Posted on 07/29/2009 9:49:22 AM PDT by Bob J
I'm not taking a position one way or the other, I have been watching the "Birther" controversy with interest.
In answering my question, please go further than the obvious, in other words what would be the outfall and how would you handle the eventual constitutional crisis? Would Biden become prez? If he is no longer viable, would it then fall to Pelosi?
I'm asking the birther supporters to think long range about this.
Frog march 0bamao out of the WH ala Zelaya in Honduras.
Unfortunately, we’d be stuck with Biden as Pres with Pelousy as de facto VP.
Amendment 20 Section 3 states:
3. If, at the time fixed for the beginning of the term of the President, the President elect shall have died, the Vice President elect shall become President. If a President shall not have been chosen before the time fixed for the beginning of his term, or if the President elect shall have failed to qualify, then the Vice President elect shall act as President until a President shall have qualified; and the Congress may by law provide for the case wherein neither a President elect nor a Vice President elect shall have qualified, declaring who shall then act as President, or the manner in which one who is to act shall be selected, and such person shall act accordingly until a President or Vice President shall have qualified.
Basically, Biden shall be president until Obama qualifies for the office, and since Obama shall never qualify, Biden shall be president until 2012.
I think the ‘birther’ controversy could produce several possible outcomes, depending on what the real truth of his birth is:
1) If it is proven that BHO Sr. is not the father, this would create a scandal but since “natural born” implies the place of birth (jus soli), not lineage, it may damage his credibility and possibly his chances of re-election.
2) If no new source documents are made available, then the short form certificate will stand as proof of citizenship and nothing will happen, even though the HI records may be based on a fraudulent birth report by Obamas mother. It’s hard to prove a negative.
3) If it can be proven that BHO is not “natural born”, then a legal crisis will result. Chances are it will go on for years, putting his Presidency under a cloud but absent enough votes to impeach, he stays in office, however chances of re-election should drop to near Zero (pun intended!)
The good news is, “birthers” have nothing to lose by pursuing this issue and keeping it in play. (With the possible exception of Lou Dobbs who has said he believes BHO is a citizen, and would be hired by Fox News in a heartbeat anyhow). But NONE of this is good for Obama, the longer it stays in the news the longer it is going to distract and annoy him and his people. What is bad for Obama is good for our country.
That’s not my concern. If he’s not eligible for president and the courts up hold that, than Biden becomes the president.
But it’s more than the BC. I want the early education records, and his draft board documents.
Everything.
"If a President shall not have been chosen before the time fixed for the beginning of his term, or if the President elect shall have failed to qualify, then the Vice President elect shall act as President until a President shall have qualified"
IOW - Biden beomes acting President until a real President is picked.
That is the point some who’ve opposed looking at this issue have said. They don’t want to undergo a constitutional crisis throwing out legislation he signed, execute orders he gave, treaties he claimed to make (without congressional oversight) with Russia.
The President would be unable to serve so I could see the case being made that Biden is President. However the election would be a fraud it perhaps it could be Pelosi.
There were plenty on both sides of the aisle in 1998 who didn’t want to impeach Bill Clinton because “of the economy”. The internet stock bubble had already popped. The downhill slide began.
Always do the right thing.
We value the Constitution more than your fears for the consequences.
He claims to be a Christian. I want to see the baptism record. When and where did it occur and who did it? Jeremiah Wright? Someone when he was a child?
To everyone castigating my use of the word “birther”, I was using the term Ann Coulter used.
Now, if want to call Ann Coulter a dim, a rat, a RINO, a sellout, a closet communist, a libtard, be my guest.
This birther simply wants the same standard of proof for Obama as we've had for any president in recent memory.
"Doesn't matter what the consequences for the country are."
If we simply decide to discard the Constitution for the sake of convenience, what happens to our "country" is really immaterial.
And now (Stepping in from the Arlen Specter wing) we present to you: Melas - who will always justify attacking republicans and conservatives while making friends with the DNC leadership.
Let’s always frame the debate in leftist terminology. That way Melas can be popular with the beltway crowd. It is always best to let the left take charge, eh Melas?
There is no constitutional provision for “invalidating” an election.
At best, you spark an argument over whether the electoral college is the sole arbitor of the constitutional qualifications of those it elects, or if the president can in fact be removed if we find he does not meet the constitutional qualifications.
If he can be removed, then the question is by what mechanism. The only mechanisms for removing a president mentioned in the Constitution are impeachment, or the majority vote of the cabinet. So then you have to decide whether Obama needs to be “removed”, in which case you’d need to follow constitutional removal, or if he never really WAS the President.
Of course, since the electoral college voted him in, and the house agreed with that, you have to decide whether the supreme court has the constitutional right to rule those actions by the electoral college and the house “unconstitutional”, and thereby nullify their votes.
If you do that, you have NOT invalidated the electoral college vote for Biden, or the senate vote to accept the electoral college results, so Biden would become President.
Except for the fact that we have only once before ever even had a question raised about presidential qualifications, it seems it would have been nice if the founders had placed in the constitution a method for handling the case where a sitting office-holder is found to not meet the qualifications.
Of course, it could well be that the founders intended impeachment to handle that case, because they probably could not imagine a majority of elected representatives ever being willing to ignore the constitution in order to keep a member of their party in office.
Yeah right, because I spend so much time in the Beltway I want to be popular. In other words, you’re mad.
People don't have the same sort of hatred for Biden as they do 0. This could be a problem if 0 is removed from office and it's Biden vs. Palin in 2012. It would be a very close race, I think.
“He would appoint Hillary as VP”
Do you really think he’s THAT stupid? He would be signing his own death warrant!
(Well, maybe he is...)
Yep, follow them and let the chips fall where they may.
No. The terrible day was the day a person who had not been properly and sufficiently vetted was elected president. The correction would be terrible, but it would be a great day for the Constitution.
I don’t remember anybody asking for George Bush’s long-form Birth Certificate, nor do I remember seeing it.
But maybe they did, and it was published.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.