Debunked? Not quite. Almost all of those links discussing parental citizenship were contingent upon Obama being born in Kenya. Only a couple of posters considered the idea that a Hawaiian-born Obama might be ineligible but only because his mother was not old enough to transmit citizenship.
Yes, people were talking about ineligibility prior to the election but the Vattel definition that requires both parents to be U.S. citizens, period, wasn't brought up until Donofrio brought it up first. And this was November, 2008. You (and apparently everyone else but me) might have learned about this in civics class but nobody was talking about it until after Obama was elected.
“These go back to June and July of 2008. Considering Obama’s surprise upset of Clinton for the Democrat nomination was June 3rd, 2008 (IIRC) I would say FReepers were ahead of the curve and deserve a good deal of praise for their diligence.”
A surprise? Only if you hadn’t been paying attention to the race at all. Obama won the Iowa Caucus, he had been leading in the delegate count since February or March, and a lot of people had been calling for Hillary to concede as early as March.
Plus, Obama declared his candidacy way back in early 2007, and had given a nationally-televised speech in 2004 where he mentioned his non-citizen dad practically in the first paragraph.
June 2008 isn’t diligent. It’s three months late at best, and four YEARS at worst.