I've never understood this line of reasoning. Apparently, having a foreign nation declare you as a citizen bars you from the Presidency? Doesn't that open us up to every two-bit dictator in the world deciding who can be President? After all, what if Hugo Chavez declares Sarah Palin as a citizen of Venezuela - according to this logic, she would be barred from running for the Presidency or Vice Presidency.
How another nation considers a person should be irrelevant; the only thing that should matter is how WE consider that person. From what I can tell, if you're born on US soil (or the equivalent, like a military base or possession) to at least one US citizen (naturalized parent or not) you're a natural born citizen.
Another nation's "claim" on your citizenship is irrelevant.
“Apparently, having a foreign nation declare you as a citizen bars you from the Presidency? Doesn’t that open us up to every two-bit dictator in the world deciding who can be President? After all, what if Hugo Chavez declares Sarah Palin as a citizen of Venezuela - according to this logic, she would be barred from running for the Presidency or Vice Presidency.”
Although I agree with your overrall argument, I don’t think this line of reasoning is fruitful. We’re not talking here about arbitrary acts of dictators, which can easily be ignored as extra-legal by our authorities. We’re talking about a process that’s been in place for a long time; i.e. being able to claim citizenship through your parents regardless of where you’re born.
“How another nation considers a person should be irrelevant; the only thing that should matter is how WE consider that person.”
Exactly, but to be fair to the Birthers, they’re not interested in what other nations can claim, either. They’re concerned about split loyalites. The idea is that if you are not born to two citizen parents, your love of country is questionable.
That’s stupid, but at least it’s logical. Problem is, the Constitution doesn’t speak to the issue, so bad luck for them.
The founders considered it an issue of National Security. See the Federalist Papers number 68. They put the distinction in because the best way to assure the loyalty of a person is to know that they are solely a native of the nation and of no other. The founders did not wan a Commander in Chief of the armed forces who could be potentially compromised.
And yes, if we fail to uphold that distinction then the son of Osama Bin Laden and an American woman could potentially be President of the United States.
Such a declaration would not be recognized in international law which only recognizes some combination of blood or soil at birth for claims of citizenship. No foreign dictator, such as Kim, can claim under international law that US citizen babies magically have North Korean blood or that US soil is magically North Korean soil.
On the other hand, Obama defenders would have us believe that the US born alleged terrorist, "David Coleman Headley"is equally entitled to be POTUS as Obama.
Headley was born Daood Gilani, but changed his name apparently to evade terrorist profiling. He was arrested this week for allegedly scoping out sites for the Mubai Massacre .
"Headley" had a Pakistani citizen father and a US citizen mother when born in the US nearly 50 years ago, yet was educated in Pakistan in Muslim schools in his formative years, then returned to the US and became radicalized.
Hmmm....sounds a bit familiar?
My personal view is that Obama's radicalization was more Marxist then Muslim (his father was both) but the underlying point is that Headley and Obama share insufficient or at least sub-optimal infusion of American experience and values, particularly from their father's, that was of concern to our founding fathers.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3817816,00.html
No you are not. It's not that another nation considers you a citizen, but rather that one of your parents was NOT a US citizen at the time of your birth. Given how things were in those days, it would be your father, because if your father was a US Citizen, your mother became one upon their marriage. But by 1961 that was no longer true, AFAIK, and wouldn't have helped Obama anyway, since it didn't work for a foreign man marrying a US citizen woman.
He, if born in the US was a citizen at birth, but not a natural born citizen, since his father was not a citizen.