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I'm about as far from a "birther" as you can get, but I think this bill is a GREAT idea, and something that every state legislature should adopt.

I agree, not only because the issue is such a distraction from fighting Obama on his policies but because it is a good idea to have a system in place to verify a candidate's credentials, if anything to prevent these conspiracies in the future.

This being said, I think birthers are going to be disappointed by the final language in whatever version of this bill that gets signed. They'll be disappointed to discover that a certified, State-issued, computer-generated "short form" will be sufficient to establish eligibility and that the citizenship of a candidate's parents will have no bearing whatsoever.

And, no, I haven't read the text of the bill. I'm just guessing that when all is said and done, abiding by the requirements will be something Obama will easily be able to do come 2012.

it is a good idea to have a system in place to verify a candidate's credentials, if anything to prevent these conspiracies in the future.

You'll notice that the media is trying to make this about Obama alone and ignoring the fact that the same will be required of all candidates. Personally I expect Obama to get a pass on this but it will hurt him. There are still plenty of other issues to beat him on and if he doesn't prove himself it will be just one more issue that he gets beat up about.

"This being said, I think birthers are going to be disappointed by the final language in whatever version of this bill that gets signed"

You got me thinking, so I read the bill. The controversial part comes from an Amendment to the AZ Senate Bill (SB 1024), which may be found here. That Amendment, offered by Rep Burges and accepted by the Senate, contains the following paragraph...

"B. The national political party committee for a candidate for president for a party that is entitled to continued representation on the ballot shall provide to the secretary of state written notice of that political party's nomination of its candidates for president and vice‑president. Within ten days after submittal of the names of the candidates, the national political party committee shall submit an affidavit of the presidential candidate in which the presidential candidate states the candidate's citizenship and age and shall append to the affidavit documents that prove that the candidate is a natural born citizen, prove the candidate's age and prove that the candidate meets the residency requirements for President of the United States as prescribed in article II, section 1, Constitution of the United States.
emphasis added

I suspect your assessment is correct. The amendment doesn't specify what document needs to be appended, just one that proves that the candidate is a "natural born citizen". Essentially, they're going to leave it to a court to decide what's sufficient and what isn't. That won't end well.

Drew68: “And, no, I haven’t read the text of the bill. I’m just guessing that when all is said and done, abiding by the requirements will be something Obama will easily be able to do come 2012.”

Yep. You are correct. Under the proposed law, I see no reason why Obama wouldn’t qualify based on the short form (Certificate of Live Birth) that he already released.