Hi. Yeah, I’ve been lurking on these threads and following along more or less. What I really don’t get is why a presidential candidate - any presidential candidate, going back to the early years of the nation - doesn’t have to prove to somebody or other, or some government agency or other - that he actually fulfills the constitutional requirements.
I suppose it’s because, thinking back on it, the issue has never come up before. I mean, Herbert Hoover, FDR, Truman, Ike, JFK, LBJ, RMN, Ford, Carter, Dutch, both Bushes and Bubba... they all had a very obvious paper trail going back to childhood. But, still, the mechanism should be in place on the government side, so that a private citizen doesn’t have to bother with this sort of lawsuit.
Do you see what I’m saying? I mean, why hasn’t the judiciary or congress jumped in on this? Don’t candidates have to file all sorts of papers and so on?
Remember they were NOT from Chicago, and "don't ask me because I am BLACK," that the real racist question today,!!!
no, candidates are nominated by their political parties and the political parties are the only authority that has any interest in verifying their credentials.
the Democrats can nominate Mickey Mouse and get him through all the primaries and run him in the general election and unless some concerned citizen(s) or the media (don’t hold your breath) start asking questions and filing lawsuits (thank you Mr Berg) there is no mechanism to have a candidate even prove they are human beings (as opposed to cartoon characters or aliens)
so now the Democrats and their minions have answered the request for documents by saying that they don’t want their candidate to release these documents because they are private, personal, and might be an embarassment...i can’t remember if this development is on this or another thread.
BTW...the really best place to read about this particular issue is on the Hillary Clinton protest sites...Puma Pac, Hillbuzz, Hillary Clinton Forum...etc. Those ladies are really pissed at 0bama for stealing the nomination from Hillary and are solid behind McCain/Palin.
If you ever get depressed by the news bias, visit Hillbuzz and they will straighten you out and believe me those ladies are tough and they are not going to quit...ever.
Remember, we don't really vote for President, the electors of the electoral college do. We vote for the electors, now, but that wasn't always the case. In fact even now, it's only a matter of *State* laws, changeable by the legislatures of the several states. And they don't all need to use the same methods.
The Constitution says:
Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or Person holding an Office of Trust or Profit under the United States, shall be appointed an Elector.
Appointed!
That's in the "original" body of the Constitution, and was not affected by the 12th amendment, which did change the way the electors voted. (Prior to the 12th, they only voted for President, although each got two votes. The runner up became VP. As you can imagine, that didn't work out too well. There were only 3 Presidents (Washington, Adams, Jefferson, elected under that scheme, before the 12th amendment changed it.
The Constitution further provides that the votes of the electors are delivered to the Senate, where The President of the Senate, that is the current VP, opens them before both chambers. But there is no provision for "validating" the votes, nor for "vetting" the person selected.
Even though traditionally the Chief Justice swears in the President, that's not a Constitutional requirement. In fact LBJ was sworn in by Federal District Judge Sarah T. Hughes,(later to become somewhat infamous as a member of the three judge panel which first heard Roe V. Wade, and as a judicial activist mandating how the Dallas County Jail should be run) ), on Air Force One, sitting on the tarmac in Dallas. (Ironically, she did not know that the oath is specified in the Constitution, fortunately someone else did and they faxed a copy to the aircraft).
After the state electors vote the results are sent to the President of the Senate, Cheney, who announces the official winner of the election. Presumably, Cheney could ask the Supreme Court for a ruling on eligibility.
As to the past after the expiration of the initial grace period for a potential foreign born president expired (i.e. those moving here after 1773) all other presidents had well established backgrounds generally from families of distinction and certainty. Alexander Hamilton was one of the Founders (maybe the only one) who could have potentially been president though foreign born. But Jefferson and Burr made sure he would not be by exposing the scandalous Reynolds affair.
Lincoln probably had about the most obscure origins of any of the other presidents but even his were fairly clear.