CNN provides a staggering new poll indicating that a full 41% of Republicans harbor serious doubts about whether President Obama was born in the United States. Only 19% of Independents and 15% of Democrats believe that Obama "probably" or "definitely" was born in another country.
It truly amazes me just how deeply entrenched birtherism is inside the modern conservative movement. Rush Limbaugh is, of course, only the latest to fall into the fever swamp.
Meanwhile, in not entirely unrelated news, vanquished Rep. Bob Inglis (R-SC) recounts his meeting with the tea partiers. It starts with folks telling him how Social Security numbers indicate how people are (literally) owned by banks, and goes downhill from there (with the usual pitstops in old school anti-Semitic conspiracy-mongering).
But, David, if he would just release his long firm birth certificate...
ReplyDeleteIn discussing this with birthers, I have discovered that my own original birth certificate, safely in my possession since 1973, is woefully inadequate to prove my eligibility for the presidency. The only person who signed it is the clerk who issued it. There is no doctor's name or hospital mentioned. The form has a box for my color, but none is listed. And, worst of all, it is only a certificate of birth, not a certificate of live birth. So, not only do I have insufficient proof that I was born in Massachusetts (despite the fact that I have a passport, a ssn, and the state thinks it has given me sufficient proof), I have no proof that I am alive!
It would help if more people understood U.S. immigraiton laws. Obama's mother was an American citizen and no matter where he was born, he would end up a citizen or at the least duel citizenship. McCain was born in Panama but no one worried except for a few crazy Democrats.
ReplyDeleteThe "moderate" Republicans have no one to blame but themselves. They had six years from 2001 to 2006 to get the conservatives on their side. However, the grew the government, ran up the debt, increased the public sector work forced, passed a huge number of restrictive laws, and proposed open borders and unlimited immigration while porking up the budget and acting unethically.
If the moderates want anyone to pay attention to them, they have to come up with a point of view that is something other than give the Democrats whatever they want so that they Democrats will not call them racist.
The Republicans have abandoned too many issues because they are more interested in giving the Democrats what they want.
If a moderate Republicans wants the support of anyone to their right, they have to propose small government, low costs solutions and they have to let some people fail and suffer so that the conservatives do not feel that they are being ripped off by the left.
Alas, even when Superdestroyer sounds sane, he's wrong. Because Obama's mother was a teenager when he was born, and his father was a noncitizen, and he was born before 1986, he really would need to have been born in the U.S. to have been a citizen at birth.
ReplyDeletePG,
ReplyDeleteI do not believe you are interpreting the regulation correctly. The law sets up a window where a mother living abroad can give birth to a citizen no matter what. Since an 18 year old cannot have lived inside the U.S. for five years after the age of 18 but a 20 y/o can, the rule makes no sense. It that was the intent, it is a horribly written rule.
My guess is that women between the age of 15 and 19 needed to have lived in the U.S. for the maximum number of years. Besides, Ann Dunham was born in 1942 and President Obama was born in 1961.