer.'
http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474981443352