[ckilmer]

Originally posted: December 3, 2008

Another thought about the `Where was Obama born?' dispute

In today's story, Tax activist's ad challenges Obama's eligibility for office The Tribune examines allegations about president-elect's 'natural born citizen' status , my colleagues Sara Olkon and James Janega methodically take apart the arguments presented by Robert L. Schulz, chairman of We The People Foundation, in Tribune ads this week.

Here's one passage

• Schulz says that "U.S. law in effect in 1961 [the year of Obama's birth] denied citizenship to any child born in Kenya if the father was Kenyan and the mother was not yet 19 years of age."

If a child is born ... to an American parent outside the U.S., the law at the time would require the U.S. citizen parent to be at least 19, which Obama's mother was not. The provisions of this law were subsequently loosened and made retroactive for government employees serving abroad and their families. It appears that this would not apply to Obama's mother.

Olkon and Janega point out that "the matter would seem to be academic: Hawaiian officials vouch for Obama's birth certificate," but even if it were to turn out that Obama's mother was actually in Kenya when she gave birth to him, the age requirement was and is absurd and unjustifiable; easily remedied, if necessary, with the passage of a retroactive law smilar to the law that applied to "government employees serving abroad and their families."

Schultz is deluded if he thinks the Congress -- even those in Congress who opposed Obama -- or the courts would stand by and allow to unfold the crisis that would ensue if Obama were denied the presidency on a technicality.

COMMENTS

[jackofhearts]

Be patient. The press is on a learning curve. The fact that they are making the “even if...” arguments reveals internal doubt as to Obama’s birthplace. Any modicum of respect for truth will lead them to discredit the Annenberg/Factcheck sources soon enough. Us freepers have been on to this for months. It takes time for a lib media to acknowledge it’s been duped. They need a face-saving exit strategy. And here it is: “Okay, he wasn’t born, but we can retroactively fix this little problem in Congress.”
No doubt this line was fed to them from Obama campaign. Get ready for the admission.

[Enterprise]

I don’t see what is so technical here. If you are a natural born citizen you are eligible to be the President. If you are NOT a natural born citizen you are NOT eligible to be the President. Thus far Obama has not proved that he is a natural born citizen.

[aruanan]

The courts prevented Eldridge Cleaver from running for president and removed his name from the ballot because of the technicality that he was 34 and not 35 years of age. This is far more important than that.

[Salvation]

Hmmmm.

[Larry - Moe and Curly]

The Trib seems to have taken down the “comments” link. Wonder what that’s all about?

[Welcome2thejungle]

Is there a way that we could determine that Stanley Ann Dunham was ever in Kenya? And, if so, when?

It seems to me, that if we could, that would go a long way to answering all of our questions.

[Sig Sauer P220]

It seems to me, the burden of proof is on Hussein. If he won’t prove that he’s a naturalized citizen of this country, he should not be allowed to hold office. And screw the fear of riots. Thats the lesser of the evils.

[Jack Black]

The comments are crashed !!

[Cicero]

They’ll fix it with a “retroactive law”?

Have these guys ever heard of the Magna Carta? That’s all we need—retroactive laws!