Jul 22 2009
Obama’s Birth Certificate
I see a lot of questioning about whether President Obama is a U.S. citizen these days. Apparently, finding a birth certificate for him is hard, and there are lots of rumors that he was born in Nigeria.
Here’s the deal.
His mother was born in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas in 1942. Both her parents were native born as well. This makes her a native born citizen of the United States.When Barack was born in 1961, she was past age 18, the legal age of majority in the U.S.
By law, any child of a native born American, who is of legal age, is an American. Period. No matter where on the planet the birth occurred.
Where Mr. Obama was born makes no difference whatsoever in his citizenship. Hundreds of thousands of American citizens have been born all over the world.
Think of all the soldiers who married girls in Japan, Germany, Korea, France, England, you name it- all their kids who were born overseas are exactly the same citizens, born under exactly the same circumstances.
This entire rumor is stupidity at it’s finest.
8 responses so far
boomer, I agree with this. I’ve never understood why it was such a big deal. I was thinking I should speak up about it, too, but I changed my mind after I spoke to Idahogie about it last week.
He explained that in his opinion, the more effort and time and resources and sheer stupidity these “birthers” put into the idea that Obama is not a citizen, chasing the fantasy, then the less time they have to spend on serious issues such as health care and the economy, etc.
It’s distracting to them and we oughtta let them be distracted to high heaven, because then they’re not monkeying with real issues and creating havoc there.
I thought, that’s a pretty good game plan, all in all.
yup. good game plan. I wonder how much longer nonsense like this will continue.
Jolly good game plan! NEver thought of it that way.
But I’m in total agreement with you there, boomer, that it beggars belief, some of the crazy ideas the teabagging wingnut crowd gets in their pointy little heads.
It seems that there are too many Republicans who are doing their best to make sure their party disappears forever. Every nonsensical issue like this only drives more uncommitted people away from them. Issues like this are about as attractive as chewing on a rotten fish.
One would think that there has to be some intellectuals left in the party- they can’t all be know-nothing redneck crazies, can they? If they are so bereft of anything positive, maybe the party should break up… leadership should never come from one side only if we want things to work.
I think they’ll keep going if they sense weakness. They’re looking for blood, and they’ll gnash and snap until the draw some. Then, it’s an all-out feeding frenzy until they bring down the victim.
Some of the “base” absolutely believe the smoke and fire concept of what they hear on the AM radio. The moderates of both parties believe almost nothing that they hear or read. I’d say it’s wacky but it really is business as usual for us, no different than in Adams/Jefferson days.
I dunno, Liz. The Conservative base speaks only in Con Code these days. Lee Atwater, the Darth Vader of late 20th Century politics, summed up the code speak thusly. ( I got this from Wikipedia, but a Google will turn up a dozen other sites with the same quote.)
“Atwater: You start out in 1954 by saying, “Nigger, nigger, nigger.” By 1968 you can’t say “nigger”—that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states’ rights and all that stuff. …”
Atwater went on with further comments about how the code speak became increasingly abstract. Nowadays, the base’s Con code is so abstract that they actually support lower taxes for the rich, while much of the base is in dire economic straits.
Deciphering the Con Code is hard for me, because most of it is real insider stuff, but I detect a real element of fear and desperation in it. That, in part, is why they’re resorting to the Guns, Liberty and Freedom stuff so much, in so many abstract fuzzy ways. They’re looking for inconsequentials they can wrap their minds around because Big Change suddenly happened, and it scared the crap out of them.
The worst is I see the Con Code spreading all over Boise now. The last session was chock full of it. They are being dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century, and don’t like it one bit.
Lee Atwater. I remember when I thought he was cute. He was pure-D poison!
I do agree about the fear and desperation. They for sure never imagined losing the While House, and especially not to a minority candidate. It’s like the end must be nigh…
Hi, Doc…
I think there was expectation that they would lose the White House- how could they have none, after Bush’s soaring unpopularity?
But I think they were knocked flat by all the other races they lost, especially in the West and Virginia, and by the desertion of the women and un-decideds. The leadership is really struggling now to overcome the Party Of No tag, and the lack of viable new faces. I sure didn’t forsee the collapse of the Republican Party coming at all!
Atwater was a complete cynic, and for him, it was all a game. Winning the game was the most important thing for him. His tactics worked. He was Rove’s mentor, and they worked for Rove, too, until 2006, when they didn’t work any more at all. They were too slow in recognizing the depth of the majority’s discontent, and stuck with the losing tactics through 2008, and the tactics completely failed then.
Republicans have failed their intellectual former leaders. The old guard was replaced by the Neo-Cons, and the entire Neo-Con philosophy was a total failure. Catering the bottom of the base was a terrible idea in 2008, and only hastened the bottom dropping clear out of the already spongy sack.