Posted on 05/30/2012 11:37:40 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
In an address to a Michigan Tea Party group in early May, former Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.) called for a government office to verify presidential candidates' citizenship and lamented Sen. John McCain's (R-Ariz.) opposition to questioning President Obama on his birthplace.
When asked about Obama's birthplace, Hoekstra said he wanted to see a three-person governmental panel check candidates' legal credentials to be president.
"At any future election someone would have to walk into that office and prove that they meet the minimum qualifications to be president of the United States," he said, suggesting "an FBI person, maybe a CIA person and one person managing those two people" to run the proposed department.
Members of the so-called "birther" movement have continued to dispute the president's American birthplace, despite overwhelming evidence that shows Obama was born in Hawaii and is a U.S. citizen.
Hoekstra didn't address in the answer whether he thought Obama was a citizen, instead blaming McCain for not pursuing the question and saying the public debate on the matter had ended.
"I think with this president the book is closed ... I hate to say it, but I think the debate's over," he said. "We lost that debate in 2008 when our presidential nominee said, 'I ain’t talking about it' ... I'd love to give you the answer and say that I'm going to fight it, we're going to beat it and we're going to win it. I think it wasn't fought and we lost it."
When The Hill asked if Hoekstra thought Obama was a U.S. citizen, a Hoekstra spokesman simply said, "Yes." He did not address the rest of Hoekstra's remarks.
Hoekstra, a former head of the House Intelligence Committee, is running in a competitive primary to face off against Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.). He was establishment Republicans' favored recruit, although charter schools founder Clark Durant (R) has kept up with him in fundraising. Stabenow is considered the favorite against either candidate.
This is not the first controversy of his campaign. Hoekstra's first ad, which featured an Asian-American actress speaking in broken English and criticizing Stabenow’s policies on China, was lambasted by both Democrats and Republicans for being racially charged.
He recently parted ways with the ad's creator, Fred Davis, after it was revealed that Davis had pitched an ad campaign to another client that would have tied Obama to his controversial former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.
Well... the FBI is run by HOLDER, and the CIA is run by Global Elitists, so what good would having them ‘vet’ candidates do?
That would be a real 'game-changer'.
YES we should be told what the candidates have done in their lives, and then we can decide.
In the past we could rely on the political campaign process and the media to vet candidates and their qualifications for office. Alas, both let us down in 2008, so maybe adding a little bureau (alas!) might help repair our election processes.
(ASIDE To the author of this news article: you have 3 glaring mis-stataements or mis-understandings in it... First, whether he was born in HI or not has NOT been demonstrated by ANY admissible evidence whatsoever, period. Check your facts. Second, it does not matter what any politician, or ex-office-holder, thinks about this issue. And Third, the issue is NOT whether he happens to be an American citizen (which has NOT been demostrated by any evidence since he’s locked up both his alleged birth certificate and his Immigration Records). The issue is whether he happens to meet the Constitutional qualification for the office (”Natural Born Citizen”). There are a number of legal Citizens, even many born in USA, who do NOT meet this standard. Again, check your facts.
Otherwise your article only servces to mislead the public, and we surely don’t need any more of THAT, do we!?)
Just stop reading here as this statement could not be further from the truth.
There is no credible evidence of Obama being born in Hawaii. In fact nearly all of the evidence points to Obama being born in Kenya. You have to be mentally ill to not recognize the truth that Obama is a fraud. The biggest fraud in the history of the United States.
It has been suggested by a “birther” that we start calling avoiders, “avoiders”.
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