Not racist, just deranged. There are legitimate questions about Obama's background and even his citizenship, but it is unbecoming for Freepers to suddenly cling to a particular non-binding standard (some guy's opinion from 30 years before that Constitution was written) and start treating it like it's the Word of God, instead of simply accepting the the plain language of the Constitution. It's the sort of hypocritical, slippery, unprincipled approach Democrats are known for. If we claim to respect the Constitution, we should treat it better than they do.
Congrats, you chose your screen name well.
How about we "treat" that "some guy's opinion" like the founders and framers did....when:
Delegates to the First and Second Continental Congress, which produced the Declaration of Independence, often consulted The Law of Nations, as a reference for their discussions. One important reason why the delegates chose to meet in Carpenters Hall, was that the building also housed the Library Company of Philadelphia. The librarian reported that Vattel was one of the main sources consulted by the delegates during the First Continental Congress, which met from Sept. 5 to Oct. 26, 1774.[31] Charles W.F. Dumas, an ardent supporter of the American cause, printed an edition of The Law of Nations in 1774, with his own notes illustrating how the book applied to the American situation.[32] [Franlin/Dumas connection]. In 1770, Dumas had met Franklin in Holland, and was one of Franklin's key collaborators in his European diplomacy. He sent three copies to Franklin, instructing him to send one to Harvard University, and to put one in the Philadelphia library. Franklin sent Dumas a letter, Dec. 9, 1775, thanking him for the gift. Franklin stated, "I am much obliged by the kind present you have made us of your edition of Vattel, It came to us in good season, when the circumstances of a rising State make it necessary frequently to consult the law of nations. Accordingly, that copy which I kept (after depositing one in our own publick library here, and sending the other to the College of Massachusetts-Bay, as you directed) has been continually in the hands of the members of our Congress now sitting, who are much pleased with your notes and preface, and have entertained a high and just esteem for their author."[33]
or when...
a letter from Madison ("father" of the Constitution) to Jay:
"James Madison, as a member of the Continental Congress in 1780, drafted the instructions sent to John Jay, for negotiating a treaty with Spain, which quotes at length from The Law of Nations. Jay complained that this letter, which was probably read by the Spanish government, was not in code, and "Vattel's Law of Nations, which I found quoted in a letter from Congress, is prohibited here.[29]"
From: Life, Liberty, and The Pursuit of Happiness. How the Natural Law concept of G.W. Leibniz Inspired America's Founding Fathers
or...when:
June 27 1787. IN CONVENTION (Vattel's legal work is read aloud during the Federal Convention) "...that an equal vote in each State was essential to the federal idea, and was founded in justice & freedom, not merely in policy: that tho' the States may give up this right of sovereignty, yet they had not, and ought not:In order to prove that individuals in a State of nature are equally free & independent he [Luther Martin] read passages from Locke, Vattel, Lord Summers -- Priestly. To prove that the case is the same with States till they surrender their equal sovereignty, he [L.M.] read other passages in Locke & Vattel, and also Rutherford:" From Madison's Notes on the Convention. Similar notes on Vattel being read during the convention can be found in the notes of Rufus King and Robert Yates as well.
Or a whole host of other examples, a tiny fraction of which can be found in my profile.
To denigrate the importance of the "Law of Nations" to the founding of our country, is to denigrate the framers and founders themselves as it's crystal clear they knew Vattel's work well and relied upon it for our founding...if for no other example than the fact that they read and referenced his work aloud during the drafting of the Constitution itself.