Posted on 12/09/2008 6:32:38 AM PST by Mobile Vulgus
Well. I am sure that this is going to anger some of you. But, I have to say it anyway…
OK, I have basically stayed silent about this whole Obama birth certificate dust up until now because I have been trying to resolve the dichotomy in my mind between being a Constitutional constructionist and a pragmatist. But, at long last I have realized that the two really aren't as much at odds as it might seem. In fact, I found my answer in the words of Thomas Jefferson -- as well as Madison, Franklin and a few others, but we'll stick with Jefferson quotes for the sake of a sharply focused discussion.
I have discovered that Thomas Jefferson has already told us upon which side we as conservatives should descend over the question concerning Barack Obama's birth certificate and his eligibility for the office of president of the United States. Mister Jefferson would tell you all to shut up, accept cruel fate, and get ready to claim Barack Obama as the 44th president of the United States of America.
That's right, forget about it. Move on. Nothing to see here.
Before you get your Constitutional shorts in a bunch, I absolutely agree with you that we are a nation of laws and not men. Jefferson did too, once saying that we must consider what the original intent of the Constitution was before we rush into a decision and the original intent in this case was clearly to make sure every president was a natural born citizen of this country before being eligible to run for that highest of offices. ("The Constitution on which our Union rests, shall be administered ... according to the safe and honest meaning contemplated by the plain understanding of the people of the United States at the time of its adoption -- a meaning to be found in the explanations of those who advocated [for it]..."-- Thomas Jefferson)
The simple reason that the founders wanted the president to be a natural born citizen was because they were keen students of history. The phrase "let history be our guide" was not just a trope. The founders knew well the many instances when a foreign ruler had entered a country and, using that country's own laws and customs, immorally proclaimed himself the ruler of a subjugated nation. The founders wanted to prevent that possibility and also wanted to make sure that there were no divided loyalties in an American president, that the welfare of the USA would be first and foremost in the mind of anyone elected to that office. What better way than to preclude the foreign born?
So, yes, the proscriptions against the foreign born candidate are important and should not be cast aside. We should never knowingly present a candidate not born as a citizen of the U.S. Further, we should take pains to verify the provenance of every candidate's claim to natural citizenship.
But... and you knew the “but” was coming. There is an original intent that rises above the Constitution itself. In fact, there are a few, but one in particular comes to bear here...
Read the rest at Publiusforum.com...
How dare that Warner Todd Huston call it a “fair election”?
What a moron you are, Warner Todd Huston!
Fear of riots should NEVER EVER by a rule for disregarding the law.
This is exactly how mobs got people executed. The EXACT SAME MENTALITY.
They could not contemplate a 30 year grooming process to install a non-native, liberal socialist trained, Manchurian candidate, any more than they could have imagined “gay marriage” much less ever consider it a “right.”
“Do we need race riots now?”
Yeah. Screw the Constitution. Let’s make all our decisions based on succumbing to those who would intimidate those of us who abide the law. Freedom and democracy are SO hard and scary.
“Of course, Obama’s foreign birth, if it comes to be true, will undermine his presidency.”
####
And exactly how is that not a much bigger mess than adhering to the letter of the law NOW, before his reign gets underway?
This guy wants to be about pragmatism, but it sounds like he is in favor of simply kicking the can down the road.
Well. I am sure that this is going to anger some of you.
Like this guy has the power to affect me in any way.
While Jefferson was a true renassiance man, he was a freaking hypocrite and a arrogant snob. I take anything Jefferson said with a grain of salt
Sure, that’s why Thomas Jefferson was in Philadelphia in June and July 1776 and wrote the Declaration of Independence for a fledgling nation.
He really was in the first Move-On.org Committee.
Thomas Jefferson risked his neck.
I don’t think he would be counseling to just move on about a fraud becoming the most powerful man on earth.
Excuse me but that is two thirds of the House and the Senate NOT a majority for the President has no say in whether the Constitution is amended or not. The rest is correct.
Ravenstar
The points he makes are set against the damage that will be done to the rule of law. It is a failure and a shame upon us all. This issue has been around for more than a year prior to the election, and was never resolved. It is a purposeful hiding of the truth from the people.
It is just another step down the road to the dissolution of the rule of law.
Fear motivates the pragmatist.
IS GROUNDS FOR IMPEACHMENT !
Ever since Dan Rather tried to pawn off on the public hoax documents purportedly about George W. Bush’s National Guard service, it’s hard to take on faith pictures of pieces of paper. But let’s take a step back away from the minutia of the birth certificate controversy and just think for a moment about whether the idea that Obama was born in Kenya makes any sense.
Has anybody advocating this actually looked at a globe and thought about what a trip from Honolulu to Nairobi would have been like on a first-generation jetliner in 1961?
Hawaii and Kenya are on almost exact opposite sides of the world. The Boeing 707 had a range of only 3700 miles, so the outbound portion of their supposed trip would have looked something like this:
A flight from Honolulu to the West Coast.
Then a flight from the West Coast to the East Coast.
Then from the East Coast to a refueling stop at Gander in Newfoundland.
Then Gander to London.
Then London to somewhere to the south (Cairo?).
Then on to Nairobi in one or two more segments.
(The Great Circle distance going the other way around the world is slightly less, but there would have been even fewer flights available.)
They would have been in transit for, say, 100 hours each way.
It would then have taken a day or two on buses to get to the Obama family farm near Lake Victoria.
Two round trip tickets for this ambitious expedition would have been prohibitively expensive for anyone, let alone two young students.
Barack Sr. only got from Kenya to Hawaii in the first place due to the famous Tom Mboya Airlift, an expensive Cold War project funded by Americans to woo the next generation of Kenya’s elites away from Soviet influence.
Not surprisingly, there’s little evidence that Obama Sr. ever went home to Kenya during his four years in America. It was just too expensive.
It’s especially unlikely that he would have taken his heavily pregnant bride on such a grueling trip to Kenya.
Besides the difficulties of travel for a pregnant woman, Obama Sr. had a little problem that would have dissuaded him from taking his new wife to see the folks. See, back in Kenya, he already had a wife—Keiza, and two kids, Roy and Auma.
His bigamous marriage to Obama’s mother was a criminal act in Hawaii. Fortunately, for Barack Sr., the state of Hawaii didn’t know about his other wife.
Granted, polygamy is legal (indeed, is fashionable) in Kenya. But it seems highly unlikely that Obama Sr. would have been in any hurry to open the can of worms that his bigamy entailed while he was still living in America.
Also, Obama Sr.’s father, Onyango Obama, a wealthy, politically influential landowner, had opposed his son’s marriage to a white woman on racial grounds. So, why would the young man go looking for face-to-face trouble with his famously strong-willed father?
The people have spoken, have they? Well the point is, did they know for whom they were voting? If Obama had been presented to the people as “not native born”, if that is what he is, and they voted him in anyway and voided the constitutional provision, then I might agree with the point being made here. But that was not how he presented himself. If he is not a citizen by birth, then he defrauded the American people and they would not like that one damn bit.
If he is a citizen by birth, then why not prove it?
It would not be wise to cancel the constitution just because it would be divisive and complicated to do otherwise. The ignorance of the fraud does not make the people of America responsible for it.
If Al Qeada warned us to elect a Taliban leader or there would be violence, “Thomas Jefferson” would want us to do so if it meant we could avoid making them angry.
[/BIG SARC]
I’m feeling like I’ve been teleported to europe.
This is a bunch of hogwash distorting Jefferson. The will of the people can never override the Constitution without an amendment. No way did Jefferson or any of the rest intend for the will of the people to overrule the law of the land without due process.
Obama needs to have Hawaii mail certified copies to several media outlets and both left and right leaning political think tanks.
Oh hell yeah! Maybe cousin Odinga can run for president in 4 years! Won't that be fun?
As for the race riots you fear-the 12% of our population who would begin the process in that event need to learn that they will not get away with such activity every time they don't get what they want. Enough.
I have a great idea! Since nothing in the Constitution has any value anymore and will be totally ignored in the future, I think the Republican party should talk to the guy who was the President of the Czech Republic. Can’t recall his name, Vaclav something, but he certainly sounded like he understood freedom and liberty better than 90% of Americans and he’s apparently good at cleaning up after Communists, so let’s see if he’s interested in running for President in ‘12 on the Republican ticket. /s
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